sisterfood

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone is having a lovely day, preferably outside, to celebrate the summer. I’m off to a slow start this morning as a direct result of Aris and I going to happy hour last night–too many PBR’s and another bar later, we wound up having nachos and chocolate pudding at midnight and watching “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (which Aris had never seen!). We were celebrating being close to wrapping up a project we’ve been working on for awhile that launches in one week.

To cure our mild hangovers and get one of my favorite holidays off to a good start, I decided pancakes were in order. But not just any pancakes, special 4th of July extra delicious pancakes: Roly Poly Pancakes with Cherries and Berries.

I don’t really like most pancakes in restaurants, they’re too think and oddly textured. When going out to breakfast, I am a savory girl–eggs, potatoes, and toast–almost every time, very rarely sweet.

I’m not sure when it started with me and Aris and the pancakes. One day we decided that we loved them more than we knew and started eating them almost every weekend. We made pancakes of every variety–old fashioned oatmeal pancakes, classic white flour, silver dollar, whole wheat, crepes, buckwheat, cornmeal, pecan or other nuts, cinnamon apple, yogurt raspberry, with fruit inside or on top, with sauces and assorted syrups, and my personal all time favorite German Apple Pancake. Over time, our pancakes consumption has tapered off and these were the first pancakes I’ve made in recent memory.

I’m not sure where the name Roly Poly came from, but these are a family favorite that I remember from childhood.  I didn’t have all of the necessary ingredients, so I adapted my mom’s recipe to my pantry’s current contents. I had been wanting blueberry pancakes, but I couldn’t find any around the house. Luckily I had a brand new bag of Trader Joe’s Frozen Cherry Berry Fruit Mix. Though the whole cherries are almost a little large for pancake batter, they are so delicious it’s worth the extra time you need to cook the pancakes to make sure all of the batter around the cherries cooks through. It’s important to have a lot of patience with these and wait until the tops are covered with little pockets before you flip them.

I like to cook my pancakes in butter and then eat them with a drizzle of real maple syrup.

Cherry Berry Roly Poly Pancakes
Adapted from Margy’s recipe

1 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
3 TBSP wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/2 cup fresh or frozen fruit such as whole dark sweet cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add egg, milk, and oil.  Mix until smooth and creamy.
Add fruit and stir gently.

Enjoy with maple syrup on a lazy morning.