Easy Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

Lemon + blueberry.  A match made in taste bud heaven.  Well, I may be biased since I am obsessed with anything lemon anyway, but that's a topic for another post. :)

I love cooking breakfast and brunch for Cory and the kids, especially on a rainy weekend morning.  I originally made these amazingly perfect Lemon Blueberry Pancakes via The Pioneer Woman for Father's Day breakfast and although they were insanely delicious, from-scratch pancakes are just a bit too involved for me to make every weekend.

I came up with this easy recipe, using good'ole complete pancake mix and they are just as delicious!

Ingredients:

A batch of pancake batter, using your favorite complete pancake mix, measured for the number of pancakes you wish to make

1 pint of fresh blueberries

The zest and juice of 1 lemon {or 2, depending on how many pancakes you are making}

Butter*

Vanilla*

Heavy Whipping Cream*

{*the amount of this will vary, depending on how many pancakes you are making}

Before you start, heat your griddle, skillet or whatever you use to make your pancakes to MEDIUM. 

{The line-up}

{Make your pancake batter according to the directions on the box. NOTE: you will want to skimp a bit on the water needed for these, making them thicker than normal as you will be adding lemon juice and you don't want to end up with thin/runny batter.}

{Zest your lemon completely, using the fine mesh on you grater.}

{Be sure and only grate the yellow skin and not the bitter white pith.}

 

{Completely zested. Smells so good!}

 

{After grating, cut and juice the lemon over the bowl with the batter.  Fish out and discard any seeds that may fall in. Although I have a fancy lemon juicer, a fork always does the trick just fine.}

{Mix in your zest. The acid from the lemon juice mixed with the baking soda/powder in the pancake mix will make this bubble a bit, don't be alarmed, lol!}

 

{Stir in the vanilla extract.  1-2 teaspoons should be plenty.}

{Next, FOLD in your blueberries.  Careful not to over mix your batter.  Over mixing leads to tough pancakes and you want these to be nice and fluffy.  Save a few for garnish.  Unless of course, you have an 8 year old who LOVES blueberries and eats the leftovers before you can tell her that you need them. ;)}

 

{Take a stick of butter and grease your griddle or skillet, move fast so that the butter doesn't burn.}

 

{Start pouring your batter.  I like to use a bowl with a spout, which is why my large measuring cup works perfectly.}

{When they start to have bubbles on the surface and the edges are getting firm, it's time to flip.  Double check by peeking under before you flip though, you want them to be a gorgeous golden brown color. :)}

{Right after flipping, pat some butter on top of each one. It will melt down the sides of the pancakes and onto the griddle. YUM!}

{Stack them on an oven-safe plate and keep them warm in the oven as you go.}

{For an extra special touch, warm your favorite syrup before drizzling onto the pancakes.}

 

{We also like to top our pancakes with fresh {unsweetened} whipped cream. Just pour some COLD whipping cream into a large {preferrably metal} bowl and mix until fluffy!  It goes so well with the pancakes.  You almost don't need any milk to wash them down.  Almost.}

 

These are so fluffy and are the perfect texture.  I love how the edges get just a tad crispy.  The key: not making the batter too thin.  Remember: a slightly thicker batter leads to fluffier pancakes.

ENJOY! :)