Healthy Fluffy Wholewheat Pancakes for Baby - Quick Make Ahead

Healthy Fluffy Wholewheat Pancakes for Baby - Make Ahead

You can mix these up just before heading to bed...OR during commercial breaks after the baby has gone to sleep.

Lil T loves his fruit.  He wakes up asking for a Banana.  He used to love Wholewheat Bread but he's been off it for a month or so.  Randomly one day, he asked for it and didn't eat it.  After than he stopped asking for it.  So what can I do to make sure he gets some fibre and grain in the morning?  Well, obviously, as most parents do, he gets a handful of Oaty O's (the organic less sugary version of Cheerios. they're also a bit crunchier so I'm hoping it will help him cut his teeth).  But really that doesn't seem like a tasty meal to me even though he loves them.

He likes Pancakes but we have thus far reserved them for weekends.  Even then it's been a bit of a hassel for D who wakes up on weekends with him.  Getting the flour out and cooking them and cooling them off.  Yeah, T doesn't have that kind of patience but he likes watching D cook so it stretches him out a bit as he eats some Blueberries.  So I thought if I could at least cut out the trouble mixing then, it would be a tad easier.  I'm not sure about Pancakes mixed ahead because I worry that the Baking Powder will have fizzled out while sitting and they'll be tough and chewy.  Luckily most Baking Powders are double acting nowadays, one hit for Salt Water and another with Heat.  I made a few adjustments on my favourity Fluffiest Wholewheat Pancakes to make sure that the overnight sit in the refridgerator in batter form would still yield tender and fluffy Pancakes.

Heat them up for 10 s in the microwave the next day or in the toaster oven.  They freeze well.

Healthy Fluffy Wholewheat Pancakes - Make Ahead

DRY
3/4 c Wholewheat Flour (organic if you have it)
1/4 c Cake Flour (less gluten)
3/4 t Salt
3/4 t  Baking Powder + pinch (aka 1/8 t)
1/4 t Baking Soda + pinch
1/4 t Cinnamon (optional)

WET
1 c Milk
1 large Egg
1 T Canola/Vegetable Oil
1 T Water

COOKING
Butter or Canola Oil
1 c Fruit of choice

(The instructions are in order but in tasks as I did them during commercial breaks of evening TV.)

Take out all the ingredients except the Milk and put them on the counter.

In a large bowl or Tupperware bowl with lid, mix the DRY together with a fork.  Get the lumps of the Cake Flour out.  You could sift if you want but remember this is for busy TIRED parents just before bedtime. Put all your DRY stuff away.

In a large measuring cup (2 cupper) mix the WET.  With the same fork or small whisk.  (note, I added the Salt to the DRY instead of the WET, this time.  I am trying to delay BP activation) Beat throughly so Egg is broken down.

Pour the WET into the DRY.  Temper your enthusiasm here.  Barely mix the batter.  It will sit over night so they lumps will get absorbed then and during cooking.  I've helped out by using Cake flour but with all the soaking, you do not want to over work the Flour.  If it helps. Stir it 10-13 times MAX.   What that means is scooping from the middle down to the side and swooping, 10-13 times.  GENTLY.  THEN put the fork down! It should just be mixed so there are not large mountaint of flour.  Cover and refridgerate.

The next morning heat a non stick pan on Medium heat.  Melt some butter or a touch of Canola oil.  Scoop 1/4 c - 1/4 c of Batter into the pan.  Sprinkle some Blueberries in or sliced Banana. We made them the size of teacup saucers for T.  When the top looks 'matte' and not glossy wet and is covered in bubbles, flip.  It'll be a few minutes per side.

Yielded 10 small pancakes.  T ate two with more fruit!


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Saturday, November 5th - Nearly Out of Milk - Wholewheat Crêpes

Nearly Out of Milk Wholewheat Crêpes

Woke up today with a crêpes craving.  I slogged upstairs to D and lil T who were playing on the swing.  Having a reverse floor plan townhouse seemed like a great idea, no neighbours on our bedroom ceiling....until lil T.  Now when D takes the morning shift, T is banging his toys on our bedroom ceiling from 6am.  Wooo!  So on this sunny Saturday morning, rattled awake by plastic red roof being battered on the floor, I wanted a some nostalgic comfort.  Alas! Oh no! we're almost out of milk.  D warned that there wouldn't be enough for crêpes.  I shook the carton and estimated 3/4 c....seriously, I guessed exactly correctly.  Haha!  That was, well, less the amount of Milk D had already siphoned off for his morning Capp.  I don't dare touch that. 

I remembered back when I was in University and an ex boyfriend and I made his grand-mere's recipe for Crêpes and she used to use Water instead of Milk.  It made them alot lighter and lacier.  But I wasn't going to go all Water.  I like the richer texture that Milk gives them.  I decided just to augment what little 'free' Milk we had with Water. 

D wasn't thrilled with my use of Wholewheat Flour though but I really wasn't in the mood for White Flour.  I have to really be in the mood lately for White Flour and that's mostly in Pasta form.  The resulting Crêpes were light, nutty and crispy.  Yummo! 

Serve warm as you go with Maple Syrup (the real stuff!!), fresh Fruit, Preserves, Chocolate Spread and/or Cinnamon.

Nearly Out of Milk Whole Wheat Crêpes

1 1/4 c Wholewheat Flour
3/4 c Milk
1/2 c Water
1/8 t Salt (pinch)
1/4 t Vanilla
1 T Sugar (optional)
1/4 t Frangelico (Hazelnut Liqueur, optional)
Butter/Canola Oil for the pan

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the Flour, Salt and Sugar (optional).  Add the Milk and Water.  Whisk briefly.  Break the Eggs into the measuring cup you used for the Milk/Water and whisk to break up the Yolks a bit.  Add to the Batter.  Whisk to combine but do not over whisk. 

Let stand for at least 10-15 minutes.  Or in the fridge for half an hour and room temperature for half an hour  if you have the time or the patience.  I have never had the patience for that. 

I like to have a small bowl of melted Butter at the side of the pan with a Silicon Brush.  Heat a Non Stick Pan to Medium - Medium High heat.  Brush with a scant layer of Butter or Oil.  Ladel in 1/4 - 1/3 c of Batter.  I use a measuring cup but you can just use a ladel you're familiar with.  As you pour in the batter, lift the pan and begin to let it spread in a circular motion like on one of those bosu balancing boards. 

Let it sit for at least 1-2 minutes until the top is completely MATTE and the edges start to pull away from the pan.  Start to shimmy it with the pan alone then lift it with a wide thin Spatula.  Or if you're used to it, your fingers.  Flip.  It should be browned with spots and lacy bits. MMMMM  Cook the other side for another 2 minutes.  You want a decent amount of browned area so reflip and continue to cook as needed.

mmmmm!

Saturday, September 17th - Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

I'm a fanatic about using up leftovers.  Half tubs of sourcream, ricotta and mascarpone are my mountain.  Whenever we make italian dishes that require these lovely perishables, I either try to spin the dish to use the entire amount, buy smaller containers or try to use the remaining portion in some subsequent dishes.  We made two ricotta dishes this week.  D originally bought the larger Ricotta for his Zucchini Fritters, which I will post later, because it was the same price as the smaller tub with a better brand.  With more than half a tub left, we then made Pesto Ricotta BBQ'd Thin Crust Pizza.  That still left us with more than a quarter tub. 

I had thought about baking Ricotta Muffins since we also had a pint of sweet Blueberries threatening to expire. But with lil T in the demanding stage, I thought I should try for something a few less steps and clean up.  As well, his room is underneath my kitchen so I had thought that I should avoid turning on the mixer.  In the end, the effort was probably about equal because he woke so early.  In any case, the pancakes were lovely and tender.  The Ricotta effected the texture than the flavour.  Perhaps next time, I might change the proportions to see how far I can push the Ricotta volume.  Serve 4-5 hungry people. 

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

2.5 c Flour
1/2 c Cornmeal
1 T Baking Powder
2 T Sugar

3/4 c Ricotta (if you drain it over night in a paper coffee filter, then cut the Milk down 1/2 c)
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 c Milk
1 Lemon, Zested (not the juice)
1 1/2 t Salt
2 t Canola Oil


1-2 c Fresh Blueberries, washed

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller mixing bowl, mix the wet ingredients together.  Add to the dry ingredients.  Ideally, let stand for 20-30 minutes. 

With a nonstick pan or griddle on medium high heat, add some Oil or if you want to splash out, Butter.  To prevent the Butter burning mix with Oil or turn the heat down slightly.

Add 1/2 c ladels to the pan.  Allow to cook until lots of bubbles start to break on the surface and the top looks like it is starting to look less gloopy.  3-5 minutes.  Peep at the bottom to make sure it's not burning.  You may need to adjust your heat to allow it to cook through before the bottom cooks.  Flip.  It should be golden brown and crispy. 

Serve and eat as you go or keep warm in the oven.  Serve with Maple Syrup or if you have it Maple Butter...mmmmmm, tender and rich.  The nice zing of Lemon is awesome with the Blueberries and the Cheese. 

They keep well in the fridge cooked.  Just heat in a dry pan or in your toaster if they are small enough.

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Mar 14th - Mixed Berry Whole Wheat Pancakes - Lime and Coconut Prawn Squash Soup

D first made a version of these pancakes nearly 10 years ago at grad school in France. His international school has 'Days' for each nation represented in the class. For Canada Week, D made a pancake breakfast. The original version was a banana pancake but I was not in the mood for the cloy texture of pancakes today. Actually, we only have new bananas and I do not find that they work in baking or cooking. We have some over ripe in the freezer for such occasions but we had not taken them out. So instead, we are using a frozen berry mix as a substitute. As well, I have a penchant for Southern spins so I have begged and pleaded with modest success to add cornmeal. One day when I am at the helm of the morning skillet, I will make Ho-Cakes or Johnny Cakes which are mostly cornmeal. Love that crunch. Mom always adds cornmeal too. It is one of her only regular Western foods that she makes. She has the recipe on an old index card on the fridge but she rarely looks at it anymore. Though she makes hers the size of dinner plates and they are quite a bit fluffier. I think our Baking Powder is dead.

Mixed Berry Gud Wheat Pancakes (featuring Cornmeal)

Mix these two batches in separate bowls and then add together.

Mix Wet:
3 eggs
1 T vegetable or neutral oil (or melted butter)
2 c milk (lactose free, if you are intolerant to the violence of lactose as we both are :-D)
2 vanilla pod split and scraped of the seeds. You only want the seeds.

Sift Dry:
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
1/2 c cornmeal
2 t - 1 T sugar
2 t baking powder

Last: 1 c mixed berries

Add the Dry to the Wet, slowly by folding. You want it all combined but not over mixed or gluten will develop from the flour and you will have tough pancakes. Do not worry too much about small lumps but work out the big ones.

Gently fold in the berries.

In a large non stick fry pan heat some vegetable oil on medium heat, add two 1/4 ladles of batter as far apart as can be so that they do no bleed together into one enormous figure eight shaped pancake.

Let sit until a lot of bubbles appear on the surface and the edges look solid. It should be about 3 minutes. Check underneath as well that they do not over brown. If they start to over brown before the top looks like a sponge, then flip. I think our baking powder might be dead. We did not get many bubbles. Cook on the other side for another minutes.

Serve with Maple Syrup of course. MMMMM

For dinner, we went to our friends' B & H's new house. They fully renovated a beautiful house on Douglas Park. When I say fully, I mean, cut roof off, lift roof a storey and replace roof. Fully. It is stunning. They recovered a lot of the wood and there is so much air and light. On top of that, they had a new baby over Christmas so with the first time seeing them for the New Year, it was a treble whammy. We brought a little bag of goodies, pretty close to the traditional Scandanavian house warming gift of Bread, Wine and Salt. We brought a lovely Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc, my current favourite wine, so that their house would always know joy. We bought an Italian Easter Brioche, so that they would never know hunger. And instead of salt, for flavour, we brought some Chocolate and a Flowering Plant, so their home would always know sweetness and new life. The kids wanted the chocolate immediately :-P

H made a wonderful dinner and with the kids on Spring break and she on mat-leave, she even found the time to bake a Raspberry cake. B opened a very nice Nk'Mip Cellars Pinot Noir 2007.

The soup they served will definitely be something I try at home. This is not the exact recipe but from talking, is it. We have made Squash soups before but the small variations on this one made it so gooood!

Lime and Coconut Prawn Squash Soup

(serves 6-8)
3 lbs butternut squash peeled and cubed
1 tin coconut milk
3-4 c vegetable broth or water

1/2 onion sliced

1 lime, zest and juice
1 inch fresh ginger, minced (or in chunks if you want to fish it out)
1 T sugar, (or honey)
4-5 large prawn, shelled, per person
3-4 cups fresh, washed, baby spinach
1 c fresh cilantro chopped.
Salt and White Pepper to taste

In a large dutch oven, heat some vegetable oil on medium high. Sautee the onions and ginger until the onions soften. 2-3 minutes. Add the squash and sautee for 5 minutes to soften the squash slightly. Add the broth/water, to cover the squash. Simmer for 30 minutes until the squash is fork tender, or you soft enough where you could squash a cube with your finger or the back of a fork. Add the lime zest.

Puree with a hand blender until smooth. Do not worry about getting perfectly smooth. Add the coconut milk. Add more water by swishing the coconut milk tin if the soup is too think. You do not want porridge thick. Add the prawn. Simmer on low until the prawn are just cooked.

In the soup bowls, place 1/2 c of baby spinach leaves, and small handful of cilantro. Ladle the soup over the greens. Make sure to get 4-5 prawn per person. Squeeze a wedge of lime just before serving.

It was gorgeous!!!