My father-in-law grew up eating sour cream pancakes every weekend, and continues the tradition to this day. Every weekend in summer you can find him in the kitchen of his East Hampton country house attending to a tower of dollar-sized sour cream pancakes. They are fantastic, and he won’t share. Once you get a taste of them you know why…they’re delicious. Addictive. And of course, the recipe is top secret. So how do you get sour cream pancakes if your father-in-law won’t share??? You create your own version… It took me some time and a lot of experimenting, but I think I’ve finally succeeded. And the test was cooking them for my father-in-law and his brother this summer. While I didn’t get much feedback from my father-in-law, his brother secretly pulled me aside and said they were fantastic and very similar to the ones his mother used to make. That made me happy, but what makes me happier is that my own children love these pancakes, and they don’t have to fight with their Grandfather over them!

Ready

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp of white sugar
• ½ tsp of baking powder
• ½ tsp of salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Cooking Ingredients:

• A stick of butter

Set

• Two mixing bowls
• Measuring cup
• Measuring spoons
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Griddle, nonstick pan or cast iron frying pan

Go

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
2. Mix all of the wet ingredients together, whisk until blended.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, whisk until blened. Add milk if necessary. I don’t like the batter to be too thick…this is a personal preference…thinner batter equals thinner pancakes.
4. Melt about a tablespoon or more of the butter on your griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Add the batter into the pan using the tablespoon measuring spoon. These will give you your silver dollar-sized pancakes.
5. Cook for about a minute or so on each side. This amount of time depends upon your stove, your pan and your personal preference of how well-done you like your pancakes. I often flip back and forth to get each side just right. Don’t be afraid to flip!

What you should know

You can easily adjust this recipe. The amounts listed above feed about 4 to 6 people. If folks are really hungry, or you’re feeding more people do 1-½ times the above or even double it…though you’ll be standing at the stove flipping for a LONG time!

Some optional toppings: Maple syrup, honey, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, strawberries, blueberries

The batter can be made up to one day in advance, but I wouldn’t leave it longer than that, it starts to separate. I often cook all the pancakes at once and then heat them in the toaster oven for the next morning. Also, I use whole fat dairy products for this recipe, but it could be made much healthier by substituting lowfat or nonfat varieties. Just don’t blame me if it if the pancakes don’t taste as good!