Whole Wheat Hotcakes with Wheat Germ and Buttermilk

Apparently these are considered the "house hotcake" of Rebar restaurant in Victoria, BC. I'm not surprised. They are light and fluffy despite the whole wheat flour and wheat germ and are tasty enough to eat without embellishments.

The recipe is a basic buttermilk pancake with part of the flour replaced with a whole grain alternative. They have very little added fat, and though either melted butter or oil can be used, I prefer to use butter to keep the pancakes tender. The batter is very thick and the hotcakes rise a lot while cooking so it's important to use only 1/4 -1/3 cup batter maximum per pancake.

The cookbook offers several ideas for "jazzing them up", all of which sound delicious, but I prefer to stick to the basic recipe and serve them with warm wild blueberry maple syrup (frozen berries simmered in maple syrup). This is a favourite weekend treat.