Cook’s Kitchen Alchemy = Luscious Multigrain Wonders

For those of you suffering through the winter torrents of rain or the tempests of swirling snow, is there any better breakfast than hearty, wholesome and fresh multi-grain pancakes?  Yes, those white ones might be lighter, but without the extra oomph of good grains, they can leave you depleted and deprived from low sugar within an hour. To banish the gummy, gritty legacy of whole grain predecessors, the folks at Cooks Illustrated took on the challenge of creating a satisfying, flavorful updated recipe. Their success surpassed my expectations. Yummy, delightful, addictive, delectable – the words don’t do them justice.

Of course, I had to make a change. I had a lemon, don’t know why but I really wasn’t in the mood to squeeze the juice out. Besides I had buttermilk and although the author preferred the lemon into milk to get buttermilk over the flavor of using buttermilk – well it was one extra step in the morning I didn’t want to take. So, I used one cup of buttermilk and one cup of low fat milk. Love the results. I also used Bob’s Red Mill Muesli. It is no sugar added but does have dates and seeds (zip, nada, zilch preservatives, just watch your expy date). I watched the texture of the mix as had a concern that the volume of grain could be less, making my pancakes thinner, due to the volume of date and seed. No problem. I did not have to add any extra flour. Since I just opened the packet – the dates were nice and soft and worked well with the texture of the pancakes.  If you’re not a morning person, process the muesli and mix your dry ingredients the evening before. I also use butter in the pan (more than most folks) and don’t bother to clarify it – so you see the brown bits in the fry pan shot below, the buttery goodness finish on the cakes in the close-up and just generally how much I like butter J

This last shot is trying to capture how airy the pancakes come out (yes, my buttery edge hides it a bit. The shot doesn’t do them justice. You’ll just have to bake them up yourself to truly know.