Buttermilk Pancakes and Cranberry Orange Scones

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 3; Recipe 4

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 3; Recipe 5

Another title to this post could be "two ways to use up your whole wheat pastry flour."  About a year and a half ago I bought whole wheat pastry flour for a recipe and of course, ended up with a lot left over.  And as it would happen I got to use it twice today.  First, with buttermilk pancakes.  The pancakes called for half the dry mixture to be whole wheat pastry flour while the other half of the dry mixture called for basically any other flour you want to use.  I chose two thirds cornmeal and one third rye flour.  Turns out this was a good combination.  The pancakes had much more flavor than any other pancake I have made.  They were light, a little chewy, a little grainy, a reminiscent of autumn with our toppings of a (naturally) spicy maple syrup from Vermont and apple butter from Michigan.  Beside the flour mix, another unique feature of this recipe was whipping the egg whites to soft peaks and folding into the batter.  This, of course, helped with the light texture.  My only problem with this recipe was that the pancakes did not hold their shape well while flipping, but it's a minor complaint that might be resolved if i were using a griddle.

As for the scones, they were not part of dinner.  I made them later at night so i could bring one or two to work with me tomorrow for lunch.  But, naturally, when they were out of the oven and cooled enough, Paul and I were eager to try them.  We split one.  The cranberry and orange (zest) went quite well together, and the sugar on top helps give the scones a nice texture.  This was my first attempt at making scones and it couldn't have been easier.  Success.