My secretly healthy all-time-favourite pancake base recipe

I figured out that I’ve only shared my pumpkin pancake recipe on this site. Not that I like it any less but I don’t always want pumpkin pancakes nor have the mood to roast and mash a pumpkin. This base recipe is the one I turn to most often when I’m craving pancakes. It’s my proud no-fail formula that I’ve took at least 40 times to perfect.

 This is the version following suggestion 2 below.

My secretly healthy all-time-favourite pancake base recipe (yield: 6 medium-sized thick pancakes)

Dry ingredients:

40 g whole spelt flour (whole wheat flour can be used but spelt is sweeter and lighter)

55 g dark rye flour/ buckwheat flour/ other flour/ unsweetened cocoa powder

(Suggestions:

1. all dark rye: extra light and fluffy pancakes

2. 40/15 buckwheat/dark rye: strong buckwheat aroma without a dry and sandy texture

3. 15 g unsweetened cocoa with 45 g flour: chocolate pancakes)

2 tsp brown sugar (omit for savory pancakes, 1 tbsp for sweeter pancakes and 1-1.5 tbsp for the cocoa version)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Wet ingredients (all at room temperature):

1 large whole egg

100 g regular fat free yogurt (sub with ricotta for extra airy pancakes)

80 g water/ milk/ whey/ extra yogurt (I often use whey or water)

1/4 tsp any kind of flavorings (optional) e.g. vanilla extract, maple flavour etc.

Add-ins (totally optional):

Citrus zest

Chopped chocolate/ cacao nibs

Berries

Nuts and seeds

cheese, corn, leek and bacon (my favourite savory combo)

etc.

Combine all dry ingredients. Beat the egg with a fork and stir into the rest of the wet ingredients. Meanwhile, preheat a non-stick 10 inch pan (I love my cast iron skillet but non-stick yields better pancake as it gives you better heat level control) at low/medium heat.

Gently and roughly mix the dry ingredients into the egg/ yogurt mixture, leaving a few small lumps. Fold in any add-ins if using.

Ladle 1/4 cup of the batter into the preheated pan. Spread it out a bit with the back of a spoon as the batter should be very thick. I like to cook 3 pancakes at the same time by arranging the 3 ladles of batter in a triangle pattern. Adjust the heat as required. Maintaining the pan at the right temperature is tricky but is also the key to making the thickest and fluffiest pancakes. It requires practices to master but here’s an indicator of the right temperature: hold your hand about 10 cm above the pan, it should feel very warm but you should be able to keep it there for over a minute.

Flip the pancakes when the pancakes are fully puffed up with lots of air bubbles. Heat the other side for roughly a minute or until cooked through.

This recipe yields soft, moist and fluffy pancakes that are in fact super healthy. They are slightly hearty rather than super airy which I actually prefer as they are more satisfying. I mostly serve it with just half a tsp of ghee and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. However, I sometimes make lemon curd or a chocolate ganache to go with chocolate pancakes.

Hope you would try this out. I promise you won’t be disappointed!