Pancakes. Who doesn’t love pancakes? I made these on Saturday morning and as soon as the little ones set their eyes on the mixing bowl I was bombarded with squeals of “Can I help? Can we have baby pancakes? Can I pour the syrup myself?” They even volunteered to set the table!
They then ran upstairs to wake up the older girls. Apparently, the excitement was contagious for not long after they too came clambering down the stairs. The atmosphere in our home felt positively festive. Seriously! I know you’re thinking it’s just pancakes – but they were so excited.
I decided right there that pancakes would become a weekly ritual in our home. Who knows. Maybe they’ll continue the tradition when they have families of their own. If nothing else, it’ll be something from their childhood that they can (hopefully) remember with fondness.
Until recently, my version of “healthy” pancakes consisted of adding yogurt, mashed bananas and frozen blueberries to my batter made of white, processed flour. I admit that I felt way less guilty serving pancakes for breakfast this way.
My few attempts at making wholewheat pancakes were nothing short of a disaster. However, this was before I discovered wholewheat pastry flour. Wholewheat pastry flour is milled from soft (lower protein) wheat with the bran and germ still included. The best part is that (unlike wholewheat flour) you can’t tell the finished product is made from wholewheat. How cool is that?!
These particular pancakes call for a blueberry-flavored maple syrup. You can find the full recipe on Heidi’s blog. A couple of my kids (the middle two) commented on the blue color but they were all game to try it. You can definitely serve these pancakes with regular maple syrup (they’ll taste just as good!) but if you decide to go with the blueberries, rest assured that your kids will like it – so long as you can get them to try it.
Whole-Grain Pancakes
1 (6-ounce) basket blueberries, rinsed
1/4 cup natural granulated sugar (evaporated cane sugar)
1/4 cup real-deal, PURE, maple syrup
2 tablespoons water
2 cups white whole wheat flour (or unbleaced all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar (evaporated cane sugar)
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 1/4 cups organic buttermilk
2 large organic eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted (melt in the skillet you are going to use)
What’s your favorite topping for pancakes?
