Mmmmmm, pancakes.

Years ago during a short stint in Seattle, my husband and I would wake up every Sunday morning and wander the few blocks down Capitol Hill streets to an amazing soul food restaurant where the most lip-smacking delicious buttermilk pancakes in the history of pancakes lived.

Just the thought takes me back to childhood, warm, comfort-food breakfasts and, of course, those early years with the great guy who I always knew would become my permanent partner in life.

After both of us ditched the wheat, pancakes have been all but distant memory – tasty ones anyway. We tried soy and rice with the most unkind of results. Then, much like so much that has to do with our wheat-less ways, spelt saved us from a life without pancakes.

Christa is here today with her recipe for that tasty spelt treat.

You’ll have to excuse me…I have breakfast to make.

I am a really big fan of breakfast. In these colder months, my husband and I rise on weekends positively yearning for a nice, greasy restaurant breakfast, accompanied by lingering refills of comforting, delicious coffee.

One other breakfast tradition- a healthier, more economical one- I’m hoping to bring back this month in our home is the weekend open-invitation breakfast feast.

Years ago my best friend and her roommate would host such a feast every few weekends in their tiny apartment. Emails would circulate inviting masses of pals to come with a contribution to the meal, and find a tiny piece of carpet space to sit and enjoy the grub and conversation for a couple of hours before getting on with their day.

The weekly breakfast was a fantastic way to catch up with friends, while meeting new people & connecting with the community. It makes sense to me that these types of traditions deserve a revival with a family spin on it- a way for parents to connect with other parents, for kids to connect with other kids, all with the bonus of being easy on the wallet.

Over the weekend, the very friend who hosted weekly breakfasts way back when was up visiting from Victoria. These days, she’s on the wheat-sensitive side, so I decided to experiment with a standard pancake recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, substituting spelt flour for wheat flour, with fantastic results.

This recipe will likely be the backbone of our open invitation breakfasts, as it is so easily adapted to avoid most allergenic ingredients. Any kind of milk can be used. An egg substitute such as _ a large banana, mashed, can be used (pancakes don’t rely on egg for their lift, so it may not be crucial to use any substitute at all).

Apart from the substitution of spelt for wheat, I added my favourite trio of additional pancake ingredients to maximize the yum factor: Cinnamon, vanilla, and fruit (in this case I used one chopped banana and a couple of handfuls of summer boysenberries from the freezer).

This recipe should respond well to experimentation and tweaking of ingredients, so get inventive and let CVK know what delectable pancake creations you come up with!

Spelt Pancakes
Makes 12

1 cup plus approximately 2-3 Tbsp light, stone ground spelt flour (the coarse stuff doesn’t work. Got to be the light stuff)
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp vanilla
Chopped fruit to taste

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside. Combine the egg, buttermilk and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Add additional milk to thin batter if necessary.

2. For standard-size pancakes, pour or spread about _ cup batter into a 3-inch circle on a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are golden brown, turning to second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Serve warm.