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Hotcakes at 9000 Feet

© Steven C. Karoly

A few weeks ago, I cooked hotcakes and bacon over a campfire in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. During the four-day backpacking trip, the two hotcake breakfasts tasted much better than freeze-dried scrambled eggs and homemade granola cereal. These golden brown wheat cakes brought back fond memories of childhood camping vacations and weekend backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada.

Hotcakes became a weekend event at in the Karoly house early in my parent's life together. Although Mom was the principle cook in the family, Saturday mornings served as a time for us five siblings to help Dad measure flour and milk into a bowl and to crack a couple eggs. While he mixed the batter, Dad said, "Limps do not effect the flavor." We heard his gentle reminder not to over mix the hotcake batter each Saturday.

One sibling made syrup from brown sugar and water, while others got the dishes out and set the table. With a glass of Donald Duck orange juice in front each of seven place settings, Dad grilled golden hotcakes on a aluminum griddle that's reportedly cast from the block of an old Ford V8. At mealtime, a platter of hotcakes and a plate of bacon strips or sausage patties sat ready to nourish the Karolys once more.

Whether it was Saturday morning breakfast or camping trips to places like Buck Meadow in the Sierra National Forest or the Cottonwood Lakes near Mt. Whitney, hotcakes have been a Karoly tradition since my father started making them for his growing family sometime in the 1950s. Since then, Dad has served hotcakes on every camping and backpacking trip. Hotcakes will forever bring back memories of the pressed steel backpacking griddle that Dad inherited from my grandfather and family breakfasts in California's great snowy range.

Buttermilk Hotcakes

Nothing hits the spot like hotcakes that are smothered with brown sugar syrup, especially if they're made from scratch. Scratch hotcakes are superior to many of the prepared mixes on the market today. This recipe is adapted from an early edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Except for the addition of buttermilk, this is the recipe I've known my whole life.

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup dry buttermilk blend (see note)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted bacon grease

At home. Stir together flour, sugar, dry buttermilk blend, baking powder, soda and salt. Place hotcake mix into a suitable container. Pack the egg and oil.

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