The Fluffiest Blueberry Pancakes / Yield: 15 pancakes
Thick and fluffy, melt-in-your mouth pancakes bursting with blueberries.
Ing 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries 1 cup sugar, divided 2 ¾ cups flour 3 tsp b/powder 1 tsp b/soda 2 tsp salt ½ tsp cardamom 6 tbl butter, melted and at room temp 4-6 tbl butter for the pan 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ tsp almond extract 2 cups buttermilk 2 lge eggs
Instructions Add blueberries and ½ cup sugar to a bowl; toss to coat. If using frozen blueberries, more sugar will stick to them as they begin to defrost. If using fresh blueberries, rinse and drain thoroughly in sink, then toss in sugar. The dampness will help the sugar stick. Add ½ cup sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom to a large bowl and whisk to combine. Stir vanilla and almond extract into 6 tablespoon melted butter. (Fat helps to evenly distribute the flavor of the extracts.) Add the eggs to the buttermilk and fork/whisk briefly to combine. Add about 1 tablespoon butter to a skillet set on med.
While the skillet heats, pour the butter and buttermilk mixtures into the dry ingredients and whisk just until the batter is mostly smooth. It's fine if there are a few lumps, but be careful to not over beat the batter. Swirl the melted butter around in the pan so that the bottom is completely coated. Pour about ⅓ cup of batter into the pan per pancake.
Cook no more than 2 or 3 pancakes at a time. The batter will be very thick, but will spread out a bit as the pancakes cook, so be very careful to not overcrowd the pan. Dot the surface of each pancake with a generous amount of blueberries. As the pancakes cook, lower the temperature to medium low. The goal is to regulate the temperature so that the middle of the pancakes have time to cook before the outsides are overcooked or burned. If it looks like the outside of your pancakes are cooking faster than the inside, lower the heat.
Cook the pancakes on one side until the sides of the pancake are firm up enough to not fall apart when you flip them. Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown on the other side.
These are fluffy, so it can be tricky if they are done in the middle. Press gently on the center to see if it feels doughy. You can also take a sharp paring knife and cut into the center of a pancake to see if there's raw batter. Use a spatula to remove the pancakes to server. Rinse out the pan (or wipe it down with a paper towel). Add about 1 tbl fresh butter and repeat process to cook the rest.