I might have gone a little crazy a few weeks ago when cranberries went on sale. I knew I wanted to make a batch of cranberry relish to enjoy on turkey sandwiches, so I tried a recipe I found in the Ball Blue Book that called for cranberries, apples, sugar, lemon juice, and walnuts. Even though I halved the sugar, it was still plenty sweet. And delicious. I might have made a ton of it.
I decided to try it in pancakes, to see if the kids liked it, too. When I found myself making them a second time in as many days, I knew I’d found a keeper. This recipe makes about 30 pancakes, so I freeze them to have on hand for crazy mornings. It’s just a matter of popping them in the toaster to defrost and heat, and breakfast (or, heck… dinner!) is done.
Cranberry Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe
4 cups white whole wheat flour (you can also use 2 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole wheat)
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 cup homemade cranberry sauce/relish/chutney
4 eggs
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp applesauce or pear sauce
3 ½ cups buttermilk (or milk kefir or runny homemade yogurt)
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk together the cranberry sauce, eggs, oil, applesauce, and buttermilk. Stir in flour mixture until well combined. Heat and grease a large skillet over medium, and pour batter by ¼ cupful. Cook as you would any pancakes.
This tends to be a thick batter, especially if you don’t use any all-purpose flour, so if you need to add more liquid to get the right consistency, go right ahead. (I use whey left over from making yogurt.) Also, feel free to add in more cranberry sauce (I dump in whatever is left in the jar… I get an irrational thrill from using up containers in the refrigerator.) The last time I made them I only had 3 eggs left, so I threw in some ground flax and called it a day. No one noticed. As with most of my recipes, this one is very forgiving. Use what you have!