Right off the bat, I need to make it clear that I am not talking about corn cakes. Corn cakes are far more substantial than pancakes and often include substantive ingredients like corn kernels, or cheese, or jalapenos, and may
not include corn meal at all. What I am writing about are pancakes made with cornmeal and white flour. My experience with cornmeal pancakes begins not with my Southern kin, but at a small Mexican restaurant, where they served absolutely incredible mouth-watering cornmeal pancakes with blueberries that, well, if they were still serving them today, I'd be thinking about travel arrangements.
Properly prepared cornmeal pancakes are not leaden, or heavy; nor are they much like Italian polenta, which is lovely on its own merits, but is not a breakfast dish likely to lure the kids from bed on a Sunday morning, or fix the remnants of a hang over. Properly made cornmeal pancakes will do both, though preferably not at once for the same people. They should be crisp and hot on the outside, and warm and creamy, even fluffy, on the inside. The secret is really in three things:
- A recipe that is only partly corn meal.
- A recipe that uses baking powder and/or baking soda, but that MUST use buttermilk (or regular milk soured with a teaspoon or so of vinegar)
- Cakes that are cooked on a greased/oil very hot skillet. A skillet that isn't hot enough makes a leaden lump.
Here's a basic recipe that makes enough for 8 (cook 'em and freeze 'em!). It calls for real butter; it will work with margarine or canola but real butter really makes a difference in the batter. You can use canola or margarine or Pam to grease the cooking pan:
- 6 large eggs
- 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 2 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (about) butter, melted
- Butter, canola, or margarine to grease the pan
- Cookie sheet
- Pure maple syrup
- Preheat oven to 250°F. (To keep cooked pancakes warm)
- Beat the eggs in a large bowl.
- Add the buttermilk, cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, alternating the dry ingredients with the buttermilk.
- Beat just until mostly smooth. A few lumps are fine; mostly you want to make sure that all the dry ingredients are wet. Over mixing will create amazing cornmeal-textured leather.
- Stir in about 6 tablespoons of melted butter.
- Grease the cooking pan, or griddle or skillet.
- Set the pan on a burner on medium heat.
- Test the heat of the pan by sprinking a few drops of water; the water should skitter and dance on the pan before evaporating.
- Cook small batches of cornmeal pancakes, by pouring 1/3 to 1/4 of a cup of batter at a time to make round individual cakes, carefully spaced.
- Cook the pancakes until they are golden brown on the bottom and you see bubbles around the edges, about 2 minutes.
- Turn the pancakes over, carefully, and cook them until the bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes.
- Transfer pancakes to a baking sheet; place in oven to keep warm.
- Repeat with remaining batter, greasing the pan as necessary.
- Serve pancakes with syrup.
I like these plain, with butter and maple syrup, or fruit jam, or fruit syrup. I also like them with applesauce and sour cream/yogurt, or with fresh fruit (blueberries, or bananas) or nuts added and gently folded into the batter just before cooking. I also like them with just a hint of butter, a spoon or so of Greek yogurt, and berries. Go ahead and cook them all; you can freeze them, and then just heat them up to serve in a toaster or a skillet.