Fluffy buttermilk pancakes perfect for a weekend or holiday breakfast. Add in your favorite mix-ins such as blueberries or chocolate chips, or top with bananas, walnuts and a drizzle of syrup.
I’ve had an idea for the longest time to do a “dinner and a movie” series here where I write up a recipe and Dave writes up some details on a movie that would be a great pair with the recipe. So here goes!!
One of the first movies that came to mind was Christmas in Connecticut (rent | buy) with the famous flapjack flipping scene. It’s classic and hilarious – a food/”life of a homemaker” magazine writer (think food and lifestyle blogger/influencer before that was a thing), who actually can’t cook and isn’t a homemaker at all, is faking her way through cooking a pancake breakfast complete with a pancake flip into the air. Hilarity ensues.
It’s become a favorite in our house to watch each Christmas season, so much so that I found the most perfect ornament (on Etsy made by sweetandlovely) commemorating the pancake flip to gift to Dave last Christmas.
So, when thinking of what movie and what dish to begin with, Christmas in Connecticut and buttermilk pancakes were at the top of the list.
So, let’s start with Dave’s take on the movie!
About Christmas in Connecticut
If you will, imagine for a moment that Martha Stewart was a culinary fraud. Someone who couldn’t make a house a home if her life depended on it. Two thumbs, neither of them green.
This is the premise of Christmas in Connecticut, a wonderful old-Hollywood film, filled with a murder’s row of character actors (Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z Sakall, Una O’Conner among them) at their most charming and anchored by one of the best actresses of her day (or any day, honestly), Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a popular food writer who’s also a fraud, giving one of the most lovely performances of her career.
To top it all off, Christmas in Connecticut is one of the all-time great “foodie” movies, guaranteed to make a viewer’s mouth water and stomach rumble for the duration of the film’s 102-minute runtime. You only get a couple minutes into the film before you are treated to the first mention of food “a big thick juicy steak with baked potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce and chocolate cake and ice cream.” The movie doesn’t let up from there, with one tantalizing food scene after the next, even though Elizabeth Lane can’t even bring a simple recipe to life. She even goes as far as eating sardines for breakfast, much to the chagrin of “Uncle” Felix, the kindly father figure who’s the true talent in the kitchen and the man behind the delicious recipes Lane writes about so beautifully in her column.
When a WW2 hero named Jefferson Jones is rescued after being adrift on a raft in the ocean for 18 days, he reads Lane’s column in Smart Housekeeping and begins to dream of the elaborate meals she describes in such appetizing detail. Of course, it doesn’t take much to beat the raw egg floating in milk he repeatedly suffers through in the hospital while on the mend. A nurse who falls for Jeff and knows he wants nothing other than a wonderful, home cooked meal, writes to Alexander Yardley, the publishing magnate who owns Smart Houskeeping, and asks him to invite Jeff to Elizabeth Lane’s house for Christmas.
The problem, of course, is Elizabeth can’t cook. She doesn’t own a farmhouse with a “crackling fireplace.” She’s not married and certainly doesn’t have the eight-month-old son that she writes about in her column. Yardley, played by Greenstreet as a bulldozer of a man but in a way that makes him retain his humanity and relatability, ensures Lane has no choice. She will host Jeff at her farmhouse for Christmas and since he also craves one of Lane’s miraculous meals and famous flapjacks, he decides to invite himself to attend as well.
OOPS.
As you might have guessed, hijinks ensue. Elizabeth and Uncle Felix (along with other friends) quickly put together a scheme to deceive Yardley and Jeff at her fiance’s house in the country. Felix will cook and Elizabeth will entertain, which leads to the famous flapjack scene. Will Elizabeth be able to successfully flip a flapjack in front of an audience consisting of her boss and a sailor whom she is rapidly falling in love?
Watch and find out…but before you do, ensure to make yourself (or your family) these wonderful pancakes, the perfect compliment to this all-timer holiday and foodie film. As Uncle Felix would say, they’re “hunky dunky.”
And now, onto the pancakes!
The pancake recipe here is adapted from my dad’s recipe that he used to make many weekend mornings. I added in a little whole wheat flour – enough to make for a filling breakfast, but not too much to keep the pancakes light and fluffy.
These buttermilk pancakes are perfect with a simple drizzle of syrup, or for more elaborate toppings and mix-ins. Here I’ve added in chocolate chips, but you could easily swap in blueberries, or instead top them with fruit and nuts.
How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes
- Start by whisking together your flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and oil.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry, gently mixing until just moistened.
- Scoop batter onto a heated and oiled griddle or skillet. If adding chocolate chips (or other), sprinkle on top of the pancake then spoon over the top a little extra batter.
- Look for bubbles to start forming on the top.
- Once the bubbles start to pop on the edges, carefully flip the pancake. Note: flipping into the air is totally optional. I’ve never done it, but if that’s your thing then you do you!
- Once the pancake is golden brown on both sides, remove and continue making pancakes with the rest of the batter.
I hope you’ll give this recipe and movie a try- if you do, let me know what you think!
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Buttermilk Pancakes
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 14 pancakes 1x
- Category: breakfast
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: breakfast
Description
Fluffy buttermilk pancakes perfect for a weekend or holiday breakfast. Add in your favorite mix-ins such as blueberries or chocolate chips, or top with bananas, walnuts and a drizzle of syrup.
Ingredients
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp neutral vegetable or avocado oil
Optional: 1/3 cup chocolate chips
Oil for skillet
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a separate bowl,whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and oil.
- Slowly pour the liquids into the flour mixture, stirring gently to combine.
- Heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat with a little oil.
- Scoop about ¼ cup batter onto the skillet or griddle. If adding chocolate chips, sprinkle the top of the pancake with a few chocolate chips, then spoon a little additional batter over the top.
- Watch for small bubbles to form on the surface (should take a minute or more depending on how hot the cooking surface is, so watch closely), and once the bubbles start to pop, flip the pancake and cook another 1-3 minutes until the batter is cooked.
- Remove pancake from skillet/griddle and repeat with remaining batter. Add additional oil to the skillet /griddle as needed while cooking.
- Serve.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 pancakes
- Calories: 326
- Sugar: 13 g
- Sodium: 609 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Saturated Fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 42 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 9 g
- Cholesterol: 61 mg
Keywords: buttermilk pancakes, pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, breakfast, brunch
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