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Monday, November 1, 2010

Pecan pumpkin pancakes (you can feel good about eating!)

Pancakes and weight management--An oxymoron? Think again.


Did you think you were done eating pancakes, placing them on your list of forbidden foods for managing your weight? Time to rethink that. Pancakes, especially these pancakes, really satisfy, with their lovely fluffy texture and aromatic spice mix. And you can feel good about eating them. They are low in saturated fat and even have some fiber. They're a great source of Beta carotene (vitamin A) so if you or your kids aren't crazy for vegetables they're the perfect solution. So go ahead and try them, and tell me what you think!


Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes (with or without the pecans)


Makes 22-24 pancakes 
Serves 5-7 people (depending on their appetites)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup ground flax seed (aka flax meal)
3 Tbsps. Brown sugar
2 tsps. Baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. powdered ginger
½ tsp salt
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1 ½ cups low fat milk (soy is an option)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
2 Tbsps. oil
2 Tbsps. vinegar
pecans, optional
Butter, oil, or oil-spray to lightly coat the griddle or pan.

Mix all dry ingredients together (everything through ‘salt’.)
In a separate, large bowl, mix remaining ingredients—the wet stuff.

Combine the two mixtures, mixing just until the dry ingredients no longer appear.
Heat griddle, medium heat, coating lightly with butter, oil, or spray-butter. Personally, I like to use a small amount of butter—about 2 tsps. for the whole griddle, just at the start.

Once hot (a drop of water sizzling will confirm and works better than using your fingers!) add just under ¼ cup of batter to the pan for each pancake. After a few minutes (usually once pancakes begin to bubble) flip to cook the other side. The bubbling isn’t so visible on these pancakes, so give them a few minutes to start puffing up, and then flip.

Heat a mini size pitcher (see photo) with maple syrup. Microwaving for 10-15 seconds works fine. It will enhance the flavor of the syrup, and cause it to thin out, making it easy to both use just a small amount, or spill it all over your plate, if you’re not careful. 

You can double the recipe and let the leftovers cool. Then place in a ziploc bag and freeze. Microwave reheat for midweek breakfasts or afternoon snacks.

Enjoy!



4 comments:

  1. Yummy! Breakfast is always the meal I do best with because I can justify "kick-starting" my day: it helps me concentrate in class, feel energized longer, etc, but working in challenge/fear foods early in the morning is hard because most of the foods that fall into those categories (for me, at least) are more appropriate for lunch or dinner. Pancakes are definitely outside my range of "safety" foods, but these look delicious and healthful--perfect! I forwarded the recipe to my mom and she and I will make brunch together the next time I go home. If you have other breakfast recipes that would challenge the conventional "safety" foods of ED, I'd love to see them! Thanks for such a fall-festive meal idea, Lori!

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  2. I will give it some thought and be sure to post other tasty challenges!

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  3. Hi Lori,

    I would love to make these for my friend, but she has dairy and egg allergies. Do you know of any egg substitutes? I know there are vegan egg replacers, but I haven't found any in my small town. Any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Carrie

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  4. The best substitution is the commercial egg replacers, such as Ener-G, powdered, generally found in the organic section of the supermarket. The egg provides some leavening as well as binding, so you could add 1 1/2 Tbsps. oil + 1 1/2 Tbsps water mixed with 1 tsp. baking poweder, per egg. Or try adding an additional 1/4 cup of the pumpkin (or 1/2 banana) to act as a binder. And if you skip or reduce the whole wheat they will rise more! Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

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