Cardamom Pancakes

I have been excited to share this recipe for quite some time, actually.  Maybe not quite as excited as my other news, but excited nonetheless.

It all started with a very cold Friday afternoon at the farmer's market.  Lately, it seems that every time I go, there are new stalls with new products that I haven't seen before -- and this time was no exception.  I noticed, between the apple and bread stands that dominate the farmer's market during winter, there were two men selling large glass bottles of fresh milk.

Hopeful, I approached them and asked if it was raw milk they were selling.  No luck.  Undeterred, I bought a container to test, figuring that it was probably still a million times better than anything in the grocery store.

And boy was I right.  I used this milk in place of cream for my salted butter caramel ice cream, with no loss of texture or richness.  This milk is so flavorful and delicious, it's almost tragic to waste it on cereal and coffee.  So, when I got down to the end of the bottle, I decided to infuse it with cardamom and make pancakes.

These pancakes were just awesome.  I am out of maple syrup temporarily, so I drizzled them with honey and a little bit of butter, and munched away happily.  These would be great to spice up your breakfast, and if you can find farmer's market milk, I think they are unbeatable.

Cardamom Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/3 cups whole milk

20 cardamom pods, crushed, with seeds exposed

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 generous tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small saucepan, combine milk and cardamom pods. Heat to a scald and remove from stove, set aside to cool. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours, or overnight.

2. When milk is fully infused, strain into a large bowl, removing cardamom seeds and pods.

3. Add flour, salt, sugar, egg, butter and baking powder to the milk. Beat until smooth.

4. Heat a frying pan or skillet on the stovetop. Spray with cooking spray or grease with a little extra butter. Ladle out 1/4 cup of pancake batter at a time, and cook about 1 min on each side, flipping each pancake midway through. Repeat about eight times, until batter is gone.

5. Serve with maple syrup, honey or extra butter. Enjoy!

Makes about 8 large pancakes.