Last weekend I woke up with a craving. Pancakes, I thought. That is what sounds good. I hadn’t made a breakfast simpler than oatmeal in a while, so I decided to try out a sweet flavor combination I had been wanting to test out for a while now.
I busted out my trusty non-stick pan, oats and blackberries and got to preparing the batter. I processed and stirred and chopped and sprinkled ingredients until I was finally ready to heat up the pan and get to cooking.
As I expected, my pancake hiatus definitely showed in the first one I made, but after a practice run I was flipping perfectly golden pancakes in no time. One tip I have is making sure the heat on the pan is consistently around medium to medium low, no higher, or only the outside of the pancake will cook.

After tasting these pancakes, I knew this recipe would be a hit. The sweetness of the blackberries paired with the subtle kick from the ginger beautifully compliments each other and makes for a unique flavoring of pancakes than the traditional (and less healthy) butter and maple syrup dosed flapjacks.
The blackberry sauce I made is inspired by one of the mom’s recipes from when the family owned a cafe. I remember walking into the store as a kid and smelling the lovely scent reminiscent of blackberry pie. To me, that smell always takes me back to cozy family dinners and the wintry-grey skies during the holiday season. But, this sauce also comes with memories of spring with it’s vibrant black-blue color and fresh, just-picked-from-the-vine taste. No matter what season you are longing for, this recipe brings the best of both worlds into one sweet, homey and fresh sauce.
The key to this sauce comes in the cooking process. Be sure to let the ingredients come to a light boil — this will allow the pectin to come out of the blackberries. If you let it boil for a 3 to 6 minutes, you’ll end up with a thicker, jam-like consistency when it cools, however, if you only let it boil for 30 seconds to a few minutes, you’ll have more of a sauce. What I have pictured is a thicker version.
Thinner consistency…

Thicker consistency…
Let’s not forget about those oats! Fiber-filled and the host all these vibrant flavors, oats are so versatile when it comes to cooking. The most obvious way to prepare them into is oatmeal, but you can do so much more creative dishes with them! Grind them into a flour for breads, muffins, pie crusts and pancakes; you can even work with them in savory dishes. The possibilities are endless.

Mixing the wet and the dry ingredients…

After a few minutes sitting it turns into a creamy mixture ready for the pan

Without further adieu, let’s get into the recipe…