There is nothing I hate more than throwing away perfectly good food. You know what I am talking about, you buy an ingredient use it for the recipe intended and put the rest in your fridge. It sits there until you realize it is 2 months past its expiration and becomes food for the trash monster.
I used to have this problem with buttermilk. I would buy a quart, make delicious buttermilk ranch dressing or fried chicken soaked in buttermilk but never use the whole quart. Try as I may the buttermilk would mock me every time I opened the fridge. Finally I have outsmarted it.
With pancakes!
We love pancakes and they freeze wonderfully giving me the perfect place for whatever quantity of buttermilk I have left over.
Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 beaten eggs
2 cups buttermilk (no buttermilk? no problem, see end of post)
4 Tbsp cooking oil
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix together well with a whisk.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten egg, buttermilk and oil.
Mix just until moistened the batter will be lumpy but that is OK - Over stiring will lead to tough pancakes.
Preheat your skillet over medium heat - I like to start with a light coat of nonstick spray it is not necessary for each batch, after the first batch you should be fine. Drop about 1/4 cup of batter and leave them alone until bubbles come up on the top like the picture below.
Flip and cook about 1-2 more minutes until golden brown.
This made about 20 pancakes.
Enjoy!
To freeze - lay pancakes in a single layer on a baking sheet in the freezer until hardened then move into a storage bag. Reheat in the microwave in 30 second intervals.
No buttermilk? That's OK you can use just plain milk but then increase the baking powder to 1 Tbsp. You can sub milk for part of the buttermilk too just use an additional 1 tsp of baking powder for every 1 cup of milk you are using.