oatmeal pancakes.

I am for the most part, a savory breakfast fan.  Give me cheesy scrambled eggs and toast over waffles any day. But once every couple of weeks, I get a hankering for pancakes

I love pancakes for their crisp edges and impossibly fluffy interiors, but I generally feel as if I can eat a stack 3 feet tall and never feel full.   While absolutely delicious, they lack sustenance, the stuff that I need to actually stop eating. Which is why, when I stumbled across this recipe for oatmeal pancakes, I felt as if I finally found my ideal pancake.

These are the slightly more indulgent version of your daily bowl of oatmeal.  Oats two ways get combined with your standard pancake ingredients to produce (in my humble opinion) the perfect pancake (a big statement I know).  Served with whatever fruit is at its peak (currently strawberries and raspberries) and an excessive amount of pure maple syrup, you have a pretty awesome breakfast that manages to straddle the line between healthy and extravagant.   

Oatmeal Pancakes
Recipe tweaked from Good to the Grain

Makes about 18 pancakes

3/4 cup oat flour (you can make this by pulsing rolled oats into a food processor or spice grinder until finely ground; 1 cup of oats yielded 3/4 cup oat flour for me)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon Kosher or coarse salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (plus extra for the pan)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup cooked oatmeal*
1 tablespoon unsulphured (not blackstrap) molasses, honey, maple syrup
2 large eggs

Whisk the dry ingredients (oat flour, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the butter, milk, cooked oatmeal, honey and eggs together until thoroughly combined. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a light hand is important for tender pancakes; the batter should be slightly thick with a holey surface.

Heat a 10-inch cast-iron pan or griddle over medium heat until water sizzles when splashed onto the pan. Lower to medium-low. Rub the pan generously with butter; the key to crisp, buttery edges. Working quickly, dollop 1/4-cup mounds of batter onto the pan, 2 or 3 at a time. Once bubbles have begun to form on the top side of the pancake, flip the pancake and cook until the bottom is dark golden-brown, about 5 minutes total. Wipe the pan with a cloth before griddling the next pancake. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Serve the pancakes hot, straight from the skillet or keep them warm in a low oven. We also found these to reheat surprisingly well the next morning, again in a low oven.

Do ahead: Although the batter is best if using immediately, it can sit for up to 1 hour on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. When you return to the batter, it will be very thick and should be thinned, one tablespoon at a time, with milk. Take care not to overmix.

* Make oatmeal, if you don’t have any leftover: Bring 1 cup water and a slightly heaped 1/2 cup of rolled oats (old-fashioned or quick-cooking) and a pinch of salt to a boil and simmer on low for 1 (quick-cooking) to 5 minutes (old-fashioned), until thick. Let cool. This can also be cooked in a microwave.