Cranberry Orange Pancakes with Sauce

I think I had mentioned in an earlier post that I got my crafty on recently and made a homemade advent calendar. The item the kids picked yesterday said "Breakfast for Dinner" (a hit at our house). I could have made my regular homemade pancakes but I was feeling festive and wanted to change things up. So when I saw a recipe in my latest Simple & Delicious magazine that had a cranberry sauce for the pancakes I knew I had to give this one a go. Cranberries are a fav of mine and this recipe would be a good use for the numerous bags of fresh cranberries I have hoarded in my deep freeze.

.

As usual, I made changes to the original recipe to make it my own. The pancake recipe is a tried and true that I use often and the sauce is similar to the one found in the magazine except that I added some extra orange zest.

.

Karate Guy LOVED these pancakes ... even when I admitted that the red spots weren't raspberries but cranberries! He's been converted to the wonder that is the cran!! Yay! I think these would make a great Christmas morning breakfast! Enjoy!

.

Cranberry Orange Pancakes with Cranberry Sauce

Yield: 12 pancakes

1 1/2 cups milk

2 tbsp white vinegar

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 tbsp white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 tbsp vegetable oil

zest of 1/2 orange (approximately 1 1/2 tsp)

1/2 cup chopped frozen cranberries

Cranberry Orange Sauce

1 cup frozen cranberries

2/3 cup orange juice

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp orange zest, finely chopped

Make Cranberry Orange sauce: In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup of cranberries, orange juice and sugar to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes. Cool slightly. With a slotted spoon, remove 1/4 cup of cranberries; set aside.

In a blender, process cranberry mixture until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl; stir in maple syrup, orange zest and reserved cranberries. Keep warm.

Prepare pancakes: In a small bowl, combine milk and vinegar. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together: eggs, vegetable oil and orange zest. Stir into dry ingredients and mix just until blended (don't over mix!). Fold in chopped cranberries.

Heat griddle to medium-high heat. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto the lightly greased griddle. Turn pancakes when many bubbles form on top. Cook until second side is golden brown. Serve with cranberry orange syrup.