A Craving for Pancakes

There are some foods that I would not call my favorite things to eat, but every now and then I will crave them, and so I give in. One of those things is pancakes. If I go out for breakfast, almost all of the time I will order eggs and not even give pancakes a second thought. If I’m in the mood for them, however, it doesn’t matter what time of day it is. I’ll eat them for dinner. I’ve found lots of recipes online for pancakes made with different flours and I’ve tried several. The recipe below is a variation of a common recipe that simply uses whole grain spelt flour. Spelt is an ancient grain related to wheat that can be better tolerated by some people with wheat allergies. For the sugar, I’ve substituted organic sucanat, an unrefined, precursor to white cane sugar that retains many nutrients. It has a slight molasses flavor compared to white sugar and these days I regularly use it as a sweetener.

Whole Grain Buttermilk Pancakes

1 cup whole grain spelt flour

3 T sugar, such as sucanat

½ t baking powder

½ t baking soda

½ t salt

1 ¼ cups lowfat buttermilk

2 T melted butter

1 egg, beaten

2 t vanilla

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Combine the buttermilk, butter, egg and vanilla, then pour into dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Let batter sit for a few minutes.

Melt 1 teaspoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. For each pancake, pour 1/3 cup of batter into skillet. Flip when the batter is bubbling around the edges and set is center is set. Cook until the bottom is brown and the center is cooked. Serve with butter, maple syrup, fruit or yogurt.

To save time, the dry ingredients can be mixed in bulk then measured out when needed:

4 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

2 t baking powder

2 t baking soda

2 t salt

Mix well and store in airtight container in a cool place. To make a batch, combine 1 ¼ cup of the dry mix with the wet ingredients above and proceed as usual. I have made this bulk dry mix with various combinations of whole wheat, buckwheat, and whole grain spelt flours. I’ve even replaced ¼ cup of flour with ground flax seed meal, and I’ve always have good luck with it. And—if I’m in the mood for chocolate, I will simply add a tablespoon or two of unsweetened cocoa powder. I didn’t do that yesterday morning, but they still got rave reviews. In fact, they’ve been requested again...