Orange Blueberry Pancakes

Lazy weekends just might be the best thing ever. Yes, it's a great opportunity to do things and explore the city or hang out with friends. But the week is busy with work obligations and social obligations of their own so having a weekend full of no plans is spectacular. 

And what makes a lazy weekend better than brunch?!  Growing up, my dad always made Belgian waffles on Sunday, complete with bacon, strawberries and cool whip. This weekend though, I had a surplus of blueberries (embrace the fresh fruit or at least pretend the grocery store produce is fresh) so I turned to Joy the Baker's cookbook for inspiration. This recipe calls for orange juice,orange zest and almond extract (as the more obscure ingredients). At first I thought I'd have to improvise and just leave out basically everything exciting except the blueberries. But by some culinary miracle, I had orange juice and oranges in my fridge! No luck on the almond extract though so I just used vanilla (can you do that? Is that the same thing kinda?). 

Yummy zest

The orange zest added a really nice tangy flavor (to my kitchen and the pancakes) which was a pleasant surprise. I feel like usually you can't taste the zest in most things, it's just one of those secret baking things that just works. This is not one of those things, totally embrace the orange.

Ready to flip...

Well, about double the amount of recommended blueberries later and I had gloriously golden pancakes. Sadly they were very gooey in the middle. Some raw center is good but the issue was more that the griddle was too hot so the outside cooked beautifully but the centers didn't cook. So, less heat, more time. Also this recipe seems healthy and not because it has blueberries but because it doesn't have oil or much sugar. It does have buttermilk though... Eh, I deem the healthy-ish. Good enough for me!

Perfect 10!

So the lesson is to enjoy your weekend, take the time to sleep in until brunch o'clock. And then make up some waffles or pancakes or cinnamon rolls or just plain old cinnamon toast crunch. Just enjoy some breakfast food, people.

Breakfast is served

Also, I had someone talk to me about trying something off of my blog! And even though it didn't work out exactly the same way and she improvised, it worked out! And that's the other lesson. Recipes don't always work perfectly but more often than not, you still get a good dish. It's about the journey. And yes, I said 'recipes' but you coooould substitute that for 'life'. Okay, I'm done being all sage and "Eat, Pray, Love" on ya'll. Eat more pancakes!

Recipe (courtesy of Joy the Baker)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 T. granulated sugar
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 t. orange zest
• Scant 1/4 t. almond extract
• 1/2-3/4 cup blueberries

Mix together the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry and add the blueberries. Mix and pour onto the griddle, whatever size you'd like.  Flip them over once they're golden brown and enjoy. And for an added bonus, the real recipe in the Joy the Baker cookbook comes with a maple glaze!