Alex Gallegos’ lemon poppyseed pancakes is a bright and zesty breakfast dish on Sunday, July 21, 2024 in North Liberty, Iowa. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette) — Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes is a bright and zesty breakfast dish. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

I love lemon poppy seed. As a flavor, as a combination of ingredients, as an idea. So one rainy weekend, I decided I was going to make lemon poppy seed pancakes.

I had buttermilk on hand that I had to use up anyway, and buttermilk and pancakes are already a great combination. I knew I wanted as much lemon flavor as possible so I got as much lemon in as I could — the zest, the juice, and some of the pulp.

Recipe

Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes

Prep Time 10 minutes/Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings: 2 stacks or 4 short stacks

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups buttermilk

2 large eggs lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 lemon zested and juiced

4 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup poppy seeds

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds.

In a second bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

Slowly drizzle melted butter into wet ingredients while whisking until well-combined. Don’t combine wet and dry ingredients until you are ready to cook the pancakes.

Preheat pan onto medium-low heat, or heat electric griddle to 325 degrees.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold until just combined. Avoid overmixing. Acid in the lemon juice and buttermilk will react with the baking powder and baking soda to create a light, fluffy batter, which is why we want to do this as close to cooking time as possible.

Lightly brush pan or griddle with neutral oil (I have always preferred corn oil for pancakes) and place on burner on medium-low heat.

Allow pancake to cook until edges begin to appear cooked. Some pancake recipes say to watch for bubbles to pop, I found this batter thick enough that it didn’t release a lot of bubbles. But when you see a ring of lightly-cooked cake form around the outer edge of the pancake, it’s a good time to flip. Cook several more minutes until pancake is golden brown.

Add more oil between each batch and repeat until batter is gone. Top with butter and maple syrup. Serve.

Source: Alex Gallegos

Buttermilk is fairly acidic and lemon juice definitely is, so I recommend keeping your wet ingredients and your dry ingredients separated until your griddle is ready to go, your oil is warm, and you’re ready to cook them. If you wet your fingertips and splash a tiny drop of water on the oiled griddle and it sizzles and evaporates right away, you know everything is hot enough and ready to go — that’s exactly what we want water in the edge of the pancake to do when it hits the hot surface. The path to crispy golden edges is paved in big sizzling bubbles. Or something, the metaphor kind of broke down.

Speaking of bubbles, there’s another bubble we care about in this recipe. Any kid who’s ever done a baking soda and vinegar volcano knows that mixing an acid and a base together creates a reaction really quickly, resulting in a lot of bubbles. You want those bubbles to make a nice foam in the batter and you don’t want to give them time to deflate, so fold the wet and dry ingredients together gently and be ready to griddle right after that.

The result is a light, fluffy pancake with crunchy, golden brown edges, with a tangy buttermilk flavor, a hint of lemon, and a really nice texture from the poppy seeds. Plus there’s fiber in poppy seeds which allows us all to lie to ourselves that maybe these pancakes are good for us, actually, and definitely as good of a breakfast choice as some bran flakes.

Alex Gallegos is an enthusiastic home cook who enjoys trying new recipes and learning new techniques. Find this recipe and others like it at platefulsofflavors.com.