Sunday Morning Pancakes

I love making a special breakfast for my family on lazy weekend mornings.  For awhile now, I’ve been trying to find a good recipe for healthy, whole wheat pancakes.  But they are never quite light and fluffy enough to pass off to the kids as a “special” breakfast.  Its more like “here, chew your way through this lead disc of fiber-y goodness.”  Just as I was about to give up, I discovered the secret – a fresh can of baking powder and double the amount of it than I had been using before!

We tried them a couple of different ways with blueberries, mini chocolate chips, and some just plain.

But in the end, the kids seemed to really like the plain pancakes topped with a quick homemade raspberry sauce.

This recipe is just as easy as using a boxed pancake mix, but so much more healthy for you.  Out of curiosity, I took a look at a box of Bisquick recently and it baffles me that they are still including artery-clogging partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil in the ingredients.  This is a toxic, genetically modified source of trans fat and does not belong in a healthy diet.  As an added bonus, if you take the time to make these up over the weekend, they can be re-heated in the toaster for a quick mid-week breakfast.  Either refrigerate for up to a week, or store 2 pancakes each in a Ziploc bag in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Recipe adapted from Fit Fresh Food

Ingredients

2 cups white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups plus 2 T. unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your choice)

2 tsp sugar (I use organic coconut sugar because it is less processed)

2 eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

coconut oil to grease the pan

Directions

Mix whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, lightly beat 2 eggs.  Add almond milk, sugar, and vanilla extract to the eggs and mix well.  Combine wet and dry ingredients in one bowl, being very careful not to overmix.

Heat a skillet to medium low heat and melt a little coconut oil in the pan.  Pour 1/4 – 1/3 cups of batter per pancake into the greased pan.  Top with blueberries, banana slices, chocolate chips, etc. or leave them plain.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until the bottom edges are starting to set and bottoms are golden brown.

Flip and cook for 1 more minute.  Keep pancakes warm in a 200 degree oven while you finish making the remainder of the pancakes.  Leftovers may be stored in the refrigerator or freezer and re-heated in the toaster.

Consider upgrading your topping to this quick and easy raspberry syrup.  It reduces the amount of sugar and incorporates a serving of fruit!

Raspberry Topping

1/2 cup frozen raspberries, defrosted

2 – 3 T. maple syrup

Mix defrosted raspberries and maple syrup in a blender at high speed.  This will make enough for 2 servings.

Enjoy!