I think because my mom often sent me to school with a kiss and a cold pop-tart (sorry mom), I am now one of those moms who really insists that we all eat something healthy in the mornings and that we all sit together to eat it! It can be a challenge to make it happen since all three kids have school at different times, but we usually can manage 5-7 minutes together. The harder problem is Andy — who unlike his brother Greg and sister Sylvie, really dislikes cereal. Not only that, he refuses most breakfast items unless they happen to have chocolate or chocolate chips in them. That being said, I’m always on the look out for healthy pancakes. Of course I mess that up a bit with some added chocolate chips but I hope that the benefits of merely eating, and eating together will somehow win the fight over the chocolate in the AM. So I decided to try Ellie Krieger’s Whole Wheat pancakes for a change. They were a hit! Especially with the chocolate. Oh, and Andy just read this and said, “I’m eating whole wheat pancakes?!” – guess they are good. Ellie serves these with an delicious looking strawberry sauce, but Andy eats them plain (well with chips) and no need for syrup.
whole-wheat chocolate chip pancakes (adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger)
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
mini-chips (to taste and optional)
2 large eggs (room temp if possible)
1 cup buttermilk (low fat)
3/4 cup low or non fat milk
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
cooking spray
chocolate chips
In a large bowl, whisk the 2 flours, baking soda and powder, salt, cinnamon and chocolate (if using). In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, buttermilk, milk, honey and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix gently until just mixed. Do not over work or over mix this batter. It should be lumpy.
Spray the non-stick pans with cooking spray and then heat over medium (at the start) to low heat. Pour the batter from 1/4 or 1/8 cup measures and then add a few full sized chocolate chips to the pancakes. Turn pancakes when they start to bubble and they are brown on the bottom. Then cook about another 1 1/2 minutes depending on the heat. I like to cook them on low heat – especially at the end of the batch because the pan gets super hot and they can burn easily.
I like to double the recipe and make many extra. Once cool, I wrap the pancakes in groups of 3-4 pancakes and place in a plastic bag or airtight container and freeze. (I just read about Freeze-tite – a product that is best for the freezer from the same maker as my beloved Stretch-tite!) Every night I pull out a pancake pack to defrost and in the morning I microwave or heat in the toaster oven. Every day I have home-made pancakes for my chocolate-loving cereal-hating son Andy. And yes, he better love me forever.
