Tag: Breakfast

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Muesli Pancakes

This weekend I was cooking for one.  Cooking for one is fun because you get to make anything you want.  And if what you make is a disaster (not a bomb because “bomb” now means good) you toss it and never tell anyone else about your screw up.  I bought some organic muesli from Germany at the store.  I tasted it.  Muesli is one of those healthy foods that you have to do something with before you eat it.  Plain milk or soy milk won’t do it.  You need flavored yogurt or a sweet almond milk.

Or you make pancakes.

I have a guilty pleasure.  Leftover pancakes with peanut butter.

But this morning I have no guilt whatsoever.  I topped these pancakes with some fake butter, sliced bananas, and blueberries.

Memo to Kids:

This recipe is not one of your childhood pancake memories.  I just made it up this morning.

1 cup Muesli
1 cup quick oats

2 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup 2% milk

  1. Combine milks, granola, and oats.  Refrigerate for one hour.
  2. Mix remaining ingredients and stir into the granola/oats mixture.
  3. Continue mixing until you have a smooth lumpy batter (yes you read that correctly).
  4. Preheat your griddle/pan to medium/high.  Watch this heat setting as you’ll likely have to lower the heat during the process.
  5. Scoop pancake batter onto your griddle.
  6. Flip when bubbles start forming on the sides.

 

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Yogurt Pancakes

In the cookbook collection sits several old paperbacks.  As is the case with many cookbooks, they sit on the shelf quietly waiting for the right time to be opened once again, it’s owner searching for then finding that one recipe, the sole reason why that book sits on the shelf for many years.  This book is a paperback, the pages yellowed from age, its spine cracked held together by a piece of aged tape.  Not surprisingly when taken off the shelf the book opens almost by itself to the desired page.  It is the only page in the book that gets read because it holds the only recipe in the book we use.

Before there were whole wheat pancakes, there were yogurt pancakes.  The yogurt adds a hint of sweetness and makes a truly tender, delicious pancake.  The weekend before #1 and his wife moved to Rhode Island our wonderful daughter-in-law asked,

“Can you make yogurt pancakes for breakfast?”

The answer of course, was yes.  But the book was part of my wife’s collection when she was single, copyright 1978, Yogurt Cookery by Sophie Kay.  How did wonderful daughter-in-law even know about this recipe?

As with most recipes that manage to hang around for a long time, changes were made, and our recipe is an adaptation of Kay’s Fluffy Pancakes.  So I can honestly say these pancakes are a family recipe.  Make a lot when you make these pancakes.  Yeah, they’re that good.

How did she even know about this recipe?

 

Yogurt Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose white flour

3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg beaten
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat milk

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda, and salt. Make a well in the center. In a small mixing bowl combine egg, yogurt, and oil. Add
egg mixture to flour mixture all at once. Stir batter just till blended.

For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto a lightly greased preheated griddle or heavy
skillet. Cook several pancakes at a time over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or till the tops are evenly
bubbled and the edges are dry, then turn and cook until golden brown on the second side. Repeat with
remaining batter.

Tips

The milk amount is estimated.  You want enough milk to make a batter that’s not too thick or too thin.  Too thick = glob.  Too thin = crepe batter.  But you do want a consistency more towards the crepe batter.  Real maple syrup.  No substitutes.  You can serve with fake butter but real maple syrup is mandatory.  We served these pancakes with a choice of real maple syrup or maple cream.  Add  eggs any style and some breakfast meat.  Yum.

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Big Apple Pancake

This dish is not a fam fav from childhood but a recent addition to recipe collection.  For weekend stay-over guests you need a tasty easy to prepare dish for breakfast or brunch.  This is especially true when you have repeat customers.  You can serve only so many scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, toast, pancakes, etc. before your guests start asking,

“Can we go out for breakfast?”

This recipe is a Gourmet Classic that I encountered in 2011.  We made it once only because we didn’t own a cast iron skillet and quite frankly,  we completely forget about this recipe.  One weekend we decided to do something a little different to hopefully blunt any thoughts of going out.  A cast iron skillet is mandatory (probably not but I made it up and it sounds good).  The only changes made to original recipe are the butter and milk.  The original Gourmet recipe calls for whole milk (we had 2% in the fridge) and sweet butter (salted works, trust me).  Serves about six.  Add fresh fruit and pass around the maple syrup.

Breakfast was served buffet style.  After all the guests served themselves and sat at the table, the room fell silent.  Yeah, it’s that good.

  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place a rack in the middle position.
  • Melt 2 T butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.
  • Core and peel one large golden delicious apple into 1/4 inch wedges.
  • Add apples to the skillet and cook turning once until they start to soften.  This takes 3-5 minutes.
  • Arrange apple wedges around the edge of the skillet.
  • With a hand beater mix 1/2 C all-purpose flour, 4 eggs, 1/2 C whole milk, 2 T sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp salt until smooth.
  • Pour mixture over the apples and transfer the skillet to the oven.
  • Bake for around 15 minutes or until the pancake is puffy and the edges are golden brown.
  • Dust with confectioner’s sugar, cut into six wedges, and serve.
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Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

1 stick butter or margarine

1/2 C brown sugar

1 egg

1 C whole wheat flour

1/2 C white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 large ripe bananas (or 3 small) smashed

1/4 C plain yogurt

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a medium size mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Add egg and beat some more.
  3. Add smashed bananas. Stir to mix.
  4. Add flours. Sprinkle baking soda and salt evenly.  Stir with a fork until the dry ingredients are just moistened.  Do not over-mix.
  5. Place baking cup papers into a 12 cup muffin pan.
  6. Fill each cup 3/4 full.
  7. Bake 20-22 minutes.

 

This morning I got a little lightheaded after a walk.  After a quick glance at the clock (it was 9:30 am) I realized I had not eaten any breakfast.  I’ve come to realize this symptom as low blood sugar.  I needed to eat something STAT!

Whole wheat banana muffin, banana, and milk.  I felt better immediately.

This recipe is adapted from Jean Hewitt’s Natural Foods Cookbook.  I’ve changed only a few things.  For example, the original recipe was for banana bread.  Well, that took too long to bake and I ended up having to slice and wrap individual pieces to freeze.  So I started making muffins instead.  The muffins freeze well and thus, instant homemade breakfast.  Since I always buy too many bananas I always end up making muffins.

Update 10.05.14

For the first time I had to go out and buy a ripe banana to make these muffins.  There were two aging pieces of fruit on the counter when The Boss said,

“Why don’t you make banana muffins?”

So with banana muffins on my mind, so too came some cooking tips.  I always use paper muffin cups rather than greasing and filling the muffin tins.  Of course, there are two schools of thought here.  I prefer less fat and muffins that fly out of the cups when you turn the muffin tin upside down.  You can add nuts or chopped fruit to this recipe.  Then you’ll have a new recipe like Banana Nut Muffins with Raisins or something similar.  A chopped fresh apple works well too.  Feel free to use real butter instead of margarine.  Real butter makes a more moist richer muffin.

And for my non-family member readers this recipe is Daughter-in-Law Approved.

It’s that good.

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Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup all-purpose white flour
1/3 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 cup low fat milk

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flours, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda, and salt. Make a well in the center. In a small mixing bowl combine egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add
egg mixture to flour mixture all at once. Stir batter just till blended.
For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto a lightly greased preheated griddle or heavy
skillet. Cook several pancakes at a time over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or till the tops are evenly
bubbled and the edges are dry, then turn and cook until golden brown on the second side. Repeat with
remaining batter.

Weekend guests at the house are treated to a rather substantial breakfast before they head back home.  The menu varies but usually consists of pancakes or waffles, scrambled eggs or omelettes, sausage or bacon, toast, breakfast potatoes (if I wake up early enough), juice and plenty of hot coffee.  This pancake recipe started as a variation of an old recipe from Jane Brody called Wholesome Pancakes.  There’s not much difference between her recipe and mine, so I figured I better give Jane some credit.  This morning we had omelettes because the fresh mushrooms, red peppers, sweet onions and cheddar-jack cheese said OMELETTE.

Prep Tips – Mix the dry ingredients for the pancakes the night before and add the wet in the morning.  Crack your eggs the night before too.  Rinse and slice your veggies first, then saute in a little butter or margarine.  Set aside.  Start your pancakes next.  After the first batch comes off the griddle, start cranking out the eggs.  Skip the potatoes because they take too long to cook, everyone will complain, you won’t need them anyway and they won’t be missed.