I came home today and wanted pancakes. Actually, I'd wanted a chocolate chip cookie. I went out at lunch to buy my sister something, and almost went to the closest bakery to buy a chocolate chip cookie. But the thought of walking up the hill (the store is third up the hill, and it's a small hill but when you're exhausted, it's enormous), through the throngs of tourists... the thought made me want to collapse in a heap on the sidewalk. Which wouldn't be a good thing, because the throngs of tourists would then just crush me. But I came home and wanted pancakes. Unfortunately I'd finished off my gingerbread pancakes, so I couldn't eat those. And I was too tired to make more, and asking my husband to do it was too much, as I'd already coaxed him through making buffalo turkey burgers for dinner. So I flipped through my Joy of cooking. All About Breakfast & Brunch book (which I stupidly swapped on a book swap site after I'd purchased The Joy of Cooking from a cookbook club, I so don't pay attention to what I do), and found a recipe for lemon pancakes. I figured after a good night's sleep I'd be able to make them. So this morning, with my husband off at the gym (this is the first day I've not gone to the gym since we returned from our trip), I whipped these up. I was slightly short on sour cream, and slightly short on lemon juice, and had no fresh lemons to zest, but these still came out great. Light and fluffy with a hint of lemon, if it's a hint to me, it'll probably be a bit of a brighter flavor to those who can smell, they're warm in my tummy and make me feel a bit less sick. The recipe says the batter will be thick, like cake batter, and it was, so they don't spread out much at all when you slap them on the griddle. They also don't bubble up much, so I just flipped mine after about 3-4 minutes. I cooked mine on the electric griddle, at 400F.
Total Calories: 1650; Yield: 12 4 inch cakes (or 25 small, I used an ice cream scoop to make mine); Whisks: 3. Dry Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1/3 cup sugar; 1 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/4 tsp salt. Wet Ingredients: 3/4 cup sour cream (I used reduced fat); 1/3 cup milk (I used fat-free); 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted; 1 large egg; 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract; Finely grated zest of 2 lemons.
Prepare and preheat griddle. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients except for lemon zest. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and gently whisk until just combined. Fold in lemon zest. The batter will be thick and bubbly, similar to cake batter. Spoon 1/4 cup onto prepared griddle, nudging batter into rounds. Cook until the top of each pancake is speckled with bubbles and begin to pop, then turn and cook until underside is lightly browned. Serve immediately or keep warm in 200F oven while you finish cooking.