Read, Set, Weekend with Simply Beautiful Eating
I think I’m a little obsessed with brunch foods lately. Once the weekend hits, I’m all in for having something different than my usual weekday fare. You see, my daily routine revolves around a bowl filled with blueberries, sliced banana, coconut milk, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and then sprinkled with a granola “du jour”. Some may think it’s just a daily boring routine. I look at it as starting my day by EATING and boy do I ever do that well.
In my humble opinion, there’s really no better way to start a weekend morning than with a stack of hot and fluffy pancakes.
So how did I come up with this recipe? It’s my “go to” whole wheat pancake batter with a topping made with roasted berries. Simple, healthy and delish. Made with 100% whole wheat flour, they are a healthier alternative to the ones made from white flour.
Alrighty then. There are a couple secrets to making these pancakes so fluffy and I’m sure you wanna know how it’s done, so fear not, I’m going to tell you. Ready?
First you need an electric griddle. Yep. You heard me right.
You can absolutely make these in a frying pan but they truly do come out much better on a griddle. I don’t know why, but just trust me, they do. If you’re not into the griddle method, go ahead and fry away, just make sure you add plenty of butter in the pan after each batch.
Next, you are going to whisk together the dry ingredients until combined. Then, here comes one of the first tricks. It’s TIME TO SEPARATE YOUR EGGS. Don’t worry, you are going to use both the yolks and the whites but that’s where the secret lies – whipping your whites will guarantee that FLUFF FACTOR.
Now it’s time to mix together the wet ingredients and dry ingredients. Here’s another trick to avoid dreaded BATTER LUMPS. Oh no!
Take about 1/4 of the wet mixture and blend it with the dry mixture until a thick paste is formed. Now add the rest of the wet mixture and mix until just combined. JUST DON’T OVERMIX IT or you will screw up the fluffiness and this whole exercise will result in flatsy cakes.
Okay, so the real secret is 100% the beaten egg whites. So brilliant. You need an electric or stand mixer for this and you also need to beat the heck outta of those whites. Your mission is to get those whites to stand at attention. Stiff peaks baby, stiff peaks.
Last but not least, be gentle…..be very, very gentle. You need to fold those stiff egg whites into the batter until no white spots remain. This must be done RIGHT BEFORE you ready to make the pancakes. The longer this batter sits around, the less likely you are going to end up with fluffy pancakes. There’s no texting, checking your instagram feeds or turning on CNN here. If you’re going to be ready to go, screen time is not an option. So get your griddle HAT ON, make sure it’s hot, generously greased and ready for pancake cooking action.
That’s it! Aren’t you glad you read all of this? Did you read all of this? Do you really care?
Speaking of which, I know Steve has read this. I also wanted to share his method of eating a stack of pancakes, fluffy or not.
First, he cuts out a hole in the top of the pancake stack. Then he pours his maple syrup right down the centre of that hole. Wait. There’s more. Sometimes he refills that hole with more syrup as he works his way down the stack. Do you want to know how I eat my stack? I don’t bother excavating into the pancakes, I just pour, cut and eat. Boom, bang, done.
Gawd I love these, hope you will too.
Pancake Batter
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1⅔ cup milk
½ cup oil
Butter, for the griddle
Roasted Berries
¾ cup blueberries
¾ cup blackberries
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat an electric griddle to 400℉. You can also use a non-stick frying pan on medium-high heat but they come out better on a griddle.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar.
Separate eggs into two medium bowls, yolks in one bowl and egg whites in another. Set whites aside. Beat egg yolks with a fork. Then, mix milk and oil into the beaten egg yolks until combined.
To combine the wet and the dry ingredients, pour about ¼ of the yolk, milk and oil mixture into the flour mixture. Mix until a thick paste is formed. Add the rest of the yolk mixture and mix until just blended and smooth. DO NOT over mix.
Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until very stiff. Gently fold egg whites into the batter. This will make the pancakes fluffy, but be sure you do this step right before you’re ready to make the pancakes.
Cook on a griddle generously coated with butter until golden on each side. Pancakes are ready to flip when the edges are starting to brown. Serve with roasted Blackberries & Blueberries.
ROASTED BLACK & BLUES
Preheat oven to 425℉. Place blackberries & blueberries onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. Toss to coat and bake for 20 minutes. Serve over pancakes with warm maple syrup