As most of New England is aware, today was a snow day.  The weathermen were finally doing their job and predicted a Nor’easter that has dumped a few feet of snow on our part of the world.  School was cancelled before I even left the office yesterday, and in anticipation of a cozy day at home I planned to start our morning off with pancakes.

I grew up in a family of teachers.  On those cold snowy mornings, our phone would ring around 5:30 am.  The first phone call would be the Gilbert School calling for my Dad and then the next ring would be the Botelle phone tree for my mom.  I remember hearing it and in a sleepy haze I would happily realize that I did not have to get out of bed and there was a day of freedom ahead of me.  My excitement built yesterday evening as I braved the market and picked up a few things to make it through the storm.  I rushed home to speed clean the apartment so I wouldn’t have to do it today!!

Bryan and I woke up to a winter wonderland!  Bryan got the coffee going and I opened my cookbooks to find a yummy pancake recipe.  CONFESSION… I actually made two kinds of pancakes this morning.  The first was Sweet Potato Pancakes and they were a BOMB!!! Don’t really know what happened, not the right proportion of ingredients caused them to stay pretty much raw in the middle.  After pouting on the couch for 20 minutes I gathered myself and headed back into the kitchen.  I mean, what else did I have to do today?! I chose to work with the Four Grain Flapjack recipe in the Joy of Cooking. A few tweaks here and there and I think they turned out lovely.  I added some ginger and orange zest, along with a little bit of molasses that I think created a few layers of flavor not found in your regular Bisquick 🙂

Eating fruit with pancakes makes me feel less guilty about the carbs and syrup, so I made some easy orange maple compote.  I segmented 3 oranges and added about 3 tablespoons of maple syrup to them and let them sit and marinate for a little while.  The oranges worked well with the ginger and the orange zest I added to the pancake batter.   We gobbled them up with our second cup of coffee.  The benefits of multi grain were the perfect fuel for Bryan as he headed out to do battle with the snow banks.

Snow Day Multi Grain Pancakes

Dry Ingredients

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Wet Ingredients

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. molasses (black strap is OK)
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
zest of 1/2 an orange

Whisk together dry ingredients. Set aside.

Whisk together wet ingredients.  Whisk in dry ingredients and mix till just combined.

Heat non stick skillet over medium heat, add a little butter to the pan and when melted spoon batter into pan.  About 1/4 cup per pancake.

Flip once bubbles start to form along the sides of the cakes.  You can keep them warm in a 200 degree oven till they are all cooked.  Serve with orange maple compote, extra butter and syrup!!!

Notes…

To segment an orange cut each end off so that you see the flesh, and you have a flat side to set your orange.  Then using a small, sharp pairing knife cut the rind away from the flesh in smooth curved cuts.

Then cupping the clean fruit in your hand and over a bowl, make cuts into the fruit along each segment.  Kind of a Y cut so that the wedges slide out clean.