fresh cranberry cornmeal pancakes

Happy new year! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a smashing new year’s celebration. Did you get anything special for Christmas? I’m so excited for two new cookbooks – Tender by Nigel Slater and The Homesick Texan by Lisa Fain – can’t wait to start cooking from them.

On Christmas Eve morning, Dan and I had our own little mini Christmas – just the two of us. We opened presents, popped on a couple of our new LPs, drank coffee and Buck’s Fizz, and then I set about making these pancakes and I have to tell you about them because they’re absolutely cracking.

Dan was extremely skeptical at first. He thought the cranberries would be too bitter, sharp, and crunchy. Not so! And he raved about them. Raved. In fact he was the one who said I had to tell you about them.

The cranberries are tossed in some sugar first but even without that, sweetness is not an issue. The pancake batter is sweet – sweeter still from the addition of corn – and the cranberries just cook enough in a few minutes to soften and start expelling juices.

Sure they’re tart but it’s a gorgeous popping contrast to the crunch and crisp sweetness of the cornmeal cake.

Fresh Cranberry Cornmeal Pancakes
adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

  •     1 cup all-purpose flour
  •     1/2 cup cornmeal
  •     1/4 cup sugar
  •     1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  •     1 teaspoon coarse salt
  •     1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  •     1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
  •     1/4 cup milk
  •     1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for griddle
  •     1 large egg, lightly beaten
  •     2 cups fresh cranberries
  •     Pure maple syrup, for serving

Directions

  1. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, 2 tablespoons sugar, the baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, milk, butter, and egg. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).
  2. Preheat oven to 200F. Heat a griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Toss cranberries with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Brush griddle with melted butter. Spoon batter onto griddle 1/3 cup at a time. Sprinkle with sugared cranberries, about 2 tablespoons per pancake. Cook until edges are set, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip, and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter and cranberries, adding more butter to griddle and keeping prepared pancakes warm on a baking sheet in the oven. Serve with maple syrup.

Note: This batter is going to be thicker than normal, thanks to the addition of cornmeal. The bubbles that usually indicate when to flip a pancake might not form, so flip when the edges start to set.

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Category: recipe | Tags: , , 8 comments »

8 Responses to “fresh cranberry cornmeal pancakes”

  1. Denise
    January 2nd, 2012 at 8:42 am

    Absolutely cracking indeed! Made them this morning…will dream about them all day. Thanks for sharing!

    [Reply]
  2. holly
    January 2nd, 2012 at 11:04 am

    four things on this Monday morning…

    (1) yayyy for having a lovely Christmas! sounds like everything went well and that you had a good time and that you got to relax. good stuff.

    (2) i had a dream about your duck fat potatoes. true story. will email you about this.

    (3) these pancakes look awesome. cornmeal + cranberry = winner.

    (4) the word cracking. i love you for using it.

    [Reply]

    Angharad Reply:
    January 2nd, 2012 at 1:27 pm

    Excellent commenting, Holly! I cannot wait to hear the contents of this dream of yours but if it involved duck fat tatties I know it was good.

    [Reply]
  3. dana @ my little celebration
    January 2nd, 2012 at 1:08 pm

    Yums McGee these look great! So simple and delicious. I’ll have to make them when I get into one of my pancake streaks.

    Happy New Year, friend!!

    [Reply]

    Angharad Reply:
    January 2nd, 2012 at 1:30 pm

    Happy new year Dana!

    [Reply]
  4. Deanna
    January 2nd, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    I just found a bag of fresh cranberries I’d forgotten I bought. I also just bought cornmeal. Yum!

    [Reply]
  5. Spiced Sweet Potato Waffles and Recipe Roundup | The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog
    January 4th, 2012 at 5:26 am

    [...] spiced sweet potato waffles, cranberry cornmeal pancakes, chocolate peanut butter swirl muffins, chocolate pots de creme, kale and mushroom risotto, [...]
  6. Jen {The Wholehearted Life}
    January 8th, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    Oh nom! Love anything with cranberries and cornmeal..happy New Year to you and yours!

    [Reply]

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