Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tasty Tuesday: Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes

I am really excited about this week's Tasty Tuesday post :) It has been one of my favorites so far! 

Have you ever tried the Harvest Grain 'N Nut Pancakes from IHOP? If you haven't, you are missing out...they are crazy delicious! If you have...you know exactly what I mean :) 

The bad news is...they are probably not really all that healthy if they come from IHOP (c'mon, let's face it...it's IHOP...). The good news...I am about to share with you a pretty dang awesome substitute recipe :)

I found this recipe at allrecipes.com, and read some of the reviews and decided to give it a shot. I was actually a little nervous at first because I have never made pancakes completely from scratch. The best I have ever done is adding an egg to the Aunt Jemima mix that comes from a box...of course! The scary thing is...Walter LOVES Aunt Jemima...like seriously, one time I bought Hungry Jack pancake mix and he looked like a little kid that just lost his puppy. So not only was I trying something new for the first time, I had to live up to the queen of pancakes. Yikes!

Here is the recipe:
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (I just used instant...worked fine)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup milk (I used skim milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I substituted 1/2 cup applesauce!)
1 egg (I used 2...)
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional - I definitely used them!)

I had read some of the reviews for the pancakes, and the only complaint really was that some people found them to be pretty dry. That is why I added an egg and used applesauce instead of vegetable oil. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and I think that added some nice flavor too :) 

Directions:
1. Grind the oats in a blender or food processor until fine. In a large bowl, combine ground oats, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, milk, oil (applesauce), egg(s), (vanilla and cinnamon) with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix wet ingredients into dry with a few swift strokes. Stir in nuts, if desired.
3. Lightly oil a skillet or griddle (I used a little I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray), and preheat it to medium heat. Ladle 1/3 cup of the batter onto the hot skillet; cook the pancakes 2 to 4 minutes per side, or until brown.

I think my stove is a little slow (I hate electric stoves, by the way...), so I actually heated my skillet a little hotter. Mine worked great when I had it set around medium-high heat and cooked for about 4 minutes per side. One thing I would recommend anytime you are making pancakes: try to only flip them once; they will stay more on the fluffy side instead of the flat side :)

They were probably some of the best pancakes I have ever had! One bit of warning though...that recipe makes a whole bunch of pancakes! haha. I think I ended up with 11 pancakes total...and they were not small pancakes...they were pretty good size!

Nutrition info:
(*Note: this is what was on the website, so I don't know if it's exact since I changed the oil to applesauce and added an egg*)
Servings: 6 (2 pancakes)
Calories: 383
Total Fat: 15.5 g

Unfortunately they did not give anymore information than that on the website, but I'm going to bet there was a lot of fiber! ;) 

In addition to the 3 tablespoons of walnuts, I also added a tablespoon of chopped pecans, and I will probably add a little more next time (I guess I'm trying to say I like the nuts...). I will also probably cut the recipe in half so that I don't have a freezer full of pancakes when I'm done next time :) Another thing I would recommend, as I did with the French Toast, is real maple syrup...none of that pancake (high-fructose corn) syrup stuff! It was delicious! I actually just ate one pancake (okay, okay...and half of another one while they were cooking...), with my real maple syrup, and cut up a banana to have with it...it was delicious! Also, they were very moist - I think it was the applesauce! - so I really didn't even need much syrup to make them taste good!



Enjoy!



1 comment:

  1. yummy these sound delicious. I have been searching for low-carb mix since pancakes, muffins, breads, etc have so many carbs! It's frustrating but I definitely want to try something soon!!

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