Is there a better way to start any day?

• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk*
• 2 tablespoons shortening, melted, or salad oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour**
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour batter onto hot griddle. Turn pancakes when puffed and full of bubbles, but before bubbles break. Flip and bake second side to golden brown.

Makes 10 4-inch pancakes.

* If you're out of buttermilk, try adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to regular milk. Put the juice in the cup, then top off with milk and wait 5 minutes for milk to clabber before using in mix.
** If using self-rising flour, omit baking powder and salt and decrease soda to 1/4 teaspoon.

April 18, 2011 (CHICAGO) -- This recipe for Bruce Paltrow's World-Famous Pancakes is courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook: ''My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness.''

Ingredients:

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon, plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons fine salt
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more butter for cooking
• 6 organic large eggs
• Up to 1 cup milk, as needed to thin batter
• Real Vermont maple syrup, warmed, for serving

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, butter, and eggs together in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisking just enough to combine (small lumps are okay). Let the batter sit, covered, overnight.

The next morning, heat up your griddle or favorite nonstick pan and slick it with a little butter.

Add enough milk to the batter to thin it to the right consistency -- the thicker the batter, the thicker and heavier your pancakes; the thinner the batter, the more delicate your pancakes -- neither is wrong.