Triple Berry Pancakes With Cream Cheese Filling

For the berry topping:

Place berries in a medium bowl. If using strawberries, cut them into small pieces. Add sugar, lemon juice and bourbon. Give it a stir and allow it to sit for at least a half an hour.

After berries have had time to rest, place them in a saucepan. While cold, stir in cornstarch until well-mixed. Turn heat to medium high and heat while continually stirring. Watch for filling to boil and keep stirring until thickened. Keep warm and serve warm.

For the pancakes:

Preheat oven to 170 F.

This pancake recipe will make enough to match the cream cheese and berry topping recipes and will feed about 6-7 people. If you don’t want that many pancakes, or if you want to have extra cream cheese and berry toppings (for another use) you can half the pancake ingredients.

In a large bowl whisk together the pancake ingredients until well combined and smooth.

Place your very best non-stick pan on a burner and preheat to low. It will be tempting to pour the batter into the pan before it is hot, but do not give in to the temptation. When the time is right, pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and spread in a circular motion just a wee bit to make about a four-inch pancake. Wait until a few of the bubbles on the top surface burst, then flip the pancake. When done, place pancake on a baking sheet in an oven set at 170 F. Cover the sheet pan with foil so they don’t dry out while you make the rest of the pancakes. (See trouble-shooting ideas on original blog post).

For the cream cheese filling:

Soften cream cheese by allowing it to sit out for at least 1/2 hour. Blend all filling ingredients together well. Optional step: Warm cream cheese filling on low heat.

To serve:

Spread cream cheese filling on top of each pancake. Stack and then adorn with plenty of berry topping and perhaps a sprig of fresh mint.

It will be a very good summer, indeed.