On buttermilk and bananas

Not sure what to do with an over ripe banana and that last bit of buttermilk?

Ring, ring

"Hello?"

"Hi there, it's Mr. Obvious calling for Ms. Pancakes..."

Peanut butter chocolate banana buttermilk pancakes

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp tsp baking soda

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

3 tbsp butter, melted

1 large ripe banana, thinly sliced

¼ cup President's Choice new Mini Peanut Butter Melts (note: Yum!)

a touch of butter or oil for cooking the pancakes

maple syrup

Method:

In a medium bowl blend together dry ingredients, then mix in remaining ingredients until combined. Batter will be thick.

Heat large frying pan or griddle over medium heat and fry pancakes in batches (they should take a few minutes per batch.) You’ll know they’re done when they’re golden on both sides and cooked through. Drizzle with a touch of maple syrup and enjoy.

Blueberry buttermilk cake

Has this ever happened to you: A recipe such as this or this calls for buttermilk, you dutifully buy a litre of the stuff and are then left with a litre minus 1/4 cup? Scam alert! I think buttermilk should be free. After all, it's just the runoff from making butter from soured milk (though these days it's more likely its own product made from pasteurized milk curdled by adding a culture.) And why don't they sell buttermilk in smaller sizes? If they can do it with milk and all manner of cream, surely they should be able to figure out a way to do it with buttermilk, right? Am I right? (I think I'm right.) 

Now that we've finished our buttermilk temper tantrum, it's time to get down to business. Let's turn sour milk into something delicious. I guess you could fry up some buttermilk-marinated chicken, or some down-home buttermilk biscuits, or a whole mess of flapjacks, but that all seems like an awful lot of work to use up a couple of bucks worth of milk. 

Or, you can use this recipe that I adapted from Epicurious.com -- a one bowl, one pan fruit-topped wonder that takes as much time to throw together as it takes the oven to preheat, and is on the table a mere 25 minutes later. In the original they called for raspberries, as in their Raspberry Buttermilk Cake, but I had some frozen wild blueberries I was trying to unload so used them instead. 

But I will be making this cake often, with every type of summer fresh berry I can get my mitts on over the next few months. Hmmm. Looks like I might have to buy more buttermilk... 

BLUEBERRY BUTTERMILK CAKE

(serves 6)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ stick butter, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 ½ Tbsp brown sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

½ cup buttermilk, well-shaken

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 cup fresh or frozen and thawed and drained blueberries

 Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter and 9-inch pan and put and cover the bottom with a piece of parchment paper.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, blend together butter and white sugar for a couple of minutes, or until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and beat a couple minutes more. At a low speed, add flour and buttermilk and lemon zest, alternating between wet and dry until just combined for a silky batter.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish or cake tin and smooth evenly. Top evenly with berries and sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake in preheated oven until cake is golden on top on inserted toothpick comes out clean – about 25 minutes. Cool in pan for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes. Present it sunny side up on a plate.