A Secret Silver Dollar Pancake Recipe in Honor of National Pancake Day

Who comes up with these national holidays? Is there a little man sitting at some little desk somewhere that approves these crazy requests? Regardless of how it came to be, it turns out that today is National Pancake Day and that IHOP will be serving up free short stacks until 10PM tonight.

I love any excuse for a special occasion, so we'll be observing National Pancake Day with a little breakfast for dinner tonight, serving up our super secret silver dollar pancake recipe. I can't tell you what Manhattan restaurant serves these pancakes up for brunch, so don't even ask, but I can tell you the wait is long and the recipe is highly secret. We know someone who knows someone who scribbled the recipe in massive restaurant quantities on a piece of paper. Steve then spent months experimenting to bring down the ratios to family size so that we could stop inviting the entire neighborhood over for brunch.

The end result is amazing. These pancakes are like nothing you've ever had before. They're light as air with a touch of sweetness and tang. Completely addictive. I like to stack them up to crazy heights to watch the amber maple syrup drip down. When you top them with a pat of salted butter, all the tastes really come together.

Silver Dollar Pancakes
Serves 8 easily 
Ingredients: 
8 ounces of sugar (about 1 cup)
1 stick of melted butter
4 eggs
11 ounces of flour (about 2 1/8 cups)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of baking powder
4 cups of milk

1. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the sugar and melted butter together.
2. Add the 4 eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl blend together the flour, salt, and baking powder
4. Add the flour mixture to butter mixture and blend until just mixed together.
5. Add 4 cups of milk, one at a time, until the mixture is fairly loose, lighter than a traditional pancake recipe, but not as liquid as heavy cream.
6. Heat a griddle on medium high heat. Pour the pancakes on carefully in silver dollar sizes. Flip them as soon as you can without breaking them apart. They will still be delicate and need to be handled with care. Turn down your heat if they are burning. Don't worry, you have plenty of batter for mess ups. The pancakes cook very quickly, only about a minute on each side.
7. Serve immediately with warm maple syrup (the real stuff!) and salted butter. Fresh squeezed orange juice is a lovely touch on the side. :)