Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pancakes (with homemade strawberry syrup - inspired by Nigella)

I love Cracker Barrel's Buttermilk Pancakes.  They have to be the best pancakes in the world.  No other pancake comes close.

The love affair started in Aug 2006, when our family relocated to Montgomery, Alabama in the US for a year.  My first meal in Montgomery, was breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant at Exit 11 of the I-85.  Junior and I had just arrived after an exhausting 30 hour journey from Singapore, to join my husband who had already been in Montgomery for two months.  The husband brought our tired and hungry bodies to this wonder of a restaurant and I remember feeling terribly happy.  I don't think we had the pancakes that day.  I recall eating some grits and biscuits and not taking to them quite so well.  But I loved the atmosphere and everything else I was eating.  After spending many lazy Saturday mornings brunching here, I grew to enjoy the grits and biscuits, but not quite as much as their pancakes!

I was very sad to leave Montgomery and my favourite pancakes.  Fortunately for me, Cracker Barrel sells their pancake mix in their stores and online.  Wonderful friends in the US would bring them to me by the boxes, and I would be very happy.  I don't know what I would do without my pancake mix!

Why do I love them so?  First, they taste awesome!  No styrofoam tasting blandness for you.  These pancakes pack a powerful punch in flavour.  Slightly sweet and salty, and terrific drenched in maple syrup, or on its own.  Second, they have a fantastic texture.  The pancakes are nice and thick, yet light and fluffy on the inside, with a crispiness all around.  I can't replicate all this in my own kitchen, but what I produce is good enough for me!

My children love the pancakes as well.  I normally have the pancakes with maple syrup (real maple syrup, not some corn syrup imitation).  Since I had some slightlty sour strawberries left from my strawberry baking exploits, I decided to do a modification of Nigella Lawson's blueberry syrup recipe for pancakes from her book Nigella Express, using strawberries instead of blueberries.

It's an easy peasy recipe - just boil maple syrup and strawberries in a pan until the berries soften.  Then pour over the pancakes and enjoy!