Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes

I love breakfast. Less than a year ago, we started a tradition in my house of eating a leisurely, freshly cooked breakfast every day. Every day. I am not at all exaggerating. My husband has to commute across town to get to work, and I am amazed he gets to work at all for the amount of time we take on breakfast these days. I find that when we are traveling, I get extremely grumpy if I am deprived of our morning ritual. The continental breakfasts at hotels just don't cut it. My days of eating cold cereal or grabbing a piece of peanut butter toast to eat on the fly are over. Below Pedro and I are eating a fantastic breakfast at Magnolia Cafe in Austin. We ordered the cornmeal pecan and the gingerbread nut pancakes and two sides of fruit. We traded plates aftering eating some, so that we were both able to sample both types of pancake.

Magnolia Cafe's pancakes have been on my mind since we got back to Florida. So, this week I made blueberry cornmeal pancakes. They are pictured in the top photo.

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes
adapted from Cafe Flora Cookbook
makes 8 large or 16 small

1 cup cornmeal (either regular or blue cornmeal)
1 cup flour (or a mixture totaling one cup of a combo of whole grain flours - I used 1/2 cup spelt and 1/2 cup barley)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup or agave nectar or honey
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (omit if using buttermilk)
2 tablespoons walnut oil or melted butter or oil of choice
1 cup blueberries (or nut variation, see below)
butter or oil for greasing griddle

variation: instead of adding blueberries you could add instead 1/4 cup (or up to 1/2 cup) of chopped pecans or other nut)

1. In one bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold the ingredients together until just combined. Don't over mix. Gently fold in the blueberries or nuts.
3. Heat a griddle until hot over medium high heat. Grease well. Pour batter onto skillet, up to 3 tablespoons each for small or more for larger pancakes. Cook until bubbles form and the sides are beginning to set, then flip and cook 45 seconds or until cooked through. Grease griddle between pancakes if necessary. Keep warm in a 200 degree oven covered with damp towel while finishing cooking the entire batch. Or use warming burner on stove top.
4. Serve with butter or maple butter and/or maple syrup.