Growing up in Japan, whenever my mom made pancakes, she always used the popular Morinaga brand Hotcake Mix. Oh yes, we call pancakes “hotcakes” (ホットケーキ) in Japan. I love this brand of pancake mix so much that I was still buying it from Japanese supermarkets even after I moved to the US. But I’ve been curious to try making my own Buttermilk Pancakes at home as I always love eating them for breakfast or brunch at American restaurants. Since I don’t bake much, buttermilk is one of the rare ingredients in my kitchen and I can’t think of any of my recipes that need buttermilk off the top of my head. So whenever I woke up in the morning and felt like eating buttermilk pancakes, I had no buttermilk in the fridge. I slowly forgot about my intention to try making pancakes from scratch. One day when I saw my friend Suzanne’s Buttermilk Pancakes on her blog You Made That?, I finally decided it’s time to make them and bought buttermilk before the weekend. I followed most of her recipe, but I omitted flax meal as that’s another ingredient that I don’t use, and added almond extract because this is a “secret” ingredient for our homemade waffles and I wanted to add that for pancakes too. I have to tell you – I’m so glad I made these pancakes. My family was really happy with these delicious buttermilk pancakes and we pour homemade Strawberry Sauce on top. The texture of pancakes are really fluffy and soft, and you can taste the wonderful buttery flavor with each bite. To tell you how excited I am about this recipe, you will see buttermilk in my fridge before the weekend now so that I can make these pancakes. Suzanne calls it “Better than IHOP” and let me say it’s WAY better than IHOP and we no longer buy pancake mix from stores! You might think this is just too much work, why should you make pancakes from scratch when there are so many brands of pancake mix available. My family tried many different pancake mix including Stonewall Kitchen Farmhouse but nothing comes close to the taste of homemade buttermilk pancakes. So if you are curious how good the pancake is, don’t forget to buy buttermilk before the weekend! Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
