the minimalist's oatmeal pancakes

i was browsing the new york times website (hello, my name is liisamarja, i'm nyc-holic) and found a video for cardamom-scented oatmeal pancakes with apricots and almonds. i had been blissfully unaware of the minimalist, mark bittman, until i saw him on tv, the show where he travelled spain with gwyneth paltrow and mario batali, spain - on the road again. somehow, spain hasn't been on my list of countries to visit, but the food on that show made me wanna go...

hmm...where was i...right, the pancakes. the recipe looked easy (always a plus) and quick, and there was no baking soda in it (baking soda doesn't agree with my stomach) (there seems to be way too much information this morning!)







i started last night, cooked the oatmeal, and took out the dry ingredients...







...chopped the almonds and apricots (look for ones that have no sulfides in them)...







...measured the dry ingredients into a plastic bowl...







...to have everything ready in the morning.







i made the oatmeal out of quick cooking oats, texture is a lot smoother that with regular oats.







the wet go in, the batter was rather thick







in the video bittman seems to use a lot more oil for frying these, i used approx 1 tbsp of oivariini for the whole batch, but i can imagine how much better a little more fat would make these...







i got 12 pancakes out of the batter. i have, finally, learned how to adjust the stove at the shack in order to have the pan just right for pancakes. too low and they dry out and don't brown at all, too hot and they get too dark and not cooked the middle...







bittman says to eat these with honey, or nothing at all. certain someone had his "au naturel" as did i for the first one...







...but as i'm still struggling with maple syrup addiction, had to have just a little with the second one...