Cottage Cheese Pancakes (GF)

I think I’m broken.

I’ve lost the ability to bake regular desserts and cook regular foods. My thought process is approximately this:

If I’m craving chocolate chip cookies: “hmm I wonder if I could make chocolate chip cookies from spelt flour and erythritol!”

If I want muffins: “oh yeah let me just throw in some tofu and oatmeal–nevermind that I’m not following any recipe.”

And apparently, now the first thought that comes to mind when I want pancakes is cottage cheese. Long gone are the days of making buttermilk pancakes, although I would never turn one down if offered.

It’s honestly just plain fun to try and healthify traditional foods. Though the muffins weren’t that fun. They were kind of gross actually. Next time.

These pancakes are a rendition of my favorite oatmeal pancakes, but while I consider those pancakes snack food, these have protein and feel like a substantial meal. They’re delicious, cottage cheese and all. (I promise my tastebuds aren’t broken.)

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Makes 1 serving (This is about 2/3 of a serving)

• ½ cup cottage cheese (I used 1%, I think)
• 1 egg + 3 tbs egg whites*
• ½ tsp sweetener (I used ½ tsp sugar-free vanilla syrup. Maple syrup or sugar works too.)
• ¼ tsp extract (I used butter extract–vanilla works as well)
• 1 teaspoon coconut flour
• 2 tablespoons oat flour**
• 1/8 tsp baking power

1. Blend cottage cheese, egg, and egg white, sweetener, and extract until smooth.
2. Add coconut flour, oatmeal flour, and baking powder, and blend until smooth.
3. Cook pancakes at medium heat on a nonstick pan (nonstick is really important).
4. Tada, you have delicious pancakes. Super easy. Top with syrup. I halved this syrup recipe and made it with raspberries.

*I keep a carton of egg whites. If you don’t, just replace with 1 egg white, or even replace with milk, honestly

**To make oat flour, grind oats in a food processor or blender until flour-y. Measure 2 tablespoons afterwards.

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Chocolate Oatmeal Pancakes (GF)

A while ago I posted a recipe for gluten free pancakes promising a recipe for gluten free chocolate pancakes in the future. Well, today’s that day! These pancakes are super simple to make (provided you have a blender) and they taste amazing! Chocolate lovers (aka me), these are for you!

Chocolate Oatmeal Pancakes (GF)

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tiny pinch salt
• ¼ cup oats

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.
2. Fry on a nonstick surface! (very very important that the pan is nonstick. My other pans couldn’t handle this batter)
3. Serve with a healthy drizzle (dousing) of chocolate ganache (1 tbs of chocolate chips melted in 2 tbs heavy whipping cream)!

On a side note, my camera is still broken 😦 Luckily I have this picture from before it broke.

Five Minute Oatmeal Pancakes!

Five minutes from now you could have seven pancakes. Seven soft, fluffy gluten free pancakes that taste just as delicious as their wheat-filled counterparts. Honestly, they’re easier to make than regular pancakes and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to make flour ones again.

I’ve made this recipe six times in the past week – three times plain, once with chocolate chips, and twice with cocoa – and all versions received raving reviews from my parents and peers alike. Make this recipe, fall in love, and never spend more than five minutes making pancakes again.

EDIT: From an attempt to cook these pancakes on a regular frying pan, I’ve realized how important a nonstick surface is. So unless you want to make scrambled pancake, use nonstick!

Five Minute Pancakes 

(1 minute for gathering ingredients, 1 minute for blending, and 3 minutes to cook; it’s really that easy!)

• ¼ cup old fashioned oats
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar (I use 1 pitted date!)
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.
2. Blend for about a minute, or until the mixture is smooth.
3. Cook at medium-high heat on a non stick pan until golden brown.
4. Serve plain, or with syrup, jam, ice cream, or chocolate sauce.

Buttermilk Pancakes with Berry Syrup

Pancakes and I have a shaky history.

I remember my brother Jonathan took me to an iHop when I was younger, around the time my dad switched to a raw food diet and cut my access to all “junk food” off, and being completely astounded by the sheer number of syrup flavors, let alone pancake combinations, served. Of course, at that time, all food not raw or completely natural had a negative stigma attached to it, so my experience was only slightly tainted by the guilt of eating white flour and sugar (the horror!). Still though, they were delicious and definitely fueled the love for pancakes I have today.

Pancakes and I are on good terms now. I haven’t been to an iHop since (turns out, they’re really not that delicious compared to homemade ones), rather I prefer to make my own pancakes. My favorite part of homemade pancakes is making syrups to go along with them, a process which is actually super, super easy. Berry syrup, caramel syrup, pudding (?), the toppings for pancakes are endless.

I’m definitely going to be making pumpkin pancakes sometime soon, but for now, these super simple, but delicious, buttermilk pancakes ought to suffice.

Buttermilk Pancakes

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 1/8 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Stir together the flour, baking soda, sugar,and salt.
2. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and butter.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and GENTLY fold together. Do not overmix.
4. Cook on medium heat until golden brown.

Berry Syrup

• ¼ cup pancake syrup (I used this sugar-free syrup, and I highly recommend it. It’s delicious!)
• ¼ cup diced/crushed berries (I used about 3 strawberries and 2 blackberries)

1. Combine the syrup and berries together in a pan. Boil until the syrup is thick and the berries are cooked.
2. Serve with buttermilk pancakes! (Or basically anything)

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I’m notorious among the people I know as being a baker.  In fact, whenever my friends come to my house, it’s normal to find us crafting various baked goods (well, in some cases it’s me baking and my friend eating XD).  My friend Sonia came over last week, and we made chocolate chip pancakes.  But, the problem (well, I wouldn’t say it’s much of a problem!) was that we made a rather large batch of chocolate-studded batter, even too much for two teens with voracious appetites!  Even after gorging on countless pancakes, I still had a gallon of batter.  Then, I proceeded to eat pancakes at every meal for the next three days.  Um, yum.  But anyways, one would think that after all those pancakes, I wouldn’t be able to look at them without feeling sick.  Nah, my love of pancakes remains firm.

These pancakes are perfectly fluffy, flavorful, and filling. If you’re not super paranoid about preservatives, you can make them super quickly using Bisquick, but if you’re more of a from-scratch type of cook, I’ve included the homemade biscuit mix recipe I myself use.  The homemade biscuit mix makes a lot, I must warn, but don’t fear, it can be used in any recipe calling for Bisquick.  (In fact, I’ll have an amazing recipe for pumpkin pie which uses the mix, which I plan on sharing shortly, perhaps when the weather cools down a bit)

Bisquick Style Biscuit Mix

• 4 cups all purpose flour (some can be subbed with WW flour)
• 2 tbs baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¾ cup buttermilk power (dry milk can be subbed, but buttermilk powder ensures optimum texture)
• 1 cup shortening (I used non hydrogenated, and it works great!)

1. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  Whisk to combine.
2. Add the shortening, and kneed the mixture with your fingers until shortening is evenly distributed, and the mix barely holds its shape when squeezed.  Use in any recipe calling for bisquick.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

• 2 cups bisquick/biscuit mix (2 ½ cups for thicker, but still fluffy, pancakes)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup milk (buttermilk if using bisquick)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup chocolate chips (increase or decrease as desired)

1. Mix the sugar, lemon juice, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.
2. Pour into bisquick/biscuit mix, and stir until barely combined.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Cook the pancakes at medium heat for about 2 minutes, flip, and then cook until no raw batter remains.  The batter can be stored for up to three days (maybe even more, but there’s no way they won’t be all eaten by then!), covered, in a refrigerator.
5. Serve with whipped cream or pancake syrup, and enjoy!

Oatmeal Pancakes with Brown Sugar Banana Syrup

School has begun once again, and I’m quite frankly overwhelmed by the idea of entering junior year, and also desperately missing the friends I made the summer.  Traveling to Mexico and going to an SAT camp this summer was so fun, but I had to say goodbye to countless new friends.  Luckily, I can see all my old friends now that school has started, but it’s not the same when there’s stress and schoolwork and extracurriculars.  In Mexico, time was told by human instinct, I could eat when I was hungry, and sleep when I was tired.  Now I have to resume life during the school year, which is hectic (although to keeps me entertained!) and structured.

Probably what I miss most about the summer, is being able to wake up whenever I wanted.  I could wake up at nine, and spend hours cooking breakfast for myself, making breakfasts such as the pancakes above.  Now, I’m not say that these pancakes take hours to make, nah, but these definitely are best to make for a relaxing “weekend breakfast.”  Eating them is like a short escape from the stress of school life, a way to relive that wonderful summer mindset.

Recipe for oatmeal pancakes with banana syrup copied from here.

Oatmeal Pancakes with Banana Syrup
Banana-Walnut Syrup

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts
• 2 bananas, sliced
• 1 cup maple-flavored syrup

Pancakes

• 2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 eggs

1. In 1 ½-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add walnuts; cook, stirring occasionally, just until walnuts and butter begin to brown. Add bananas; stir to coat with butter. Stir in syrup. Reduce heat to low; cook until warm. Keep warm while making pancakes.
2. Heat griddle or skillet over medium heat or to 375°F. Grease griddle with vegetable oil if necessary (or spray with cooking spray before heating). In medium bowl, stir all pancake ingredients with spoon until blended.
3. For each pancake, pour ¼ cup batter onto hot griddle. Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook other sides until golden. Serve with warm syrup.

My alterations:

• Used almonds instead of walnuts
• Used a homemade bisquick mix (recipe from this book, similar recipe here)
• Made my own pancake syrup (recipe here)