What is better than waking up on Saturday morning to a piping hot plate of pancakes? Nothing really, because I was the one who was up with the kids at 6:30am actually making the pancakes. Sorry, that makes it sound like I am complaining. DH gets to sleep in on Saturday as I have mentioned before and I sleep in on Sunday. And I love getting in the kitchen to cook early in the morning. Thing 1 likes helping in the kitchen so much these days that he always just climbs up and watches what I am doing.
I had promised the kids pancakes the night before. I had thought of making a soaked flour pancake recipe. But I just didn’t get around to it. I know it is easy, but it is one more thing to do! It feels so overwhelming to need to soak flour on top of everything else I already do from scratch. I am organized for dinner, making things ahead and what not. But for lunch and breakfast I still mostly throw things together at the last minute. At some point I will tackle soaking grains and flour, but today, it is still beyond my organizational grasp. But back to the pancakes, I don’t have a great recipe. I don’t care for the thick bready pancakes that take forever to cook and are so fluffy that you have to drown them in butter and syrup to wash them down. And I greatly dislike the taste of baking soda in my pancakes. So I look for recipes without that. I couldn’t find a proper whole wheat pancake recipe in any of my books or even online, so I altered one from The Joy of Cooking. What, you are surprised?
I was so shocked to see a pancake recipe in The Joy of Cooking that incorporated yogurt, I was sold at that. Maybe there is some hope of soaking my grains after all. Some day.
Here’s the original recipe:
WHOLE GRAIN GRIDDLE CAKES
Sift together: ½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon double acting baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
Stir in: 1 cup finely milled whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar, honey or molasses
1 beaten egg
2 cups buttermilk or yogurt
2 tablespoons melted butter or bacon drippings
Here is my version:
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon double acting baking powder
Stir in: 2 tablespoons honey
3 beaten eggs
2 cups whole milk yogurt
2 tablespoons melted butter
Frozen blueberries (amount to taste)
I worried that my batter would be too runny and it was runnier than a traditional recipe. But the consistency was great, enjoyable actually. The cakes were kind of a cross between a pancake and a crepe. The batter didn’t run too much. They were thick enough like pancakes but they tasted eggy and spongy like crepes. Yum. Plus I know that the protein content is significantly higher than any recipe I have cooked before! So I feel better about this. I don't always feel good about making a meal without some kind of protein source. I plated three cakes on each plate, something I would never do if they were the traditional bready ones. These were a big hit, and will probably be playing at my theatre every Saturday for sold out shows for a couple months.
