Sunday, September 16, 2018

Banana/pumpkin/apple pancakes

Alex and I have a bunch of recipes we've honed over the past few years and I want to share their yummy-ness. Our recipes come together after many iterations of throwing together ingredients and then finally remembering to write down what we used and how much. With these recipes, please substitute/experiment to make them your own! That's how ours were created.

These pancakes are probably the best pancakes you'll ever have! And I don't say that lightly. Also they're super healthy (no added sugar, whole wheat) and perfect for after a long ride or run. And they freeze great and heat up easily for a snack.

The idea for this recipe started with Chocolate Covered Katie's Healthy Waffle recipe. I used to make this recipe all the time after long weekend workouts. One time I didn't have apple sauce so I substituted bananas and it tasted great. Then I realized pancake and waffle recipes are very similar and you can easily interchange them by altering the consistency, so I started using the recipe for pancakes. I eventually quadrupled the recipe because I wanted leftovers, but didn't want to use that many bananas, so I used half bananas and half apple sauce. When I made them with Alex, he decided it needed butter instead of oil. And then we wanted to try pumpkin in it (because you know PSL...) and that tasted great too. So long story short, here's the best pancake recipe you'll ever taste!



Ingredients:
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/4 cup milk (1 1/2 if using pumpkin)
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted plus extra for pan
  • Choose two: 2 mashed bananas (frozen or fresh) or 1 cup pumpkin puree or 2 apple sauce snack cups (no sugar added)
  • 3 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tbs pumpkin pie spice (if using pumpkin)

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice if using) in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients (milk, butter, your choice of banana and/or pumpkin and/or apple, vanilla). Pour dry ingredients into wet and mix well. Add more milk or water to get desired consistency. I usually like my pancake batter a little thicker so the pancakes are thicker, but then you don't make as many. Alex usually makes the batter a little thinner. Really up to you! 

Heat pan over medium low heat. When hot, coat pan with butter (do this! you won't regret it). Pour batter on pan for whatever size pancakes you'd like. Flip when bubbles start to pop and underside is nicely browned. Cook for another minute or so and then put on cooling rack to cool (we've found this helps them cool without making them soggy). Repeat until you're out of batter or have just enough for one giant last pancake like Alex made, pictured below. 

These pancakes are sweet enough for us that we don't eat them with maple syrup (but if you do it better be real syrup from a maple tree!). Alex sometimes puts some honey on his. We both really like them with almond butter. 

If you have leftovers, they freeze really well and then heat up nicely in a toaster over or toaster.

An Alex sized pancake.

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