a New old time Favorite

Mare Evans CNW Contributor

In most American households pancakes are a favorite breakfast food and have become relegated to weekends when there is time for preparation and time to enjoy the delicious meal. So let’s look first at what a pancake is. Simply put, a pancake is a flat cake made from a batter of eggs, milk, and flour and fried on a very hot surface, often with butter. Depending on your preference, pancakes can be thin or thick, crispy or fluffy based on the recipe, and are served with a variety of toppings and sauces.

Ordinarily, there are two types of pancakes, but we will introduce a third type of pancake here: The two types of pancakes most people are familiar with are:

• Crêpes - Thin, French-style crêpes originated in Brittany hundreds of years ago and are now eaten around the globe. They can be eaten with sweet or savory fillings or toppings and are often crispy around the edges.

• American-style Pancakes - Thick and fluffy, these types of pancakes are associated with breakfast in the US. They are much fatter than crêpes

- due to the addition of baking powder or whipped egg whites to the ingredients, and eaten with sweet foods like fruit, chocolate chips and syrup (as well as thin, crispy bacon).

• The 3rd type is Called Pancake Puffs

Pancakes

¾ cup unbleached flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 ¼ cups soy or almond milk

2 tbsp olive oil

Fruit Sauce

1 ½ cups frozen strawberries.

2 tbsp grape jelly

Optional Topping coconut yogurt, vanilla flavor instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place two muffin tin pans in the oven to preheat.

2. In a large bowl, add dry ingredients for pancakes and mix.

3. Add milk and oil and stir until just blended (the batter will still appear lumpy, but that is good).

4. After the muffin tins have been in the oven for at least 5 minutes, pull them out of the oven and spray them with a non-stick spray. Fill each muffin space with batter until ½ full. Leave any extra spaces empty.

5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the pancake puffs from the muffin tin.

6. While the pancakes are baking, prepare the berry sauce. Place frozen strawberries and grape jelly into a microwave-safe bowl and heat until warm. Mash berries with a fork and mix well.

7. Serve over the top of the pancake puffs with optional coconut yogurt.

Pancakes are not exactly what we’d describe as healthy, but they do contain several vitamins and minerals. They can also be high in fat, calories, carbs and sodium, and if made with the usual white flour which can cause blood sugar spikes you want to be easy on the amount you eat. Few suggest that for these reasons you eat pancakes in moderation. It’s also better to opt for homemade pancakes rather than processed ones, which may contain hidden sugar and salt.

Making good pancakes

Few people take the step that can assure you great pancakes because it requires that you rest the batter for at least 10 minutes, or even overnight before cooking. This allows time for the flour to hydrate and soften, eliminating any lumps and distributing the bubbles to give you a perfectly lifted pancake.

The main ingredients in pancake batter are:

• Plain flour

• Milk

• Eggs

• Pinch of salt

• or oil or butter for cooking in a skillet

*Pancakes are not vegetarian because that would mean that they are plant-based and pancakes contain milk a derivative from cows and eggs if fertilized become chickens. Both are animal products, yet they do not contain meat.

Pancakes are not vegan - traditional pancake recipes include eggs and milk (and sometimes butter for cooking in), which are animal-derived products. However, vegans can still enjoy pancakes, as there are many vegan egg and dairy replacements on the market. You can find our tips for the perfect vegan in vegan recipes.

Pancakes are not gluten-free, because flour is one of the main ingredients which is made from wheat, which contains gluten. However, gluten-free pancakes can be made using gluten-free flour. Because gluten helps food rise, it should be noted that the addition of baking powder is required if you want fat, fluffy gluten-free pancakes. Finally, pancakes contain at least 3 of the 14 major food allergens. These are:

• Milk

• Eggs

• Cereals containing Gluten (via flour) ingredients:

Depending on the pancake topping they may also contain other allergen ingredients such as Nuts.

¾ cup unbleached flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 ¼ cups soy or almond milk

2 tbsp olive oil

Fruit Sauce

1 ½ cups frozen strawberries.

2 tbsp grape jelly

Optional Topping coconut yogurt, vanilla flavor instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place two muffin tin pans in the oven to preheat.

2. In a large bowl, add dry ingredients for pancakes and mix.

3. Add milk and oil and stir until just blended (the batter will still appear lumpy, but that is good).

4. After the muffin tins have been in the oven for at least 5 minutes, pull them out of the oven and spray them with a non-stick spray. Fill each muffin space with batter until ½ full. Leave any extra spaces empty.

5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the pancake puffs from the muffin tin.

6. While the pancakes are baking, prepare the berry sauce. Place frozen strawberries and grape jelly into a microwave-safe bowl and heat until warm. Mash berries with a fork and mix well.

7. Serve over the top of the pancake puffs with optional coconut yogurt. Now go make your pancakes.