Once in a Blue Moon Blue Cornmeal Blueberry Pancakes #recipe with Cinnamon Butter

Capital Reef National Park

LUCY BURDETTE: Earlier this summer, my husband and I attended a family wedding outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. We decided we should take a few extra days to cruise through Utah and see a couple of the wonderful national parks in that state.  I, of course, was in charge of where to eat. 

Bryce Canyon

Here are a couple of pictures of the amazing scenery that we saw the first is a photo of Capital Reef National Park, while the second is Bryce Canyon. 

Hell's Backbone Grill

In between our two days of driving and gawking, we stopped for a night in Boulder, Utah, to eat at the legendary Hell's Backbone Grill. I made reservations months in advance for dinner. They serve exactly the kind of food I like, delicious but not fussy. I ordered a spicy meatloaf and John had a chicken quesadilla casserole that was hot, cheesy, and addictive. 

Of course we had to have breakfast there the next morning. I chose blue cornmeal pancakes, which they served with cinnamon butter and syrup.  The pancakes were sprinkled with little purple flowers.

As you can see, the recipe has lingered in the back of my mind until I finally had to make it for you. Oh, and we ordered a box lunch to take with us the next day too. Three meals in less than 20 hours – that's a great restaurant.


 




Ingredients: 

1 1/3 cups blue cornmeal
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or milk with 1 Tbsp vinegar added)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
4 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for greasing griddle
2 cups blueberries 

For the cinnamon butter, this is more than enough for 2 people, increase as needed: 2 tablespoons softened butter, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp sugar. Mix well.

 




Stir together blue cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and 4 tablespoons melted butter. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until mostly combined. 



Heat the pan or griddle and melt some butter to cover. Add the wet batter to the pan and drop blueberries into each pancake. Cook over medium heat until bubbles pop, then flip the pancakes over and cook the other side, 1 to 2 minutes. 




 
Keep the finished pancakes in a warm (200) oven until all the batter is cooked. Serve with a small scoop of cinnamon butter plus real maple syrup.

 

Cook's note: Bob's Red Mill blue cornmeal was the only brand of blue cornmeal I found, and it was quite coarse. If you prefer pancakes that aren't quite as grainy, I would increase the amount of flour to 1 cup, and decrease the cornmeal to 1 cup.

 PS, they freeze well if you have too many. Then pop them in the microwave or the toaster as you need them!





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