My Aunt Hattie's Pancakes

Aunt Hattie was my mothers aunt so that made her my great aunt.  I wish everyone could have known her.  She lived in Howardsville, Virginia in Louden County in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As children,my sister, brothers and I would stay with Aunt Hattie during the Summer because my parents worked and there was no one to take care of us while school was out.

So as a treat, my Aunt Hattie would make us Pancakes with King Syrup. This Syrup was as thick as molasses but it taste like maple syrup, so good.  I remember Aunt Hattie would get a large bowl and mix about 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, one egg about 3 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 tbs. sugar, 3 tbs. me;ted butter and about 1 1/4 cup of milk. Hattie would heat the milk and mix the  warm milk with the butter vanilla and egg together then pour into the flour with salt baking powder and beat ever so gently.  She made sure not to over beat because she said that made the batter heavy and the pancakes flat instead of fluffy.

My Aunt Hattie always had a big smile on her face, she made me feel that she loved everybody.  She would feed everyone who came to the house.  Hattie did all the cooking and seldom went to the grocery store.  She had fruit trees in her front yard and a vegetable garden in her back yard and blackberries, strawberries and raspberries along the fences surrounding her property. She raised chickens and pigs.

Well those were the good old days and all the elders in my family have passed over and now I am one of the elders in my family and I am passing it on to my granddaughter.