Magical Hearthstone Buttermilk Pancakes

Crafting The Batter

If we're using my recipe, this is how things are going to go down. Though let's be real, pancakes are a simple food and all it really ends up being is mixing wet into dry and not over combining it.

Also some people don't like to use a whisk to mix their batter. I'm a rebel if you're in that group. Whisk life!

See that? That's called being prepared and taking nice photos. Adding all the dry ingredients to the bowl? Check.

Add the wet ingredients now, don't be afraid. Food can tell when you're afraid and you'll mess up.

We're mixing wet and dry, just don't overdo it. Going too hard is going to result in gluten development which makes them tough. Lumps are okay!

Alright, we're okay here. Not going to bother trying to get the rest of the flour incorporated because we really don't want to over mix this.

Now, since the batter has been masterfully put together, we're going to need to take some of it and make it blue! I used 3/4 of a cup of batter and 4 drops of my blue gel food coloring. I believe it is possible to overdo the blue at this point so add in a drop, mix. Repeat until you're happy with the color - I was happy after 4 drops.

You'll then need to transfer your blue batter into your squeeze bottle. Use a spoon to help scrape out your cup or bowl you mixed the blue batter in.

Look at that beautiful drop of blue!

Now that looks like the blue we need!

Making Your Hearthstone Swirl Pancakes

The really fun part! Your first ones are likely to not come out great as you perfect your swirls, but at least they'll still be tasty. I've got my griddle set to 325 degrees freedom (Fahrenheit) and I don't bother putting any fat (butter) on it because it just makes the first batch of pancakes have those gross edges. No judgements if you like the crusty edge pancakes, we'd actually be good friends since you can have the first batch.

We now need to get that iconic swirl down and it's going to be easy.

• Apply pressure to your squeeze bottle to start making a blob in the center area of the pancake.
• When the blob is formed, make a circle counter-clockwise from the blob, starting at 3 o'clock.
• As you get to the 9 o'clock position, you can start to reduce the pressure on the bottle slightly.
• By 6 o'clock, you should have a much thinner tail to the swirl.
• This is all about pressure. Practice makes perfect!

Let's see an example of an okay swirl, a good swirl, and an abomination.

Don't worry if it looks like the swirl on the right, it'll still taste good.
Also, this shows good bubbling on the left-side. The left swirl is ready for normal batter.

Once your swirls are placed down, you're going to want to wait for them to start to bubble. This allows the swirl to support itself for the batter onslaught that is about to smack it in the face. If you are too early, you risk pushing the blue batter onto the surface beside the swirl, making it less defined. Additionally, we've got a second positive here. Since we're not making art pancakes that wouldn't realistically get eaten, this batter gets a bit darker than the other which makes the swirl pop even more!

A Mistake! The swirls were placed a bit too close together, resulting in pancakes which became triplets.

Beauty! Nice and golden brown, slightly darker on the swirl. A blue outline can be seen.
Honestly, you could just not do the blue they'd still look great because of the additional cook time on the swirl.

Once done, plate 'em and grab yourself toppings! The keen eye will have noticed all these pictures are different batches.

Here are two of the last ones I created. Really happy about the right-side one.

The End Result

Beautiful, imperfect, swirly pancakes. Now, eat up and get climbing that ladder, play some Battlegrounds, or kick back and go enjoy yourself in an Adventure.

Pancakes in photo are as delicious as they appear.
Whipped cream is beyond excessive, but it certainly looks cool! 
Maybe add some berries or a banana to this. Judgement-free zone though if you just want drink the syrup.