It took me many years of trial and error to find the right pancake recipe.  All worth it.  Funny though, we almost never have these pancakes for breakfast.  We’d rather have them for dinner with some crispy bacon and a frozen fruit/greek yogurt smoothie.

Ingredients:

• 6oz apple sauce (2 pouches of go-go squeeze apple sauce or 2 apples, sauced with a hand mixer)
• 3 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
• 6 tablespoons butter (melted)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons natural maple syrup
• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat griddle to 350 degrees.
• Mix all wet ingredients together, at room temperature.
• Mix dry ingredients, then incorporate wet ingredients. Batter will be thicker than cake batter and a bit lumpy.
• Using a 1/3 cup measure, scoop out batter and pour onto griddle. A large griddle can fit three pancakes at once.
• Allow pancakes to cook approximately 6 minutes total, 4 minutes on the first side. While the pancake is cooking on the first side, drop some walnuts onto the wet side. When edges are matte, rather than shiny, and bubbles appear in the middle of the pancake, it is time to flip it.
• Keep working until all the batter has been used!

Notes:

• Be sure the buttermilk is room temperature or the melted butter will form solid pieces of butter and not mix in with the rest. When necessary, I use the microwave to heat the buttermilk in a 4 cup glass measuring cup.
• In this age of anti-carb and anti-gluten, these pancakes are worth the cheat.  Seriously good.  This is one of the few meals where I am willing to literally slave over a hot griddle for long periods of time.  I use the griddle that I shared with you earlier this week, fitting three pancakes across, each time I cook.  It has a warming tray, but you can also put the pancakes in a deep pan, covered with foil, in the oven on 170 degrees until all the pancakes are done, otherwise you are just eating in shifts.
• I am a bit of a nervine…I worry about undercooked eggs and contaminating my kitchen with raw eggs.  I love that this recipe is eggless.  The pancakes are pretty thick and I would have the tendency to overcook them, if they were made with raw eggs.
• These pancakes are fluffy and sweet with a great maple-vanilla-apple flavor.  I like mine with a little maple syrup and some powdered sugar on top of that.  Yum!

Do you ever have breakfast for dinner?  How do you feel about pancakes?