Healthier Pancake Recipes

If I had to pick a single favorite food, it would probably be either pancakes or duck. Weird, I know. Today I’ll give you some fun, different, and mostly reasonably healthy pancake recipes.

Nourishing Traditions Soaked Pancakes – This is the main pancake recipe from my favorite book/cookbook Nourishing Traditions (Amazon.com link), and it is probably the healthiest recipe I’m sharing today. Soaking whole wheat flour in yogurt overnight at room temperature may sound weird or scary, but it’s supposed to make the flour more easily digestible and make the nutrients in the flour more readily available, and those are always good things, right? I do find that my digestion seems improved when I eat these pancakes, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. I’ve made this recipe two or three times, and I wouldn’t say I’ve perfected it, but it is pretty good. A few tips: 1) make sure you thin the batter enough with water after the overnight yogurt-soaking; 2) these take longer to cook than regular white flour pancakes (so much so that if you want to serve them to guests, I recommend making them in a day or two in advance when you have plenty of time and refrigerating them, so that you can quickly reheat them in the oven when you want to serve breakfast); 3) putting the heat too high will just burn them, and will not actually help them cook faster. I don’t like them freshly cooked, and prefer freezing them in small batches (two days’ worth) and thawing them when I get a hankering for pancakes. I reheat them in the toaster oven and top with butter (and have maple syrup in a small bowl on the side). (Another blog post mentioning this recipe can be found here.)

Coconut Pancakes – I love pancakes. I love coconut. There is no doubt in my mind that this recipe will be a winner. I suspect that the extra fat and richness from the coconut milk help offset any flavor or texture flaws which may result from the use of 100% whole wheat flour (let’s face it, getting tasty results from 100% whole wheat flour isn’t easy). This recipe is the second and last recipe in this post which I approve for relatively more frequent consumption.

Chocolate French Silk Pancakes – Coconut milk AND chocolate are involved — even more decadent than the previous recipe! (Also more sugar than the previous recipe.) I would use whole-fat coconut milk because that’s how I roll. Not recommend for everyday eating, but definitely fun for special occasions. (I would like someone to make these for me for my birthday. Thank you.) I must find some of this mythical whole wheat pastry flour. My guess is that it’s more finely ground than regular whole wheat flour and makes 100% whole wheat baked goods more palatable. Does anybody have any leads? Is it the same as white whole wheat flour?

Whole Wheat Cherry Vanilla Bean Pancakes – I’m wary of the sweetness and necessity of added glazes, but this recipe does look delicious. Probably another special-occasion-only pancake recipe. Organic frozen cherries would be ideal. The mythical whole wheat pastry flour is also needed for this recipe.

Caramel Apple German Pancake – A single large-pan pancake which is low on flour and high on apples and eggs. It could probably double as a dessert. The caramel sauce would be delicious, of course, but may not be advisable (lots of sugar!) or strictly necessary.

Apple Fritter Cakes with Warm Caramel Sauce – Similar to the previous recipe, but a more traditional pancake recipe (more flour). Again, caramel sauce may not be necessary or a good idea.

Nobody ever said pancakes were the healthiest breakfast food (or breakfast-for-dinner food), but if you are going to make pancakes and want to do something different, special, and reasonably healthy, then these recipes should give you some good ideas.

Okay, fine, one more recipe. THE BEST PANCAKES EVER. They’re completely white flour with no redeeming nutritional value, but they are amazingly delicious. They are Maple Bacon Pancakes. My sister received a few pounds of fancy gourmet bacon (probably free-range, antibiotic-free, etc.) from her boss for Christmas one year, and when we found this recipe, we knew we had to make it with her fancy bacon. When my sister got a chance to visit me, she thawed the bacon needed, cooked it, put it in a little plastic container, and flew to Texas with it. Her luggage smelled like bacon, but it was totally worth it. If you want to make these incredible pancakes, use the best, fanciest bacon you can find (possibly from Whole Foods?), don’t scrimp on the buttermilk (whole fat, please), and use real maple syrup (none of that “maple-flavored” stuff).

The end!

Up next: Speaking of bacon… Unhealthier vegetable recipes.