The sleepy child can barely manage to pour syrup on his pancakes. In my continuing celebration of apple season I decided yesterday to try putting apples into pancakes. My nephew Michael was sleepy when he got up for school but endorsed the idea as well as a drowsy child could.
Michael’s mother Leigh had to go run an errand as I was preparing to throw the pancakes together. I found most of the ingredients in her kitchen, but the flour was a mystery. I had NO IDEA what Leigh had in her flour bin.
It looked like plain old flour—but Leigh has been known to use white whole wheat flour and even gluten-free flour in her cooking. The child was stirring in his bed so I decided to take a chance and use whatever it was.
When Leigh returned home she informed me that I had in fact made the pancakes with King Arthur Flour’s gluten-free multi-purpose flour blend. This blend worked like a charm. I’m a little fussy about consistency, and I had nothing to fuss about here.
Young Michael—and everyone else—pronounced the apple pancakes a roaring success. He even finished the meal looking much more perky than he does in the photo above.
Ingredients:
1 cup gluten-free flour (or the flour of your choice)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 medium apple, finely chopped
butter as needed for heating
Instructions:
Using a whisk combine the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar.
In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter.
Gently stir the wet ingreidents into the apple mixture. Do not overmix. Stir in the apple pieces.
Heat a frying pan or skillet to medium heat (375 on an electric skillet), and melt a small amount of butter into it.
Dollop a generous serving spoon of batter onto the pan for each pancake. Do not crowd the cakes in your pan.
Turn the pancakes after a minute or two, when they are nice and bubbly on the surface and easy to lift. Add a bit more butter as needed to prevent sticking. Remove and serve with butter and warm maple syrup.
Makes about 12 pancakes.
