One of my favorite breakfast foods is pancakes.  While my husband makes awesome chocolate chip pancakes for me every weekend, occasionally I like to treat him to one of my specialties… Iowa Corn Pancakes.  I found this recipe 10 years ago in one of my favorite cookbooks, Best of the Best from Iowa.  These pancakes taste like a cross between corn muffins and buttermilk pancakes.  As such, I like to top these pancakes the same way I top my corn muffins… with sweet cream butter and honey.

I encourage you to try this easy recipe; I believe it will become one of your favorites too.

Iowa Corn Pancakes

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk, approximately
2 Tbsp melted butter

In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together well.  In a small mixing bowl, combine the eggs and 1 cup buttermilk, mixing well.  Add the egg/buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Add the melted butter to the mixture and mix.  Little by little, add the remaining buttermilk to the mixture until it is the proper thickness for cooking.  I find it takes almost the whole second cup of buttermilk to get the right consistency.

Heat skillet over medium heat.  Add a small amount of butter (or other preferred fat used to prevent sticking) to the skillet.  Add enough batter to make the size pancakes you prefer.  Cook first side approximately 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.  Flip pancake and cook another 1-2 minutes or until second side is golden brown.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.

Serve pancakes with your favorite toppings (butter, honey, maple syrup, apple butter, berry compote, what-have-you).

Enjoy!

One of my favorite food bloggers, Diva at Beach Eats, once asked me why these muffins are called “6-Week” Raisin Bran Muffins.  A very good question, Diva.  Here is the answer: this recipe makes such a large amount of batter and the batter stays fresh for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.  Of course, I’ve never managed to keep the batter around that long as I bake a small batch of muffins every night so that my and my husband’s breakfast is fresh and ready to go to work with us every day.

6-Week Raisin Bran Muffins

1 (15oz.) box Raisin Bran cereal
3 cups granulated sugar
5 cups all-purpose flour
5 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. Kosher salt
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs, beaten
1 quart buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix cereal, sugar, flour, baking soda and salt in an extra large bowl.  In a separate large bowl, combine oil, eggs and buttermilk; mix well.  Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix well.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove muffins from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Store unused muffin batter in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use.  Batter will last up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!