1,2,3,4 Pancakes (w/Feist)

There’s nothing like pancakes to start off a day. They’re so easy to make from scratch, there’s no need to use that boxed stuff. You just need basic baking ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, etc.). I had some buttermilk (past expiration date, shh) on hand, so I made Martha’s buttermilk variety.

Recipe

Martha Stewart's Best Buttermilk Pancakes

What to listen to while making:

As breakfast was prepared we listened to Fiona Apple’s beautiful third album “Extraordinary Machine” and Ryu pondered how the past four years have flown by so fast since we first got the record. (Apple’s record came to mind after we watched “The Hangover” this weekend and recalled that comedian Zack Galifianikis makes a hysterical appearance in the video for “Not About Love.”)

See the video, seriously.

Modifications/lessons/tips:

I used Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio for pancakes as a jumping off point. I downloaded a truly awesome chart from his website that lays out all the building blocks to dough and batter. It tells you how many parts of flour to liquid to eggs, etc., allowing you to riff off the basic foundation to make a recipe your own. Brilliant!

I used his suggestion to mix the wet ingredients separately before adding them to the dry ingredients.

Martha’s recipe had a bit more liquid than the ratio called for, and I wonder if a thicker batter would have produced a fluffier pancake (but Ryu thought they were delicious).

I added some vanilla (about ½ teaspoon), because I think it always adds a nice flavo(u)r.

Add chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, bananas, whatever, to your heart’s content.

Musical Accompaniment:

Given this morning’s theme of sticking to the basics we think a fitting accompaniment for these pancakes is (Leslie) Feist’s delightful 1-2-3-4. You’ll recall the song from the Ipod Nano ads that popularized it two years ago: we love the video because of how fresh and full of energy it is (just what you need to get up to speed on a lazy Sunday) and Feist’s signature single camera take approach.



Feist is definitely no “one hit wonder” however and we strongly recommend both her albums “Let it Die” and “The Reminder” as well as her work with Broken Social Scene (which features Feist’s longtime bf Kevin Drew).