Blueberry Baked Pancakes

The first real snow came Wednesday night — four inches, wet, heavy, the kind that bends the branches and thrills the dog and locks the kids in the house for a morning of improvisation. I was home for it, thank God; I had wrapped up a Monday Omaha run by Tuesday evening and had the rest of the week off because I asked my dispatcher for it. I made pancakes Thursday morning. Josie built a snowman in the front yard, wearing a pair of Dave's old work gloves. Tyler helped her. Justin slept until eleven, which for Justin in a non-football week is perfectly acceptable. Amber sat in the kitchen with me and read her novel. The snow melted by late afternoon. It was a small snow. There will be bigger ones. The first one of the season is always the sweetest because the shock of it is still a novelty.

I finished the revision and sent the full manuscript to Sarah Monday. She emailed me Thursday: "I'll have notes Friday." Friday came. She sent notes. Twenty-three pages of notes. Most of them constructive. Some of them hard to read. One of them ("the chapter on Darla is the soul of the book; we need it even closer to the beginning") made me cry at the kitchen table. I will re-order the chapters. The Darla chapter will move from chapter 7 to chapter 3. That is where it belongs. I knew that. I just did not want to know that. Sarah knew for me. That is what an editor is.

Gayle made a winter stew Friday — beef, barley, carrots, onion — and brought us a pot. I heated it for dinner. Gayle's beef barley stew is the food my father ate before a run in the winter. He called it "trucker fuel." He had two bowls of it on November 2, 2012, the day before Darla died, because he was driving to Kansas City the next morning and Gayle always sent him off with stew. I thought about this Friday night. I did not cry. I ate the stew. I fed the stew to my husband and my children. The food is the vessel for the story. I have written that in the book a dozen times. I believe it more every year.

Thanksgiving is in a week. I pulled the good china out of the china cabinet Saturday and washed every piece. Amber helped. She is tall enough now to reach the top shelf without standing on a chair, which is the definition of a grown child. We did not talk much. We washed plates. We stacked them on a towel on the counter. The light came through the kitchen window and there was a woman washing plates with her 17-year-old daughter in a small house in Nebraska on a Saturday in November. It was beautiful. I do not always notice when my life is beautiful. I tried to notice.

That Thursday morning — the snow on the branches, Josie in Dave’s old work gloves, Amber at the table with her novel — I made pancakes, and I want to give you the version I keep coming back to when the morning deserves something more than ordinary. Baking them in the oven means you’re not standing over a griddle flipping one at a time while the first ones go cold; you make the whole thing at once, and everyone sits down together, and that’s exactly right for a snow day. The blueberries are the best part — they sink in a little and go jammy and sweet, and the whole pan smells like the kind of morning you hope your children remember.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Maple syrup and powdered sugar, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 425°F. Generously butter a 9x13-inch baking dish or a large oven-safe skillet and set it aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until combined.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — a few small lumps are fine. Do not overmix or the pancake will be tough.
Add the blueberries. Fold in the blueberries gently, then pour the batter into your prepared baking dish and spread it into an even layer.
Bake. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the pancake is set in the center, golden at the edges, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Serve. Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes, then cut into squares and serve warm with maple syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Nutrition (per serving)

Blueberry Baked Pancakes — The Morning the Snow Came and We Were All Home