Tag: Lactose-Free

Get Your Kids Involved

It’s also easy to get the kids involved in mixing the ingredients, and choosing any extras, like blueberries or chocolate chips, to add to the mix.

My eldest son began helping me mix ingredients when he was about 2 1/2 yrs old. Cooking with a toddler can be a challenge, but it’s also a lot of fun. First you let them use a spoon or whisk with just the dry ingredients. Then you let them go at it with the wet ingredients, and once they’re ready, you can even have them measure & pour everything into the bowl. My eldest is 4 now, and I’ve let him spoon the batter right into the frying pan (with supervision of course).

He loves cooking with Dad, and I greatly recommend getting your kids started in the kitchen early.

The Problem With Pancakes

The main problem with pancakes: they don’t help the waistline very much. In addition to having a lot of sugar, most recipes are made with milk, which is not particularly friendly for a significant portion of the population. Add the issues that come with using white flour, and you have a long list of reasons why pancakes may not be the greatest.

It took some work, but I’ve finally hammered out a recipe that tastes great, and avoids a lot of the issues that usually come with pancakes.

It’s 100% whole wheat, only has half the sugar, and uses unsweetened almond milk. Sure, we’re still going to add maple syrup afterward, but at least the base pancake is a little healthier.

Some Important Tips & Tricks

There are a few things that can really help you out with making pancakes, or that pancakes can help you out with overall.

Here’s a few of them:

• Pre-measure your dry ingredients and keep them in jars. Basically, this creates a pancake-in-a-jar. You just need to add the wet ingredients, and your pancakes are good to go. It’s a great time-saver in the long run, as are these 5 ways to find time.
• Pancakes do refrigerate & freeze well, so you can make extras and save them for later.
• Even without syrup, pancakes can make a tasty snack-on-the-go. So you can pop one out of the fridge and snack on it when you have to run to the store at 2:00 pm and realize you haven’t had anything to eat since you got up at 5:30.
• Use a rubber spatula to get the last of the batter out of the bowl. This may lead to one pancake being supersized. Save yourself some sibling rivalry, and take this pancake for yourself. You made the meal, you get to have that last one fresh from the pan.
• If you have more than 1 kid, give them the exact same amount on their plates initially, and only give them 1 extra pancake at a time, after they’ve devoured their plates. When they’re still small, they don’t really count beyond what’s in the plate at the time, and by limiting the refills to 1 at a time, you give everyone a chance to go back for a little bit more before it all disappears.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup (200 grams) whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon stevia
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 2/3 cups (395 ml) unsweetened almond milk
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Want to mix things up?

You can add 1/2 cup of fruit or 1/4 cup of chocolate chips to the batter. Pre-coat berries or chopped fruit in whole wheat flour and gently fold it into the batter before cooking.

Recommended Sides

These pancakes are great with Bacon and/or Breakfast Sausages. Personally, I’d stay away from beans, toast and hashbrowns, as the pancakes are already pretty heavy, especially once you add Real Canadian Maple Syrup.

The Original Recipe

I have to give credit where it’s due. I did not come up with this recipe 100% on my own. Like most people, I tried another recipe and began to tweak it to fit my taste, my family’s dietary restrictions, and any lifestyle choices that may get in the way.

This pancake recipe was inspired by Adam and Joanne Gallagher’s Easy Delicious Whole Wheat Pancakes. Theirs uses milk, 1/2 white flour, more sugar, less cinnamon, and less vanilla. If you have more flexibility in your diet, be sure to try their recipe at Inspired Taste.

Step-by-Step

Make Batter

1. Whisk flour, sugar, stevia, cinnamon, baking powder, and sea salt in a medium bowl. Leave a depression or well in the center of the mixed dry ingredients.
2. In a 2nd bowl, whisk almond milk, egg, oil and vanilla extract until well blended.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the depression you left in the dry ingredients, and whisk until mostly smooth. Because almond milk is thin, this will not be a very thick batter, and you should not need extra almond milk beyond the stated ingredients.
4. Allow to sit 5 minutes before use. This actually allows the batter to rise slightly, making the pancakes fluffier.

Cook Pancakes

1. Add 1 tablespoon (approx) of vegetable oil to a large frying pan and heat on medium-high.
2. Once up to temp, decrease to medium or medium-low. Spoon 3-4 pancakes onto the pan. Be sure to leave about 1/3 – 1/2 inch of space between each pancake. Put a lid on, if you have a glass lid. This allows the top to cook slightly, so the pancakes don’t run when you flip them.
3. When the edges begin to brown, look dry, and/or bubbles start popping on the top of the pancakes, flip it over, about 2 minutes. I press flat with my spatula, because we’re paranoid about ensuring its cooked through, but it makes a flatter pancake than you may prefer and is completely unnecessary. Cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked in the middle.
4. Keep warm in the oven until all pancakes are cooked. Trust me, if you serve 1 kid, the other is going to throw a fit. If you serve both of them and wait to cook another round before you eat, well, you won’t be eating…
5. Serve warm with maple syrup (and/or butter, icing sugar, cinnamon, nutella, or whatever you & your family enjoy).

Want to see more photos? Check out our post of this recipe to the Just Cookin’ board on Pinterest.