Good Luck Pancakes!

Today my boyfriend, Brian, had a big job fair. Lots of handshaking and smiling, and that takes stamina! So I got up early to make him breakfast.

Whole Wheat Pancakes
from Cooking Light, December 2006

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
2/3 cup whole wheat flour (about 3 ounces)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preparation
Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Combine milk, butter, and egg; add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring until smooth.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Cook 2 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over; cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.

Yeilds 4 servings, 3 pancakes per serving.
Calories: 293 (20% from fat)
Fat: 6.6g (sat 3.5g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.6g)
Protein: 10.9g
Carbohydrate: 47.8g
Fiber: 3.3g

Now. I made a couple of alterations. As always. For one, I messed up the baking powder... and have no idea how much was actually in these. See, I started measuring with a 1/2 tbsp before realizing I needed the 1/2 tsp. Oops. So I nipped it out and tried again, ish. I added vanilla. I added 1/3 cup chocolate chips, since B loves chocolate chip pancakes. I poured the first one on the hot pan and realized they were more the consistency of crepe batter; waaaaay runnier than I wanted. So I added another heaped 1/2 tbsp of each flour; white and whole wheat. They tasted good, but these were not fluffy pancakes. They didn't have the "OH YUM" moment. They did grow on you though... after 3 bites I was fairly sold on them. Quite tasty with maple syrup. (Note; I only use real maple... no maple flavored syrup. Yuk. Tastes like a bad diet to me... since that's when I used it.) However, if you are a fan of crepes these might be a match for you. They were like thick crepes. Next time I try them I'll top them instead of adding chunky ingredients, and maybe make them a little runnier so they spread extra in the pan. Something to try anyways.


Some tips in general for pancakes.
Low heat, long cook. This doesn't mean your gas burner is about to go out, but pancakes are not a speed cook thing.
Don't over flip. Its not as important as when grilling meat, but still a good rule. To know when to flip, watch for two things: 1) The edges will start to have a curve up to them, showing just a little firmness, which makes it easier to get your spatula under it. 2) Wait for small bubbles to appear near the center of the pancake. This means its starting to cook through.
I'm using an old pan, so I use butter pam between each cake. Its not necessary if you have nicer gear.


I had the perfect pictures to illustrate some of these points... but today my camera had a heart attack when I tried to download some pictures off of it, so those photos will have to wait until after I finish performing minor invasive surgery on a certain rebellious piece of electronics.

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I'd been considering the following waffle recipe, but he picked pancakes. His big breakfast! I'll try these another time and let you know what I think.

Original King Arthur recipe
1 1/2 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour, white whole wheat or traditional
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil

My modifications:
Seperate egg, fold in egg white at the end.
Add tsp vanilla (with me its usually just a splash, not actually measured)
1/2 tsp baking soda

Joyfully,
Kristen