This pancake recipe has been passed down in my family since my great grandmother, Bubba, and over time has changed a little bit. This weekend my Mom and I decided to try modifying them for Valentine’s Day by coloring them pink and red and shaping them into hearts on the griddle. They turned out ok, but I’d probably just keep them regular next time, you’ll see why.

After making the batter, my first attempt to heart shaping was using heart cookie cutters. I sprayed them with cooking spray and put the batter in. Even still, the pancakes stuck to the cookie cutters a bit and so I scrapped that idea, even though the pancakes themselves didn’t look too bad.

Then I tried to shape them myself by pouring the batter out in heart shapes. They started to look a little wonky, but I liked their unusual character. Eventually, I just gave up on odd shapes and made round pancakes. As you can see, I like chocolate chips in my pancakes. It’s a requirement when I eat them but this is just an option.

The end result was pretty cute. Of course they got a little darker after being cooked but the colors on the inside were still pretty vibrant. Here are the directions for the pancakes. To make them regular, don’t add the food coloring.

{Recipe}

Bubba’s Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lrg. egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tbs. sugar
• 2 tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• just shy of a 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

(Optional)

• 2 tbs. wheat bran
• 1 tbs. wheat germ
• chocolate chips
• powdered sugar
• butter
• (For Valentine Pancakes: pink and red food coloring)

DIRECTIONS:

1. I’m not sure what to tell you to turn your griddle or stove top to for heating the pancakes. On our griddle we set it to med.-high heat and that seems to work, but it’s up to you to figure out the right temperature for your personal stove and skillet or griddle.
2. Whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sugar, and oil in a bowl and set aside.
3. Then sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in another bowl. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If you want heartier pancakes sprinkle the bran and wheat germ on top of everything at this point.
4. Stir the batter gently until all ingredients are combined but make sure the batter is still lumpy. If it becomes too thin, the pancakes will not rise when they cook. For the pink and red pancakes, I split the batter into two bowls and put a few drops of coloring in each. If you’re going to color them, make sure not to stir them too much before you put the food coloring in because you will have to stir them more to get the color you want. It’s a little tricky. For simplicity, just make them regular and skip the coloring on your first try at these.
5. Once the batter is mixed but still lumpy, let it sit for about 5 minutes.
6. Pour 1/3 cup of the batter onto your griddle or skillet for each pancake. If you like chocolate like I do, drop a few chocolate chips on to the pancake before you flip it over. You can also add other things at this point, such at nuts or apple slices, for example.
7. When the batter starts to have little bubbles start popping up in it, it’s about time to flip it. The pancake is done cooking if you poke the middle and it bounces back fairly quickly.
8. Butter the pancakes as soon as they are done and sift some powdered sugar on top. Or instead put some syrup on top. The garnishes and toppings are up to you.

Makes about 10-12 pancakes.

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