I recently posted a recipe for Gingerbread Pancakes with Buttered Apples ^[1] (yum!), and as usual, the Southern husband was standing by in the kitchen as I worked on the recipe.  Also as usual, I was changing this and that and muttering under my breath about things that didn’t go exactly right the first time.  And one of the things that didn’t go exactly right was the griddle I used.  I have a gas stove and one of those griddles that sits on the burners, and it never heats evenly. Meaning that my pancakes took a while to cook right as I tried to figure out the best place on the griddle for each of them, heat-wise.

And so during the course of those pancakes, I may have said some not nice things about my griddle.  Which is why I came home one day recently to find a shiny new electric griddle sitting on my kitchen counter, and a Southern husband with a big old smile on his face.  He definitely knows the way to my heart, because I promptly fell in love with that griddle (and even more with him!), and decided the proper thanks would be another batch of pancakes…this time with no muttering.  And so these fluffy buttermilk cornmeal pancakes came to be!

Now, as a big fan of “breakfast for dinner,” I am totally fine with making regular pancakes for supper.  But these pancakes have a little bit of a corn flavor that makes them a little bit savory, and maybe even more perfect for the supper table.  The combination of buttermilk and cornmeal and both baking soda and baking powder creates both heartiness and fluffiness…and if you want to go ahead and drizzle maple syrup on top you should!  That’s what the Southern husband did, and he was one happy camper.  I just spread some soft salted butter on mine – no syrup – and I was in suppertime pancake heaven.

Now, these will come out fine on an nonstick skillet if you (like me until very recently) don’t have an electric griddle.  But for now I’m just going to go and gaze lovingly at my griddle.  And my Southern husband.