Lala's Legacy: Buttermilk Waffles

Our family has a recipe for buttermilk pancakes that has been handed down through the generations.  It's tried and true, old-fashioned (although it never goes out of style), and are hands-down the best pancakes ever.  Growing up, I would never order pancakes when we went out for breakfast.  At friends homes, the pancakes their parents made paled in comparison with what my Grandma Lala, and later my Dad could make.

When my husband and I were dating, I took him home with me to the suburbs of Chicago to meet my family.  We were students at the University of Iowa.  Since this was a few hours drive from our campus life, we stayed overnight.  In the morning my Dad, true to form, made his World Famous Pancakes.  I knew this guy (his name is Andy, but this post isn't about him, it's about the recipe) liked me, but I think those pancakes sealed the deal.

Yes, I promise to one day share the World (as in Southcombe, Bundy, Lipschutz, and/or Lynch kitchen) Famous Pancakes recipe.  In the meantime, I found another use for buttermilk in the box of Lala's Recipes.

The paper is crumbling and yellowed, the pencil has faded.  If you take a closer look at the photo on the left, this is the recipe.  Many of the measurements of the ingredients have crumbled away, lost to time.  And unlike other paper-clipped recipes, the paper attached to this one is useless to me.  I've made waffles countless times, but wanted to be sure I got the measurements right.  Given the ingredients and knowing a handful of existing measurements, I reached out to the googledom.

Not all recipes are created equal, but some cooks/bakers can always be counted on.  When the first recipe to come up was that of Martha Stewart, I gave it a look, it had all the same ingredients and the measurements/ratios lined up.  I'm willing to wing some recipes, especially when it comes to cooking.  Baking requires precision and I was thankful for the assistance.

Our waffle iron was a wedding gift from my Cousin's Husband's Mother.  She's family!  It produces thin waffles that pull apart in to five hearts.  You can buy the same one from Amazon and other retailers.

This recipe makes about a dozen waffles (13 in my waffle iron but irons vary).  For my family of four there are enough waffles for two meals.  I like to freeze leftover waffles so the kids have a quick and easy weekday breakfast that is wholesome and homemade.  If you freeze them without putting a piece of freezer paper or parchment paper between each waffle, you'll have a blob of waffles that is likely to never come apart. It is also possible to individually freeze the waffles on a baking sheet (again, lined with parchment or freezer paper) and then bag them together, but I prefer the first method.  Of course, this is assuming you have any waffles left to freeze.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I have.  Remember to leave a comment or photo below to let me know what you think.  And if you haven't yet, be sure to follow Caught Red Threaded on Facebook and Instagram.  Happy baking!