By Genevieve Ko, The New York Times
Is oatmeal sustenance to trudge through on your own each morning, or a generous meal to offer friends? Galway Kinnell, a winner of both a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, took his position in his poem “Oatmeal”:
“I am aware it is not good to eat oatmeal alone.
“Its consistency is such that it is better for your mental health if somebody eats it with you.
“That is why I often think up an imaginary companion to have breakfast with.”
Kinnell’s ensuing lines about his meal with the long-dead poet John Keats make a compelling case for conversations with ghosts. Not so much for porridge.
While he was wrong about oatmeal — “gluey lumpishness, hint of slime” — he was right about inviting others to partake. Perhaps he would have found the pleasure, not misery, of sharing oats with these pancakes, which have all the warmth of oatmeal and are better for serving company.
Humble as they are, oats can work miracles in dishes, lending their natural sweetness and a scent like warm, clean hay. Aside from softening into creamy hot oatmeal and chilled overnight oats, they crisp into granola or crunchy crumble toppings, add a bumpy chew to cookies and make muffins hearty. And they can cross the breakfast-dessert bridge with this dish, which is startling in the best way: It tastes like cozy, steaming porridge, but looks and feels like delightful buttermilk pancakes.
Tiny quick oats soaked in buttermilk, along with flax and honey, give these pancakes a unique tenderness. Biting into a round, crackly with butter and caramelized from honey on the outside, reveals the pleasant, familiar creaminess of oatmeal in the center. Flax meal softens alongside the oats, amplifying their nutty flavor and binding the batter, eliminating the need for eggs, which are expensive and hard to find right now. (A test of this recipe with eggs worked, but the pancakes were stiffer and sort of boring.)
Quick-cooking and instant oats are the ideal varieties for these pancakes because they’re small and flat, having been finely chopped as groats, then steamed and rolled thin into flakes before packaging. All types of oats readily absorb liquid. Snowy instant flecks soften the most, while gravelly steel-cut oats keep their bite. The flat teardrops of old-fashioned, or rolled, oats fall in between.
“Instant oats are going to be thinner than quick-cooking,” said Sarena Shasteen, a culinary content specialist at Bob’s Red Mill. “Both are precooked to shorten the cooking time.” For straight oatmeal, instant oats need only to be covered with hot water to “cook.” Shasteen encourages their use as an ingredient for a “slight bit of chewy texture” to contrast uniform softness.
That’s exactly what they do in these pancakes. Even after sizzling for just a few minutes on each side, the oat-filled disks end up hot and rich. The length of the oats’ initial buttermilk bath determines the pancakes’ ultimate texture: The minimum 10 minutes yield fluffier pancakes, while the full hour turns out pudding-soft centers.
They may not be as enthralling as an imaginary chat with Keats, but they come pretty close.
Recipe: Honey Oat Pancakes
This breakfast startles in the best way: It tastes like cozy, steaming porridge, but looks and feels like delightful buttermilk pancakes. Tiny quick oats soaked in buttermilk, along with flax and honey, lend a unique tenderness. Biting into a round, crackly with butter and caramelized from honey on the outside, reveals the pleasant, familiar creaminess of oatmeal in the center. Flax meal softens alongside the oats, amplifying their nutty flavor and binding the batter, eliminating the need for eggs. The pancakes are flavorful enough to enjoy on their own, but also taste great with toppings like fresh berries.
By Genevieve Ko
Yield: 10 to 12 pancakes
Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups/395 grams buttermilk
- 2/3 cup/75 grams quick-cooking or plain instant oats (see Tip)
- 2 tablespoons ground flax (see Tip)
- 2 tablespoons honey, plus more for serving if desired
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 tablespoons canola or other flavorless oil
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup/95 grams all-purpose flour
- Salted butter, for cooking and serving
Preparation
1. Mix the buttermilk, oats, flax, honey and salt in a large bowl. Let sit for at least 10 minutes and up to an hour. The longer the mixture sits, the creamier and more tender the pancakes. This is a good time to make coffee, eggs, bacon or to get ready for the day.
2. Heat a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-low until hot.
3. While the skillet heats, stir the oil into the wet ingredients until fully incorporated, then stir in the baking soda until dissolved. Add the flour and stir very gently until no traces of it remain.
4. Swipe a large pat of butter over the hot pan to coat it generously. (Sizzling the batter in lots of butter gives the pancakes a rich flavor.) Scoop in generous 1/4 cups of batter, spacing them 2 to 3 inches apart. Cook until the bottoms are deeply browned and the tops bubble, 2 to 3 minutes, then carefully flip the rounds and cook until browned outside and cooked through inside, about 2 minutes. Repeat with the remaining batter, buttering the pan between each batch.
5. Serve hot, with honey and more butter if you’d like.
Tips
Quick-cooking oats are slightly flatter and cut smaller than old-fashioned oats, and instant oats are even smaller and thinner. If you have only old-fashioned (rolled) oats, pulse them into tiny bits to replicate the lighter texture that quick-cooking oats deliver.
Ground flax, also known as flax meal, binds this batter together and accentuates the nutty taste of oats. You can substitute 2 large eggs for the flax, beating them well and adding to the soaked oats along with the oil in Step 3. The pancakes will taste more like classic buttermilk ones.
Recipe: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
Nubby with oats, these tender brown sugar muffins have a hint of cardamom that brings out the richness of chocolate chips. Tiny quick-cooking oats offer a delicate chew in batter that comes together fast enough for weekday mornings. Right out of the oven, they’re crisp around the edges and fluffy. Over time, they become stickier and feel even more wholesome.
By Genevieve Ko
Yield: 1 dozen
Total time: 35 minutes, plus cooling
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups/120 grams quick-cooking or plain instant oats (see Tip)
- 1 cup/133 grams all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup/160 grams packed dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 1/4 cups/300 grams whole milk
- 4 tablespoons/57 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2/3 cup/128 grams chocolate chips
Preparation
1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Whisk the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cardamom in a large bowl. Whisk the milk, butter and eggs in a medium bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently until no traces of flour remain. Gently stir in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
3. Use the 1/3-cup measuring cup to scoop the batter into the muffin cups. They’ll be nearly full.
4. Bake until browned around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes.
5. Cool in the muffin tin until room temperature. You can eat the muffins warm, but they’ll be a bit gummy before they cool. Muffins will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days and can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before reheating in a toaster oven.
Tip
Quick-cooking oats are slightly flatter and cut smaller than old-fashioned oats, and instant oats are even smaller and thinner. If you have only old-fashioned (rolled) oats, pulse them into tiny bits to replicate the lighter texture that quick-cooking oats deliver.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.