These are the pancakes I wanted to make you last year on Mountain Day. But it took me by surprise! This year, though, this year I’m a bit psychic. I came THIS CLOSE to posting this recipe yesterday, but a little voice inside of my said, “No. Wait.”
And low and behold, today is Mountain Day!
For those of you not in the know, Mountain Day is a magical wonderful surprise that comes once a year to students at Smith College (and select other New England colleges). The president surprises us at 7am on a random fall day by ringing the college bells and cancelling ALL CLASSES.
Yeah. It’s amazing. Smithies celebrate by sleeping in and going apple picking with their friends. Then they spend the afternoon baking apple pies and cooking apple sauce. They gorge themselves on apples until they feel slightly ill (or was that just me?)
Sadly, there is not mountain day in the real world. This morning, I’m headed off to work. Though I will probably eat farmer’s market apples for lunch and whip up a batch of these tasty cornmeal apple pancakes for dinner.
Happy Mountain Day, Smithies! And happy apple-cornmeal pancake day to the rest of you!
Apple-Cornmeal Pancakes
Serves 4
- 1 1/2 cups (gluten-free) flour
- 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups+ diced apple (I used honey crisp)
In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a small bowl, combine wet ingredients and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix well to break up any lumps of flour.
Pour batter by quarter cups into a hot, oiled skillet or griddle. Top each pancake with apples, and flip when bubbles form in the batter. Remove from the skillet, top with butter and copious amounts of maple syrup. Serve immediately. Indulge.
