8/01/2010

Pancake Sunday

As of today, I am starting a four-and-a-half-month attempt to knock off some remaining baby weight from both Island Girl and also Island Boy (I was still 5 lbs. above my goal from him when I got pregnant again). In honor of this, I opted to go with a slightly healthier pancake this week!

The base recipe came from the kitchen classic, The Joy of Cooking - 75th Anniversary Edition (Rombauer, Becker, & Becker, 2006). I made some modifications based on what was available in my pantry.

Four Grain Flapjacks

Whisk together in a large bowl:
1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. old-fashioned or quick-cooking rolled oats
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
1/8 tsp. ground or grated nutmeg (optional)

In another bowl, combine:
1 3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
3 eggs

Quickly mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Cook as normal. Again, I like to do my pancakes on my electric griddle. To cook, I pour the batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto the skillet, and cook until the edges begin to look dry. Flip, and cook for another minute or two.

My modifications to this recipe: I skipped the all-purpose flour and used 1 3/4 cup of the whole-wheat flour.
Instead of melted butter, I substituted 1/4 c. applesauce (though you can substitute an equal amount of any pureed fruit). Instead of honey, I substituted 1/4 c. maple syrup.
I also added blueberries during the cooking stage, dropping them onto the uncooked side before flipping. You could also mix them straight into the batter.

Island Boy again quickly devoured two of these. Island Dad was happy that they tasted good, but was even happier that they were relatively healthy!

For my own part, I generally like multi-grain breads and foods. I especially like them when cornmeal is involved. The texture and hint of flavor that it adds is perfect - grainy, hearty and slightly sweet. These did not disappoint! The maple syrup in the batter, combined with the blueberries, made the pancakes just sweet enough that there was no need to add further maple (or any kind of) syrup on top of the pancakes. Meaning that I was able to reduce Island Boy's pancake-related sugar-intake drastically!

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