Deluxe Blueberry Pancakes

Fresh fruit and a diner trick take the most beloved of flapjacks to the next level. To take lazy summer breakfasts to a whole new level of luxury, we paired sweet-tart, high-season berries with a complexly flavored crumb that had plenty of cushiony fluff and lightly crisp edges. A combination of buttermilk and malted milk powder upgraded the batter's flavor and complexity. The former added tang and interacted with the baking soda to provide better lift; the latter boosted the lactic sweetness and contributed a faint roasty note that complemented the bursts of punchy, tart berries. Stirring melted butter (rather than vegetable oil) into the batter and frying the pancakes in more butter made for particularly rich-tasting pancakes with lightly crisp edges. Folding the berries into the batter rather than dropping them onto the top of the portioned pancakes ensured that they were encased in the crumb instead of sitting on the surface, where they were vulnerable to burning when the pancakes were flipped.