My latest recipe discovery came the day before Maine Maple Sunday. With my father-in-law in town, we were planning on taking him to one of the local farms to enjoy a pancake breakfast. As the evening came to a close, my sticky note was staring me in the face. It read, “Make Maddie her special pancakes.” Since most people use milk or buttermilk when making pancakes, I was going to have to make special pancakes for her with her almond milk (she has a dairy sensitivity) and bring them with me to the pancake breakfast at the farm. Feeling fatigued from a busy day, I looked at my husband and said, “maybe we should just stay home this year.”

I am so glad that we did. After making this decision, I remembered a cookbook that had been sitting on our bookshelf for several years. I pulled the “The Maple Syrup Cookbook” by Ken Haedrich and published by Storey Publishing out of the bookcase and headed up to bed. Within minutes I was snuggled under the covers with the cookbook in hand, confirming that I am not ready to have all of my recipes on an IPad or other electronic device. There’s something comforting about being able to turn actual pages of paper.

Before I turned the light out to go to sleep, I found the perfect recipe for oatmeal pancakes to share with the children and my father-in-law the next morning. As the author notes, this recipe for oatmeal pancakes makes the pancakes “grainy and nicely textured.”

As we came to the end of the batter, we gave our eldest son a turn at pouring the batter and flipping a couple of them. It was amazing to me to see our 7-year-old making pancakes and I started to daydream about a Sunday breakfast in bed in my future. Through the kitchen doorway, I could hear Grandpa Glenn playing with our daughters. It made me wish that there wasn’t 1,000 miles separating his home from ours.

The smiles that Grandpa put on the kids’ faces made me grateful that we had chosen a quieter Sunday breakfast at home. And now I long for more meals shared by multiple generations topped with Maine maple syrup.

Oatmeal Pancakes by Ken Haedrich published in “Maple Syrup Cookbook” by Storey Publishing, 1989, 2001

Ingredients:

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup unbleached or all purpose flour (I substituted whole-wheat pastry flour)

½ cup whole-wheat flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 cups milk (almond milk can be used as a substitute)

2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

5 tablespoons butter, melted

Butter for greasing skillet and warm maple syrup for drizzling on top

Method:

1.Whirl the oats in a food processor or blender until they become a fine powder; a few traces of flakes are fine. Pour into a large bowl; then mix the all-purpose and wheat flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside

2.In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs lightly, and then whisk in the milk and brown sugar.

3.Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the egg mixture, and stir briefly. Add the butter and blend just until no traces of dry are visible. Let the batter stand for several minutes.

4.Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, then butter it lightly. Drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls and cook until the pancake bottoms are golden and bubbles are popping on the surface, about 1 minute. Turn and cook 1 minute on the other side. Keep warm.

5.Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with warm maple syrup.

Yield: about 14 four-inch pancakes