Cornmeal Pancakes

One of my favourite memories from childhood is eating my mother’s cornmeal pancakes. She would make these on Sunday morning and serve a thick stack each to me and my father. We’d cover them in maple syrup, and my parents would have bacon too, so we could just feel this heavy meal settling in our tummies and weighing us down. You want to sleep after eating these pancakes, not get up and do something active.

Which is why I decided to make them on a recent Friday night, after M and I had been to the gym. We’d both worked full days and we’d done our exercise, and now we just wanted to relax, have dinner, and hang out a little before bed. I made my pancakes a bit thinner than my mother’s and served fewer of them, and I served them with raspberries and slices of banana, so at least we were getting some fruit too. We covered them with agave, rather than maple syrup, which I find too sweet. M liked them so much that I made them again a few days later, served with raspberries and slices of pear.

Ingredients:
1 cup polenta/cornmeal
1 cup hot water
1 Tbs sugar
1 cup flour (use a bit less to make them thinner or a bit more to make them thicker)
.5 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
.5 cup milk (you can also use cream or soy milk)
oil or butter for frying
fruit to serve with the pancakes
maple syrup or agave to serve with the pancakes

Instructions:

1. Put the polenta/cornmeal (what you call it depends on where you’re from) in a bowl and add the water. Leave this to sit for 10-15 minutes, until the water is all absorbed.
2. Meanwhile, mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the cornmeal and mix.
4. Beat the egg and add it. Then add the milk.
5. Melt butter or warm oil in a frying pan.
6. Spoon the batter into the pan. It will be thick. You might want to press out any larger lumps. Fry on both sides until golden brown and a bit crispy. This takes just a couple of minutes.
7. Serve with fruit and syrup or agave.