Cornbread Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

Gather all the required ingredients and have them ready to use.

Take a saucepan and place it over medium-high heat. Add the strawberries and stir in sugar, water, and lemon juice until they're well combined. Bring the mixture to a simmer and then reduce the heat to medium, stirring occasionally, until the strawberries are very soft and the syrup starts to thicken, which should take around 15 to 20 minutes.

Take the saucepan off the stove and carefully pour the contents into a bowl through a mesh sieve. Discard any seeds or fibrous bits that are left in the sieve and let the syrup cool for 15 minutes. Once cooled, cover it and store it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

Take another bowl and whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until they're all well incorporated. Set the mixture aside.

Take a saucepan and place it over medium heat. Add buttermilk, cornmeal, and 2 tablespoons of butter to the saucepan. Stir with a whisk until the butter melts and the mixture starts to simmer. Once it's simmering, cook and stir until it becomes very thick, about 2 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Take an egg and whisk it into the cooled cornmeal mixture until they're well combined. Add the reserved flour mixture and stir with a spatula until everything is well mixed and there are no flour particles left in the saucepan. The batter should be thick but still scoopable.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, scoop 1/3 cup of batter into the hot skillet and press it down with the back of a spatula to flatten it out. Cook until the outside edges start to look a little dry, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and repeat on the other side until pancakes are cooked through, another 3 to 4 minutes. Repeat to cook the remaining pancakes, adding more butter to the skillet as necessary.

Top warm pancakes with strawberry syrup.