BLUE CORN PANCAKES: Delicious, Easy Recipe/Plus the History & Health Benefits of Blue Corn

Blue Corn Pancakes with Toasted Piñon Nuts & Blueberry Syrup are somewhat of a staple in Northern New Mexico. If you’ve never had them, they’re lightly sweet, a little earthy, and quite delicious. Plus, it turns out blue corn has lots of nutritional value, as you’ll find out from my guest in this video. Mary Louise Sanchez is an accomplished author and history buff, who also shares the origins of blue corn and how it is that it wound up in many New Mexican dishes. Read on for the written recipe, but be sure to check out the video to learn more about blue corn.

Blue Corn Pancakes

1 cup blue corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

*toasted pine nuts & blueberry syrup (optional, but highly recommended)

Combine blue corn meal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in large bowl and mix to combine. Add in egg and buttermilk and whisk together until you have a smooth pancake batter. Scoop batter onto a greased hot griddle or pan. Cook for two or three minutes, then flip. Continue cooking until edges are golden brown on both sides.
Serve hot with toasted piñon nuts and blueberry syrup (or syrup of your choice) and enjoy!

Should you have a hard time finding blue corn meal where you live, you can order it online from The Fruit Basket in Albuquerque. This is not a paid endorsement, but it’s a great market that carries all sorts of produce and items that are used frequently in New Mexican cuisine. (In fact, you’ll find piñon nuts there, too!) https://thefruitbasketabq.com

To learn more about author Mary Louise Sanchez, or to connect with her, visit: https://www.marylouisesanchez.com

Thanks so much for checking out this video. If you liked it, give it a Thumbs Up and Subscribe so you don’t miss any of my recipes. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/marcyinspired or in Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/marcyinspired

*All music in this video used with rights from Storyblocks:
“Cool Acoustic Rock”

Hi everyone I’m Marcy and today’s recipe comes with a bit of a history lesson because I’m going to be making something that probably many of you have never had before unless you’ve spent some time in New Mexico particularly the northern part of the state it’s there that you’ll

Find the most delicious blue corn pancakes that are often served with toasted beon nuts and blueberry syrup I think you’re really going to love them and if you’ve been following my recipes for a while you’re also going to see a familiar face [Applause] last year I introduced you to Mary Louise Sanchez the author of an award-winning book titled the wind called my name even though we live in different states we were able to connect via the Internet and join forces to share a recipe for thoras which she

Wrote about in her book well since then we’ve met in person and I found out that not only do we share a love of old cookbook books but she’s also quite the historian so I’ve invited her back today and asked her to share about the history

Of blue corn and how it is that it wound up in so many New Mexico dishes hi Mary Louise thanks for joining us again well I’m very excited to be here especially talking about blue corn which we just saw in Waka Mexico on our trip there in

December and January I think I had the largest uh chips and salsa there that I’ve ever seen and they were blue corn well I’m excited to hear what you have for us but first I want to go over what you’ll need for this recipe we’re going

To start with 1 cup of blue cornmeal one cup allpurpose flour 1 and 34 teaspoon baking powder 34 of a teaspoon baking soda 2 tbspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt one large egg one 1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk and then this is optional but I’ve got some

Toasted Pon nuts these are pine nuts by the way um and I just toasted them quickly earlier it takes nothing you just use a hot uh ungreased Skillet put them in there for just a few minutes and that’s really it and then I’ve got some blueberry syrup which goes particularly

Well with blue corn pancakes now you may have a hard time finding blue cornmeal depending on where you live so in the description box I’m going to put where in Albuquerque I got this from and you can order it online or you can also find blue cornmeal on Amazon but let’s go

Ahead and get started what I’m going to do is measure out a cup of this blue cornmeal and then put together all my dry ingredients and while I do that Mary Louise go ahead and talk about the origins of blue corn blue corn is native to to the region around Waka Mexico in

The southwest of in the United States in New Mexico that’s where it’s very prevalent and especially with the Hy nation in the Hopi religion they have a designation for all the different corns in the United States having to do with directions for instance the yellow corn is associated with the Northwest the

Blue corn is associated with the Southwest red corn is with the southeast and white corn is with the Northeast so it’s all directional one of the reasons blue corn grows so well there is because it does well in drought conditions and we know New Mexico is in a drought related

Region it only grows like four to 5 fet it’s not very tall and it’s very deep rooted it does have a rich sweet flavor and it’s usually used in ground form and it’s not eaten off the cob like yellow corn that is so interesting so much to

Blue Corn for sure well it looks really pretty I just mixed it up uh in my dry ingredients and now I’m going to add the wet ingredients and by the way if the batter is too thick you can always add a little more milk but I’m going to see

When we get to that point meantime we should talk about some of the health benefits to Blue Corn because there are a lot of them aren’t there there sure are blue corn has more antioxidants and blueberries and we know how good blueberries are for you another thing that they have are two antioxidants

Which are helpful to your eye health for instance one of the antioxidants is luten and the other one is z zanthin and these are exclusively for our eyes and we don’t think about that but that can help prevent cataracts and also macular degeneration I wish I had taken that

Years ago and also it is easier to digest than yellow corn because it has has less starch and it has a higher protein content it also has less starch and a lower glycemic index that’s very important especially for people who are prone to diabetes or even have

Pre-diabetes and it’s a good source of fiber iron magnesium and other vitamins and minerals and it also has been proven to help lower blood pressure so glue corn is the way to go I think in our diet it’s a superfood so go Blue yes go Blue for sure although this batter looks

A little more purple to me anyway uh but it worked out just fine with the amount of Buttermilk that I used so now I’ve got my griddle Heating and I’m going to go ahead and make some pancakes and while I do that uh we can talk about

Some other ways that you can use blue corn do you have a favorite well my favorite way to eat blue corn is on vacation of course of course we had it in Waka Mexico I always make sure that when we’re in New Mexico we’re at a

Restaurant I look for the blue corn and ask for that specifically and personally I’ve bought the blue corn and at home I’ve coated my chili Ranos with the blue corn I have made waffles with the blue corn and what’s nice about the waffles then you can freeze them in fact I made

Some this week and then I had some today in honor of our show yeah you know I even debated whether I should make blue corn tortillas for this video and I’m may still do that at some point in the future but I just thought that blue corn

Pancakes are so fun and they’re so easy to make these ones are coming along nicely other people have blue corn in tortillas there’s blue corn mush atle which is famous for being blue tortilla chips you know in the aisles look for the ones that are to have the blue corn

And there are probably other ways but those are the ways that that I’ve eaten and enjoyed them well I’ve got my short stack ready to go I’m going to put some butter on there and of course some of these toasted Pon nuts and the blueberry

Syrup and I’ll be ready to give these a Try Well once again Mary Louise I feel really guilty eating in front of you I wish there was a way that we could share food somehow over the Internet uh but what do you think oh wow those are great it’s a good thing I had my blue corn

Waffles today or other otherwise I’d be very jealous but I do think that these heirloom superfoods they belong in our modern kitchens and on our tables they really do all right I’m going to give this a taste make sure I get plenty of syrup in there cuz I love it M oh is so good you know it’s kind of hard to describe what they taste like I would say that blue corn is a little more earthier a little more gritty I don’t know if that’s the word they’re just like a heier pancake lightly sweet really delicious especially with the uh

Blueberry syrup it’s just a really great combination I hope that you try this I hope you make this yourself and if nothing else if you’re ever in New Mexico in Santa Fe or in Albuquerque you should easily be able to find blue corn pancakes at restaurants here and be sure

To give them a try well Mary Louise thank you so much for joining us again and best of luck to you as well with your new book yes well I want to thank you and Tony for being ambassadors for New Mexico and my forthcoming book which

Isn’t published yet it’s a nod to the Santo tradition in New Mexico and I’m I’m giving a thumbs up to New Mexico too from Colorado that’s awesome thank you and thanks to all of you for watching if you like this video be sure to give it a

Thumbs up and subscribe to this channel if you haven’t already done so I also invite you to follow me at Marcy inspired on Instagram and Facebook until next time blessings from my kitchen to Yours