Sour cream pancakes

After making the mini chocolate-hazelnut cheesecakes, I had a bit of sour cream leftover.  I try not to waste if I can avoid it so I used some as a topping for chicken quesadillas one night for dinner. The rest, I decided to use for pancakes!

I don't know about you but if I see a recipe from someone named "Edna Mae", I automatically assume it's going to be good and worth a try.  And these are, specifically, Edna Mae's sour cream pancakes, brought to us by The Pioneer Woman - Edna Mae being her husband's grandma.

The title says it all.  These are all about the sour cream, which replaces the typical milk and melted butter.  Besides plenty of sour cream, the pancakes are bonded together with just the slightest amount of flour (just 7 tablespoons with a cup of sour cream!), eggs, and a few other ingredients - some sugar, baking soda, salt, and a touch of vanilla extract.  

It's truly amazing how rich, "heavy" ingredients can make for the lightest result (think: whipped cream).  That's the case with these pancakes.  These sour cream pancakes are soft, really light and fluffy in texture.  You'd never think they were so decadent, which could be rather dangerous! Without much flour, you can clearly taste the flavor of the eggs, which I personally like.  It has a nostalgic flavor to it somehow.

My fellas helped me polish off our batch of these sour cream pancakes in a jiffy last weekend. Without a waffle maker, making pancakes has become my "thing" and since my little guy loves them, I'm happy to whip a batch up (very often!) so I'm always ready to try a new version.  I have to say that these deceptively light pancakes are probably a teeny bit too indulgent for every Sunday morning but they're a great treat when you have some extra sour cream around to use for a good cause.  

Recipe:  

Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes
From The Pioneer Woman

- Makes approximately ten 4-inch pancakes -

1 cup sour cream
7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-2 tablespoons sugar (depending on how sweet you want the pancakes, what toppings you plan to use on them)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Lightly whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl.  

Stir the sour cream together with the dry ingredients until just combined (don't overmix).  Whisk in the egg mixture until just incorporated.

Heat a griddle over medium-low heat and melt some butter (or use cooking spray like I do) over it. Ladle roughly 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the hot griddle and cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, or until bubbles begin to form and the sides of the pancake begin to set and brown.  Flip and cook the other side for another minute or so.  These pancakes are more on the soft side.

Serve warm with maple syrup, butter, or whatever you like!