I’m so excited to share with you one of my favourite recipes of all time for this week’s Swap-out Sunday.
The original is from one of my mom’s old cookbooks; the page is stained with the splatter of batter from Sunday mornings past. I copied it out by hand when I went away to university, but it was actually one of the first recipes I tackled on my own, in high school. When a craving hit, I had to whip up a batch, even if that meant driving home at lunch with my best friend and being late to third period biology class. Whoops.
Swap-out Sunday Challenge:This week, ditch your Aunt Jemima mix and make special pancakes from scratch. |
Pancake mix may seem innocuous enough, especially if it’s the type you add fresh ingredients (milk, eggs) to. Depending on the brand, mixes might contain only a few ingredients (fortified white flour, sugar, baking powder, etc.) or a laundry list that includes dextrose, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and corn syrup solids. Basically, they’re similar to bread – at best, a bleached and processed nutritional wasteland; at worst, additive city.
If you’ve never made them, please believe me when I tell you that homemade pancakes are just so much better, both nutritionally and taste-wise.
How to make an all-natural pancake
If you’re looking to modify an existing recipe, keep in mind that whole wheat flour is heavier than white flour. I would recommend choosing recipes with moist ingredients (like mashed banana or yogurt) and plenty of leavening (baking powder, eggs). That being said, I have made my oatmeal pancakes eggless and vegan and they still taste great – they’re just less fluffy.
To stay less-processed and natural, keep these modifications in mind:
| Instead of… | Try… |
| White flour | Whole wheat flour |
| White sugar | Less-processed demerara or muscovado sugar (regular brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses added back in)
Honey Maple syrup |
| Artificial vanilla extract | Pure vanilla extract |
The all-natural version of my childhood favourite flapjack recipe is below, but if oatmeal doesn’t float your boat, here are some other tasty whole grain options:
- Whole Wheat Pancakes
- Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes
- Gingerbread Pancakes
- Banana Pecan Whole Wheat Pancakes
- Copycat IHOP Harvest Grain & Nut Pancakes
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancake Recipe
Serves 4 for breakfast
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups rolled oats
- 2 cups milk or non-dairy milk
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Tbsp. demerara brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1½ tsp. pure vanilla extract (optional)
Directions:
- In a large bowl, blend together oats and milk and let stand 5 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- To the oat mixture, add the beaten eggs, melted butter, vanilla, and the large bowl of dry ingredients. Stir gently to mix.
- Heat an unoiled grill or large frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Use approximately ¼ cup batter per pancake. Flip when small bubbles appear on the top surface – a few minutes at most.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes more, until golden brown.
- Keep cooked pancakes warm under a tea towel while you cook the rest of the batch.
- Serve with unsweetened applesauce or real maple syrup.
Leave a Reply