Whole wheat pancakes, every Saturday morning

If you’ve ever visited our house on Saturday morning, chances are you’ve eaten pancakes with us. We like this whole wheat version very much. I began trying out whole wheat recipes 15 years ago as we weaned ourselves away from Bisquick dependence. My husband, Ed, though has become the true pancake master and this recipe is his creation. I’m offering it to you again, this time with a small improvement in the amount of leavening. Too much baking powder will give off a metallic taste, not enough and the pancakes will be flat.

Two things now, about syrup: Why not top your pancakes with unsweetened applesauce, instead? Applesauce is really quite tasty on pancakes. It is sweet, but not crazy sweet. It’s also much, much better for you.

Of course, special occasions call for special sweetness. Maple syrup is pricey, but nothing, nothing compares with maple syrup.   It is very thin and even sweeter per measure than corn-syrup-pancake-syrup.  As we tell the kids, “A little goes a long way!” The stores I go to generally sell Grade A syrup, but foodies will tell you that Grade B syrup actually has more flavor; it’s also a bit cheaper. Go for Grade B if you can get it.

But enough about that. Here is the pancake recipe.

1 cup white flour

1 cup wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 T. baking powder

1 T. sugar (optional.  Ed puts in it.  I leave it out.)

2 eggs

5 T. yogurt (or melted butter or oil)

2 c. milk plus 1 T. vinegar

First step: measure out your milk and add the vinegar.  Let stand.  The acid in the vinegar will work on the milk a bit to make a hurry-up buttermilk.  Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add in milk mixture, eggs and yogurt (or butter or oil).  Stir.

Pour batter onto a heated, buttered griddle.  Cook and flip.  Flip and eat.

Have a great morning!

 

P.S.  Here is the link to the pancake recipe we shared a couple years back.

Today is International Pancake Day.

Breakfast is the domain of Ed.  Supper is the domain of me.  Hmm.

The kids will just be honest and tell you I don’t wake up very early.

If you’ve ever been at our house on a Saturday morning, you’ve had pancakes. AND if you’ve ever been to our house for SUPPER on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, you’ve had pancakes.  Herewith follows, in the actual typewritten words of Ed, the official Ed Lowry pancake recipe.

You know, now that I think about it, this official recipe has changed many times. Ed’s original pancakes began and ended with Bisquick. The lovely bachelor man I married made EVERYTHING with Bisquick.  But, having got himself a wife keen on fiber and fretful about trans-fats, he developed this wholesome, once a week recipe.  It won’t clog your arteries or set you down for a post pancake glucose coma, either.  They are just darn good pancakes.

We serve them with warm syrup and natural peanut butter.

2 cups milk

1 T. vinegar (or lemon juice)

1 cup white flour

1 cup wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

1 T. sugar

2 eggs

5 T. yogurt (or melted butter or oil)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

First whisk the milk and vinegar and let it sit while mixing the dry ingredients.  This is a trip to emulate the effect of buttermilk (I suppose you could just use buttermilk too.)  Now mix the flour, soda, salt, baking powder and sugar and put to the side.  Beat the eggs then add the yogurt (or butter or oil) to them.  Here’s the deal with the yogurt.  We learned this from a local baker when asking how they made fat free cinnamon rolls.  They said they replaced the butter with yogurt.  Simple.  So we adopted that for our pancakes, and it works.  Even makes them a little puffier.  Anyway, now whisk the egg/yogurt mixture into the milk.  Now add the vanilla (this is an optional ingredient related to the presence of the chocolate chips, though adding vanilla and a little cinnamon to the non-chip cakes is quite nice).  Before combining the wet and dry ingredients, go ahead and stir the chocolate chips into the dry side.  This alleviates extraneous stirring of the batter after it is mixed (which negatively impacts the effect of the baking powder.  At least that’s what I read somewhere).  Now stir the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing only enough to get them stirred together.  Okay, now they are ready to cook on the skillet/pan or your choice in whatever size you like.

AND THAT’S ED’S RECIPE.

Of course, you can skip the chocolate chips.  You could alternatively add chopped apples or blueberries.

If you are in the mood for a total crazy splurge, heat up equal parts butter and brown sugar in a pan, toss in sliced bananas and heat through until it is bubbly wonderful.  Spoon over hot pancakes. Finish by licking your spoon, fork, and plate.

Happy Pancake Day.

And thank you, Amy Thompson, for your sharing your love of International Pancake Day with me–and every person you know!  🙂