Try to mix the pancake batter as little as possible. Mixing forms gluten chains that can make for tough pancakes. Using whole wheat flour is advantageous though, since the high fiber content gets in the way of gluten network formation.

The perfect lazy Sunday morning breakfast!  These pancakes are made with whole, plant-based ingredients.  They are totally vegan and delicious!  Serve them up hot with a batch of home made date syrup for sweetener, or else eat them plain like we did (the raisins actually provide quite a bit of sweetness).  If you don’t happen to have butternut squash puree laying around, try substituting sweet potato or pumpkin puree, or even unsweetened applesauce.  Any moist plant-based food will do the trick.  Get creative!

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour

3 Teaspoons baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon

1 & 1/2 Cups soy or other plant based milk

1/4 Cup sun-dried raisins

1/2 Cup cooked quinoa

1/2 Cup butternut squash puree

Combine the whole wheat flour, baking powder and cinnamon and mix with a fork.  Add the soy milk and mix until dry ingredients are just moistened.  Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the raisins, quinoa and butternut squash puree.  The batter should be runny.

To cook the pancakes: Spoon some of the batter onto a skillet over medium heat.  When you see bubbles coming to the top of the pancake it is time to flip it over.  Cook the pancakes until browned, about 3 minutes per side.  The pancakes are done cooking when they feel dense, not mushy, when pressed gently with a finger.

The Ingredients:
1/2 cup of oat flour
1/2 cup of all-purpose wheat flour
1/2 cup Splenda (adjust up or down for personal preference)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp each baking powder, baking soda, ans salt
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries

mixing the dry ingredient

mixing the wet ingredients

Break banana in half, place in bowl.

Mash banana with fork

Pour wet ingredients into dry, mix briefly...

then add mashed banana

Add more milk to reach desired consistency (the more watery the batter, the thinner the pancake)

Add blueberries.

Heat pan, pour in 1/4 cup of mixture, repeat, cook till golden brown, flip.

And serve. We paired these blueberry banana oat pancakes with a white blueberry tea. Yumm.

These pancakes were a nice balance between thin and super fluffy. We didn’t feel the need to add syrup or butter because of the sweetness bananas and blueberries. Recipe made 10, 4 inch pancakes for a total of 700 calories in the whole batch, although I left out ~3 tbsp of melted butter (if you wish to include, whisk the butter into the milk and egg). Total cost of ingredients used: $2.50, price Kris would be willing to pay at a restaurant $7.50. Sounds like a win.

Tune in next week for more Mr. B’s messy kitchen, where I’ll show you how to make the absolute best roast chicken you’ll ever eat. Now I’m off to do the dishes.

-Brendan

(A special thanks to Kris who took the photos with her iPhone 4s.)