Barley Pancakes

Are pancakes one of those things that you only get when you go out for breakfast? Not us; it’s just too easy to mix up a batch that’s the perfect size for the two of us. And, if you think pancakes are kind of boring, think again. Because pancakes don’t rely on the gluten in flour to hold them together — it’s the egg that does it — you can swap out pretty much any type of flour for the wheat flour and have great- tasting pancakes made from, well, in this instance, barley flour.

We don’t buy barley flour; we happen to grind it ourselves in a Vitamix blender (we bought ours used in a thrift store; they’re out there), but, starting with barley flour is just fine. The one thing we do recommend, if you’re going to swap out flours, is to use a scale to measure. Different flours have differing densities; if you go with volume measurements, you might end up with some heavy pancakes. Don’t worry, we’ll give you, and only you, approximate volume measurements.

Now, we don’t claim this is our recipe; it’s simply a version of the buttermilk pancake recipe you can find in The Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, so you know it’ll be good.

Ingredient discussion:

You know that you can make your own buttermilk, right? We do, all the time. It’s so easy, we can’t imagine buying it. As we said above, we grind our own flour for these pancakes, which results in a slightly grainy pancake with just a bit more chew and texture that we love. Try for those eggs from pastured hens; better fed hens mean better eggs. It’s simple. Oh, and use unsalted butter — why have someone else salt your food?

If you’re going to use maple syrup, get the real deal. Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s the best.

Procedure in detail:

Mix dry ingredients. If you happen to be grinding your own flour, as we did, feel free to add all the dry ingredients to the blender and blend away. Otherwise, just put them all into a bowl and whisk thoroughly. And, yes, we do use a whisk; it works better than a spoon, and, really, it’s not much trouble to wash. Besides, you need a whisk for the next part anyway, so use it twice.

Mix liquid ingredients. Crack the egg into a medium bowl — all the pancake better will end up in this bowl — and use the whisk to beat the egg until it’s light in color, about 1 minute. Add the buttermilk and whisk until uniform. Finally, while whisking, slowly pour the melted butter into the mix. Some will congeal as it hits the cold batter, but it’s all good.

Make pancake batter. Remove the whisk and switch to a spoon. Dump the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and use your spoon to give everything a few good stirs. Don’t try to mix all the lumps away, or you’ll end up with tough, flat pancakes, which are sub-optimal. Just make sure that the lumps are less than about 1/4 inch in diameter, but you don’t have to sweat it that much.

Heat griddle. Here’s the secret to pancakes, the only one we really know: preheat the griddle over medium heat, let it get hot, hot enough that the batter will sizzle when it lands on the pan. Then, when it’s hot, take a paper towel, dip it in oil, and lightly brush oil over the griddle. If you start with an oiled griddle, it’ll smoke and burn, but, if the griddle’s hot, it won’t.

Cook pancakes. We find that about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter will make 3-inch pancakes, and, with our griddle, we can fit four on at a time. You might be able to do more or less, depending on the size of your griddle. Once started, watch the pancakes; they’ll bubble pretty much from the get go, but watch the edges and wait until they look somewhat dry before flipping. Once flipped, cook on the other side for about the same amount of time.

It’s been a while since we had pancakes, and these made with barley flour are really good. They have a bit more flavor than regular flour pancakes, and, with the slightly gritty texture from our freshly ground barley, they’re a real winner. Easy peasy and different enough to make them seem special. Five stars.