Pancakes. That’s how we marked special days. Birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day. They all began with a pancake breakfast. No one was more excited to sit down to a stack of pancakes served with fruit, homemade ice cream and real Canadian Maple Syrup than our father was. It wasn’t a gift he wanted come Father’s Day, it was a long family breakfast that filled you up for the day. In fact, I can count on my hand the number of times we bought him a Father’s Day gift; but I can’t remember a Father’s Day without pancakes, they’ve become a part of our tradition.
The last time we had a pancake breakfast was a month before our Father passed away. It was his birthday and sitting outside basking in the December summer sun, eating stacks of pancakes, I don’t think any of us thought for a second that this would be the last time we’d make him pancakes; or that a month later we’d be mourning him. There is little I wouldn’t do to get just one more chance to make him pancakes and I wish the perfect stack created for this article and pictured above was done right before handing them to him.
This Sunday is Father’s Day, a day that for many brings up different emotions. I’ve never understood that until now. Until I walked into stores and was confronted with their Father’s Day displays knowing that it was a day that would be marked by the absence of my father.
Instead of sharing anecdotes of dad wisdom or life we decided to share our classic Father’s Day pancake recipe, they’re not gluten free or vegan and don’t contain any super powders or flours. They’re a timeless recipe you’d find in an old family recipe book, handwritten, stained and passed down. So if your father, like ours, believes potatoes should be white not purple and beans belong nowhere near a brownie, we can guarantee that he’ll love these pancakes.
Classic Father’s Day Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 C all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 C sugar
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
- 3/4 C milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Pour all your ingredients into a mixing bowl (dry first) and mix vigorously with a whisk attachment (the ones that come with hand blenders) until the mixture is smooth. You can also use a spoon.
- Place your non-stick pan on low heat
- Scoop 1/3 cup of batter (not full to the top, just below) and drop it in the pan. If you don’t move your wrist and drop the batter straight down it will spread into a nicely round shape.
- Let the pancake cook until bubbles start to form and the batter appears to have a “skin-like” film. I timed this to 2 and a half minutes.
- Gently slide a very flat spatula under the pancake and flip the pancake over. You will notice the pancake immediately rise, cook it for another minute and remove from pan with your spatula.
- Repeat steps 3-7 until your batter is finished. With this recipe and filling 1 1/3 cup measurement just under the full line, I got exactly 5 pancakes.
- Garnish your pancake as desired and serve (our Canadian father loved Real Maple Syrup)
Notes
