Amytacular: Lemon Lavender Pancakes

What do you think of when you hear the word "lavender"? I used to think spa. Lotion. Bubble bath. Calm. Now, I think of my friend Lisa.

I was in World Market the other day when I was in their spice aisle - they have super inexpensive spices. Anyhow, Lisa and I have been talking about getting together to cook something for months. She loooooves lavender. All things lavender. So I've had it on the proverbial back burner to try and use lavender in something I cook.

Gabe was up pretty much all night working on an emergency so I wanted to make a hearty breakfast for him on my day off before sending him to work. This boy loves pancakes. Almost as much as I love shrimp. So what does he request when I ask what he wants: these yummy lemon pancakes I make. Then I decided, wouldn't some lavender be awesome in there? And not surprisingly, they were. I hope you try these!

Lemon Lavender Pancakes

Makes about 10 - 5" pancakes, 2-3 servings

dry ingredients:

1 c. AP flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1.5 tbsp. sugar

wet ingredients:

1 egg (I use extra large, room temp)
3/4 c. sour cream
3/4 c. buttermilk
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. milk

other ingredients:

1 tsp. dried lavender
zest of 1 lemon, about 1.5 tsp.
maple syrup and more butter for pancakes, optional

I start by measuring my dry ingredients on a flexible cutting board.

Crack the egg into a medium mixing bowl:

Melt 4 tbsp. butter (1/2 stick):

I throw in the microwave for about 30 seconds:

Whisk the egg to break up the yolks:

I forgot to take a picture after I whisked the melted butter into the eggs, but do that.

Then, get your other wet ingredients:

Add your sour cream:

Mix, mix, mix..

Add the buttermilk next..

Grate the zest of 1 lemon on top of the wet mixture. It adds this fantastic fresh and super intense lemon flavor to the pancakes. Sometimes pancakes can seem super heavy to me, but these are light and delicious.

Whisk in..

Then add the vanilla extract:

Now for the dry ingredients. I like to sift everything in to make sure there are no lumps. Nobody wants a lumpy pancake.

Just sift right on top of the wet mixture.

This is what you're trying to keep out of your mixture.

Saboteurs. Lumpy lumpy saboteurs.

"You shall not pass!!!"

I'm no Lord of the Rings freak, it just happened to be on the other day and this came to mind. Not apologizing.

Mix in and check the texture. If you knock off the whisk and it looks like this:

You need that 1/4 c. of milk. Sometimes you don't need it. I think I was a little generous on the 1 c. flour measure.

There we go. Should be a little looser but still pretty thick.

Make sure that griddle is nice and hot (but not too hot). Not that it matters, everyone knows the first few batches of pancakes don't turn out well.

You need a few sacrificial lambs before you get the acceptable ones.

I went ahead and did lavender on half the pancakes. Few reasons:

1. Never tried this recipe before so if it sucked, only 1/2 would be inedible - because that lemon pancake batter is tried & true.

2. Gabe didn't want to risk a few man cards and say he ate Lemon Lavender ANYTHING for breakfast.

Check out the height on these:

Throw some piggy on the griddle..

Mr.'s pancake stack.

My pancake stack:

More butter:

I microwave the maple syrup for about 30 seconds and I watch it like a hawk. As soon as you see some bubbling, get it the heck out of there or you'll have a hot sticky mess to clean up in the microwave.