Buttermilk Pancakes with Berry Pomegranate Syrup

When I was a little girl, I remember waking up ungodly early on Saturday mornings and running to the family room to start the traditional Cartoon Marathon.  An hour or so later my mom would enter the kitchen and start the coffee.  Eventually, my brother and I would get the much-anticipated question of the day: what would you like for breakfast?

The answer was always multiple choice.  We could have pancakes (Mom's favorite), waffles (my favorite), or french toast (oh man, does anyone not like bread soaked in custard and then fried??).  Most of the time it was pancakes but no matter which option won, Saturday morning breakfasts at our house ROCKED!

So it kind of goes without saying that in my own house now, we love Love pancakes.   And since having my son, I've really been trying to duplicate that same Saturday morning experience that I had for him.  He pretty much does a happy dance over whatever breakfast food I make but nothing comes close to PANCAKES.


Everyone knows how to make pancakes, right?  Flour, some kind of sweetener (sugar, honey, etc), leavening ingredients, wet ingredients, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Some days I think I have a bottomless pit of pancake recipes that I like to try out or play with, however when it comes to buttermilk pancakes, there is only one recipe I go to.  It is so beloved in fact that I have to double the recipe to feed the three of us.  I'm not proud of that fact, but there it is.  Yeah....

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 tsp canola oil

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Make a well in the middle and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, and oil.  Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture.  Whisk to combine (be careful not to over mix; lumps are not the end of the world).

3. Preheat a griddle over medium heat.  If you want that extra-crispy, omg-this-is-like-crack texture around the edges, I suggest greasing the griddle with a little canola oil or butter in between each batch of pancakes.  If that crispiness isn't something you go for, then spray the pan with a little cooking spray to make sure they don't stick.

4. Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop the batter onto the griddle, flipping after bubbles form and the edges look cooked.  Keep cooked pancakes warm in either a 200 F oven OR on a plate covered in foil.

These are really good but this is a pretty basic recipe.  Right?  Right.  So I was feeling adventurous and wanted something to jazz up the pancakes a little bit.  Well, at the store the other day I discovered pomegranate juice on sale (Omg that NEVER HAPPENS!!) and so picked up a couple bottles.  I also remembered a cooking show I saw a while back where someone made a pomegranate syrup simply by boiling pomegranate juice until it had reduced and thickened.  Dude, I can totally do that!  And oh look, wouldn't you know that the juice I got is blueberry pomegranate AND I happen to have some strawberries in the freezer that I have GOT to use up.  Winner!


Berry Pomegranate Syrup
1 bottle blueberry pomegranate juice
1/2 bag frozen strawberries (thaw them if you have time and want to, otherwise don't worry about it)

1. Pour strawberries and juice into a small saucepan.  Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

2. Once it boils, remove the lid, reduce the heat a bit so it doesn't boil over and continue to let this bubble away until it's reduced by at least half.  Head's up: this could take a while so I'd allot at least 30 minutes for this.  Start the syrup before you start the pancakes.

3. Generously ladle over hot pancakes.  Gloat over the fact that your child gleefully prefers this over bottled pancake syrup that you know contains corn syrup, butter flavoring, and God knows what else.