Happy Easter Brunch

There are lots of changes coming in my house. My daughter, Abigail, is graduating from high school in June and will off first to Amsterdam and then to New York City in the fall. The next few months will probably have lots of Abigail-centric recipes. Case no. 1: today's brunch menu. Her favorite kind of pancakes are the Buttermilk-Lemon Souffle Cakes from Bradley Ogden's Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner. Still available on Amazon, new or used.
I also served mini chicken apple sausages and fresh CA strawberries. The CA strawberries are getting very good and need nothing. Abigail doesn't eat red meat and is just beginning to eat some chicken after going vegetarian for a few years. The little sausages won her approval.
Case no.2: tonight's goat cheese salad but more about that later. Now the pancake recipe my way.

Buttermilk Lemon Souffle Pancakes

1 cup unbleached flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons sugar
kosher salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 eggs, separated (keep egg whites cold)
4 tablespoons lemon juice
grated zest of 3 lemons
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons butter, melted
powdered sugar for garnish

Preheat your oven to warm or about 200 degrees. You can use it to hold the pancakes as they are being cooked or you can dole then out as they are done.

Prepare your pan or griddle. I use a large flat griddle that straddles 2 of my gas burners. I spray it with vegetable spray and turn the burners on low to slowly heat it up as I prepare the pancakes.

Optional: I chill the beaters. I find having cold eggs and chilled beaters makes sure that the egg whites beat up nice and fluffy.

Melt butter in small pan. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In another bowl mix together buttermilk, 2 egg yolks, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla extract. Add melted butter and combine until well blended.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add wet mixture. Whisk until ingredients are just moistened. Do not overmix.
In a small clean bowl beat the 4 egg whites until soft white peaks form. With a spatula gently fold in about 1/4 of the egg whites into the other ingredients and repeat with the remaining egg whites. Do not overmix. A few traces of the egg white will be visible.
Turn up the heat under the griddle to medium. Put about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the pancake batter on the hot griddle. Repeat. Cook until bubbles start to pop on top and the bottom is browning lightly. Flip over and cook until other side is golden. Sometimes you will need to add more vegetable spray depending on how well seasoned your pan is.

Serve immediately the pancakes or they can be kept warm briefly in the oven. Garnish with sifted powdered sugar. Mike likes his with maple syrup but Abigail and I don't understand why. These are so light, delicious and refreshing they don't really need anything. Thank you Bradley.

The pancakes are wonderful with fresh fruit and turkey bacon or chicken apple sausages. You can use the leftover egg yolks to make frittata or scrambled eggs.

Enjoy!