A Plate of Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Pancakes

What you see before you is a plate of pancakes.  A plate of oatmeal pancakes.  A plate of blueberry oatmeal pancakes.  A plate of blueberry and Meyer lemon oatmeal pancakes.

Wait. Before you click away, casting these pancakes off as a chichi breakfast, you should know that they are incredibly simple to make.  A new favorite.  Not that anything could fully replace these guys.  But it’s early January, which means now is the time for warm, fueling breakfasts.

With the addition of two full cups of oats, one could easily classify this recipe as resolution-worthy.  Lest you think I’ve crossed over to the land of chia seed wheatgrass smoothies, it’s important to note there’s also a half cup of melted butter in the batter. 

And while these pancakes are not even close to high maintenance, their heavy reliance on oats requires some concentration when flipping them.  For what you do not see before you is a smaller plate of “the uglies.”   That is, the few pancakes in the batch that didn’t quite make it in the looks department.

Because if you crowd your pan too much or don’t insert your spatula along their undersides with confidence, they tend to fall apart on you.  Fear not.  They are easily mended by pushing their guts back together and carrying on.

As a whole though, these pancakes are magnificent to look at.  As they cook, a golden oaty outline forms, courtesy of the butter, and this creates a lovely lacy pattern on their tops.

But they taste even better than they look. Ever so slightly textured, with the oats softened from spending the night in a bath of buttermilk.  Imparting a subtle nuttiness.  My favorite way to eat them is in a stack of three with a nob of butter and a heavy hand with the maple syrup. 

It’s a mighty fine plate of pancakes.  Plate of oatmeal pancakes.  Plate of blueberry and Meyer lemon oatmeal pancakes.  (Yes, even the “uglies.”)

Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Pancakes

Adapted from Orangette via the Inn at Fordhook Farm

Ingredients:

2 cups oats

2 cups buttermilk (I used low fat)

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup unsalted butter, melted but not hot (plus more butter for the pancakes)

a few drops of juice from a squeezed Meyer lemon 

zest of 1 Meyer lemon

zest of 1 lemon

½ tsp of vanilla extract

¾ cup blueberries (I used frozen from the farmers’ market this past summer)

Instructions:

The night before you plan to make the pancakes, combine the oats and buttermilk in a large-sized bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight.  When you are ready to make the pancakes, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. (You can also do this the night ahead, as well.)

Add the eggs and melted butter to the oat mixture, along with the lemon juice, zests, and vanilla and stir until combined.  Add in the flour mixture and stir until it is just combined; fold in the blueberries. (The batter will be thick.)

Heat a large skillet on medium heat and grease it with butter.  Add about ¼ cup of the batter for each pancake, without crowding the pan too much.  When their undersides are brown and the edges of the pancakes are just starting to firm up, flip them and cook each pancake until its center is fully cooked and the other side is golden.  Repeat with a re-greased skillet until all the batter has been used up. (Adjust the heat as necessary if you notice the pancakes are browning too quickly.)

Makes about 12

Notes:

-These freeze wonderfully.

-I used frozen blueberries and did not defrost them (so that their juices wouldn’t run all over the place when I mixed the batter). 

-No need to use Meyer lemon here, per se.  I had a few extra and thought I’d put one to good use.  I used the zest of a regular lemon because regular lemons have more lemony “punch” and I wanted the combo.  You could always forget about the Meyer lemon completely.  (Which is why I decided to leave "Meyer" out of the recipe title.)

-If you don’t have buttermilk but have, say, whole milk use that instead.  I’ve made this recipe a number of times and it doesn’t matter either way.