Sunday, June 03, 2012

Serviceberry Pancakes

I decided to take advantage of my neighbor's huge crop of serviceberries and use them in my breakfast this morning.  I started by picking about a pint of berries.  The ripest ones almost fall right off the stem.   
I rinsed them off and then prepared a buttermilk pancake batter.  I use the recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  The few substitutions I do are to use cake flour instead of the regular flour, I add a couple tablespoons of honey to the batter and I also add a generous tablespoon of vanilla.  
After pouring the batter into the skillet, I scatter berries over the top. 
I flip it and then let it cook through, until golden brown.  Today is spectacular outside so we ate under the pergola out back. 
These came out great.  The taste of serviceberry is hard to explain.  They are sweet and sort of a cross between a blueberry and a cherry though milder than both.  I would like to have the stamina to pick enough to make a jar of jam with them but the picking goes pretty slow.  We'll have to see how the rest of the week goes. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some clueless people down the street from us have a few serviceberry trees on their parkway. I know they're not using those berries, and they're looking nice and ripe. I think I need to take a walk with a container and sample some.

Chris said...

I think I would be all over those.

Carpe Diem said...

Thanks for the inspiration. I skipped honey because these serviceberries (or should I say "JUNEberries"?) are so SWEET! A neighbor on another street has a serviceberry tree overloaded with purple fruit. The branches hang over the sidewalk - that's where I helped myself to several cups full. I'm glad the birds haven't plucked the tree bare yet; however, there are so many berries that could take time. The berries are very filling (more fiber than blueberries), so despite them being so sweet, it's hard to eat a lot at one sitting. I froze the rest of my pickings to make serviceberry pancakes once June is over. Today I plan to go back for more because Juneberry season doesn't last forever!