RECIPE: Cornmeal berry pancakes, the way to sneak sweet cornbread into your breakfast
Since the middle of spring and after finding out I shouldn’t consume dairy (meaning I can’t ever order pancakes at a restaurant again or make my go-to pancake recipe!), I’ve been making myself pancakes once a week for breakfast. Each week has been slightly different and is intentionally experimental, meaning some pancakes turn out great (like these buckwheat chocolate chip ones) and others do not.
Once I start my new job in a few weeks, who knows if I’ll be able to keep this up, but for now, it’s been a lovely ritual to start my funemployed days. This week’s creation came from me longing for cornbread at a family BBQ over the weekend, but knowing I couldn’t eat said cornbread because of its dairy contents. So, I made my own sweet cornbread-turned-pancake breakfast a few days later, and it was hearty, teetering on the savory/sweet border in the best way possible, and yet another wonderful way to showcase the amazing summer produce the Bay Area has to offer.
I made a note below, but these can easily be made vegan by subbing in a different sweetener than honey (or trying the recipe without any sugar in the batter). You could probably swing these to also be gluten-free, but I haven’t specifically tested that out.
Pancake of the week recipe: Cornmeal berry pancakes
By: Kathleen Hayes
Yield: 7-9 medium-sized pancakes (~3-5” pancakes)
MISE IT
Wet ingredients
250 grams water
25 grams vegan butter like Earth Balance or Miyoko’s, melted and slightly cooled (about 2 tablespoons)
1 egg’s worth of Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer
1 tablespoon honey
Dry ingredients
70 - 105 grams all purpose flour (the more you use, the thicker the pancakes will be; 105 grams is what’s pictured)
70 grams fine corn flour (note: this is not cornstarch; I used THIS flour from Central Milling; if you don’t have this, use whole wheat pastry flour or more all purpose flour + use a higher amount of cornmeal for the corn flavor, but they won’t turn out as yellow or corn-y as mine)
20 - 30 grams coarse corn meal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Mix-ins
Blueberries and sliced strawberries, to taste
Finishing touches
Maple syrup
Additional fresh fruit as a topping
MAKE IT
Prepare egg replacer in mixing bowl and set aside for 5 minutes.
Melt vegan butter and set aside to cool slightly.
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until mixture is homogeneous.
In a separate, slightly larger mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients and whisk until combined.
Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined. Don’t overmix.
In a frying pan or on a skillet lightly coated with oil and at medium to medium-high heat, ladle out pancakes onto cooking surface, top with fresh berries, and cook on each side until golden brown, flipping once halfway through.
Top with maple syrup and/or more fruit, and enjoy immediately!
TWEAK IT
To make these vegan, sub the honey with another sweetener like maple syrup, rice syrup or organic brown sugar.
Experiment with different fruit: blackberries would be great by themselves or with strawberries.
When you don’t have fresh fruit on hand, sub in jam instead of fruit.
Make these savory pancakes by mixing in cherry tomatoes, fresh corn, shredded zucchini and/or roasted poblano peppers. Top with salsa or agave syrup instead of maple.
Make a vegan version of Kate’s Kitchen’s famous cheddar and bacon cornmeal pancakes by adding in faux cheddar shreds and Upton’s seitan bacon.
Amp up the cornmeal texture by adding 10-20 grams more of cornmeal.
