Saturdays are for lounging in your pajamas 'til noon, reading the paper in bed with hot coffee, and for turning off all your devices until you’re truly feeling rested. They’re also the day of the week you’ll find me making pancakes.

I keep things pretty simple. Buttermilk batter, a little butter (OK, maybe more than a little...), perhaps some fruit, and the best maple syrup I can find. Every summer I go up to Maine and stay in a little cabin on a lake for a week or two. Two years ago I found a farmstead owned by a family that taps their own maple trees and boil the sap over a hardwood fire. The result is a maple syrup that’s thick and redolent of smoked pine wood. Ever since, I make a point to buy a gallon on each trip to take home to Brooklyn. If I’m feeling generous I buy pints of it to give as gifts to family and friends.

Now, listen. I’m not saying I'm the Pancake Boss. I'm not going to tell you how to eat your pancakes. I’m also not going to tell you the roasted apples will only enhance them, that a pat of butter on top is completely obligatory, or that you really ought to eat these from a tray in your bed because you’ll likely want a nap afterward. What are weekends for if not all the guilt-free naps?

Buttermilk Pancakes with Brown Sugar Apples

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Kosher Salt
2 Cups Buttermilk
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
4 Tbs. Brown Sugar
1 Tbs. Lemon Juice
Maple Syrup
2 Tbs. Butter, divided
1 Tbs. Canola Oil, or more as needed

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 Degrees F. 
2. Place sliced apples in a shallow baking dish. Top with brown sugar, lemon juice, and 1 Tbs of butter dotted around on top. Roast the apples for 25 minutes, until golden and tender. 
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt together. 
4. Add to the large mixing bowl the buttermilk and eggs. Stir together gently with a spoon. It’s ok if it’s a little bit lumpy, you don’t want to over mix it.
5. Heat 1 Tbs. canola oil a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat. Melt 1 tbs. butter in the pan. The canola oil will help to keep the butter from burning.
6. Time to fry the pancakes! Cooking pancake batter in 1/3 cup servings at a time, place batter into the pan or griddle with enough room so the pancakes aren’t crowding each other. Cook each pancake for 4 minutes or until bubbles begin to form on the surface, then flip and cook 2 minutes more.
7. Serve pancakes with roasted apples, maple syrup and butter. 

Serves 4-6.