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Sunday Morning Pancakes with Coffee Syrup

This recipe is from Good Enough.

Good Enough cover

My newest creation, Good Enough, is a self-care cookbook that offers personal and vulnerable storytelling, delicious recipes, and encouraging advice to teach you how to accept yourself, love yourself, and find peace through the act of cooking. Learn more! I have more cookbooks, too!

One day I decided to stop trying to make pancakes healthy, and that was the time my husband said, with eyes wide, “Wow, sometimes I forget how good a cook you are, and then this happens.” So now, of course, I make them this way all the time. I am as vulnerable to flattery as the next person. These pancakes are rich, pillowy, buttery, and really quite cakey, but without the sweetness. They leave the job of sweetness for the syrup, and for their part they will soak that syrup up expertly.

You can easily add berries, banana slices, or chocolate chips to these pancakes. Simply sprinkle them on top of the pancakes after you have them in the pan, but before the flip to the second side. This works much better than trying to add the mix-ins to the batter itself.

In our house, we often make slightly more coffee than we can drink before it gets cold. Sometimes, by the time we get done running around after a small person, what’s left in the pot isn’t that appealing. So one day, when we had run out of maple syrup, I thought I should take that unappealing cold coffee and add sugar and heat. The result is surprisingly dark and complex, without being too in your face about its coffee-ness. Pouring this syrup over your pancakes creates the feeling of a great diner experience, where the smell of coffee is always in the background.

Sunday Morning Pancakes with Coffee Syrup
Print Recipe
TL;DR for Pancakes: Mix batter, let it sit for 10 minutes, then cook the pancakes in a hot pan. TL;DR for syrup: Bring leftover coffee and sugar to a boil, thicken into a syrup, and add vanilla.
Servings
8 to 10 pancakes and 1 cup of syrup
Servings
8 to 10 pancakes and 1 cup of syrup
Sunday Morning Pancakes with Coffee Syrup
Print Recipe
TL;DR for Pancakes: Mix batter, let it sit for 10 minutes, then cook the pancakes in a hot pan. TL;DR for syrup: Bring leftover coffee and sugar to a boil, thicken into a syrup, and add vanilla.
Servings
8 to 10 pancakes and 1 cup of syrup
Servings
8 to 10 pancakes and 1 cup of syrup
Ingredients
Pancakes
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar brown or white
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 large eggs at room temperatutre
  • 1/2 cup butter plus more for the pan
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • fresh fruit for serving
Coffee Syrup
  • 1 1/4 cups brewed coffee
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Pancakes
  1. Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a small bowl and give it a quick whisk so that all the ingredients are reasonably distributed.
  2. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk them. Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stovetop and, whisking continuously, pour it into the egg mixture slowly, to prevent scrambling the eggs. Whisk until you have a smooth, thick, yellow liquid that looks kind of like hollandaise.
  3. Pour the vinegar into a liquid measuring cup, then add the yogurt and milk and stir. You should have 1 cup total. Let the mixture sit for a couple of minutes. Then, whisking continuously, slowly pour it into the egg mixture.
  4. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the wet mixture and gently mix it with a wooden spoon until most of the dry ingredients are incorporated. It’s okay to leave the batter a little lumpy because the lumps will cook themselves out. It’s much better to undermix than to overmix and have tough, chewy pancakes. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 150°F or the warm setting. Place an oven-safe plate or baking sheet in the oven—that’s where you’ll leave finished pancakes to keep warm while you make the rest.
  6. Place a cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add a pat of butter to the pan and gently swirl it to coat. Use a ladle to pour a dollop of pancake batter into the buttered pan. It should become reasonably round naturally. It looks messy but will seize up and start cooking soon, so don’t panic. I usually do two pancakes at a time in our pan, but you can do more if your pan is bigger or if you are braver.
  7. Let the pancakes cook until bubbles begin to form not just around the edges but all the way through to the middle and they begin to look a little dry at the edges, 2 to 3 minutes. Then use a spatula to flip them over with confidence. Cook until they are just lightly browned on the bottom, another minute or so. The second side is always faster. Remove the pancakes from the pan and place them on the warming plate in the oven. (The truly perfect time to flip is just before the edges begin to dry out. You’ll get the hang of it with practice.)
  8. Repeat until you are finished with the pancake batter, adding more butter to the pan in between each batch.
  9. Serve the pancakes warm with Coffee Syrup (or your favorite syrup), fresh fruit, and whatever else you like!
Coffee Syrup
  1. Pour the coffee and sugar into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer until the liquid thickens into a syrup, about 20 minutes.
  2. Remove the pan from the heat, add the vanilla, and stir.
  3. Use the syrup immediately over pancakes, plain oatmeal, yogurt, ice cream, coffee cake, and so on. Or let the syrup cool and store it in an airtight canning jar or bottle in the fridge for up to a month.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

chocolate zucchini muffins piled on a white plate

This recipe is from Good and Cheap.

Good and Cheap cover 2nd edition

Good and Cheap is a gorgeous cookbook for people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) and has been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times. I have more cookbooks, too!

Zucchini in chocolate cake sounds weird, but it’s a very mild flavor and the truth is you barely taste it. It adds tremendous moisture to these beautiful dark chocolatey muffins. The yogurt, oats, and zucchini make these so moist and soft and then you get a little gooey meltiness from the chocolate chips. Wow. Anyway, give them a try. They are a delicious breakfast treat, but they are yummy enough to have for dessert as well! Keep reading

Fast Melon Sorbet

This recipe is from Good and Cheap.

Good and Cheap cover 2nd edition

Good and Cheap is a gorgeous cookbook for people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) and has been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times. I have more cookbooks, too!

It’s SO HOT. Let’s eat watermelon together. Let’s just eat watermelon and sit and sweat.

Okay, some of you are overachievers. This is for you. Take some of your sweet, sweet watermelon and chop it into cubes (take the rind off first, silly). Put it in a bag or receptacle in your freezer. Once it’s frozen make it into sorbet using just a little yogurt and sugar and a food processor or blender. Add some vanilla or lime juice (or anything else you think would work with watermelon) if you’re super serious about it.  Keep reading

Leanne Brown

Hi, I'm Leanne Brown. I’m a bestselling cookbook author. I want to help you find peace, healing and freedom through cooking.

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Good Enough cover

My newest creation, Good Enough, is a self-care cookbook that offers personal and vulnerable storytelling, delicious recipes, and encouraging advice to teach you how to accept yourself, love yourself, and find peace through the act of cooking. Learn more here!

Good and Cheap cover 2nd edition

Good and Cheap is a gorgeous cookbook for people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) and has been downloaded over 15,000,000 times. For more info, see All About Good and Cheap and Donation Impact.

Sign up for my newsletter!

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