Wholegrain Sweet Potato and Banana Pancakes
I have been on a weekend pancake trial-athon lately. I wish I could say that I love pancakes. It's just that I got a bee in my bonnet about making healthy pancakes for breakfast. Any American diner will serve you a half dozen pancakes, each the size of your face, packed with refined flour, butter and sugar, with a few blueberries strewn on top, to lend a false air of virtuosity, and a small jug of maple syrup on the side. I hardly ever order pancakes when we go out for brunch. If I wanted to treat myself, I'd rather do it in style with something richer, like a double chocolate cake, than a stack of pancakes that can quickly get boring.
Weekday breakfasts are usually a rushed affair for us. The first thing I do in the morning (after I check my phone, of course) is to walk into the kitchen, still bleary eyed, switch on the stove, and get some oatmeal going for breakfast. A few years ago, we decided to give up on sugary cereal and rely on oatmeal for breakfast. As you can imagine, we go through a lot of oats in a month. Our large canister of oats has pride of place on our kitchen counter. On weekday mornings, all I do is get a cup of oats and some water going in a saucepan. By the time I am done brushing my teeth, the oatmeal is practically ready. I add a glug of milk, chopped prunes, sliced almonds, a pinch or two of salt and usually some chopped fruit as well. The prunes and fruit make up for the lack of sugar.
Weekend breakfasts are a different matter altogether. I like lingering over the stove. Often, I'll make an egg dish, like shakshuka. Occasionally, it is masala dosa and coconut chutney for breakfast. And as I said, these days, we have something of a weekend pancake tradition going.
If the definition of a pancake is that it starts with a batter and ends up on a hot griddle, we have so many types of pancakes in Kerala alone. Among my favorites is masala dosa. My mother is a dosa pro, skilled at making crisp dosas, that shatter into shards, with a soft potato masala stuffing tucked inside. Dosas are incomplete without their standard accompaniments. Sambar is my favorite, but I make do with coconut chutney these days, which is much easier to put together. Dosa preparation needs patience, given the time it takes to soak and grind rice and lentils, and allow for the slow process of fermentation. It also requires tolerance for noise. Dosa breakfasts at home meant putting up with the loud whistles of the pressure cooker, and the roar of our Sumeet mixie, both of which were capable of drowning out the TV and conversation. But all said and done, these were minor inconveniences in the journey to crispy dosas.
On one of my brother's birthdays, my mother decided to organize a masala dosa party, with the dosa being the star of the birthday menu. The thing with masala dosas is that they must be served fresh off the griddle. The shorter the delay in a dosa being transported from griddle to plate, the better. Dosas wilt if left too long on a plate. The steam makes their undersides soggy, and in minutes, they lose their defining crispiness. My mother, being a cook worth her salt, naturally planned to be in the kitchen for part of the evening, to serve freshly made masala dosas to the young invitees.
A bunch of prepubescent boys, perpetually starving by definition, showed up at home in the evening. One of my brother's friends displayed, in the most literal sense, an insatiable appetite for dosas. Let's just say my mother spent all evening in the company of dosa batter. Eventually, this dosa loving friend went on to become a doctor. I bet he advises his patients to exercise moderation in all matters, as doctors always do. Although it has been close to two decades since I last ran into him, my enduring memory of him is watching him at our oversized dining table, eyes glued to the kitchen, waiting in anticipation for the next dosa to appear, and the next, and the next.
***
Back to my pancake trial-athon. I tried all sorts of permutations and combinations with a few core ingredients - flour, milk, and eggs. Melissa Clark's recipe from the New York Times proved to be a good starting point, but I wanted to reduce the butter and eliminate the cornmeal (which is rarely, if ever, in my kitchen pantry). It took me and my cast iron pan several tries before I finally came up with this recipe.
These days, my husband has been smugly mouthing a new quote he heard somewhere, when I am hunched over a new cooking experiment in the kitchen - "If it tastes good, spit it out". These pancakes taste good, and I would hazard to say they are also good for you - they contain wholegrain, sweet potato and banana, and hardly any added sugar. You don't need to serve them with blueberries on the side to feel virtuous. And I can assure you that nobody will be able to bring themselves to spit it out.
Wholegrain Sweet Potato and Banana Pancakes (serves 4)
To whisk together
1and 1/4 cups oat flour (I make my own by powdering old fashioned oats (not the instant sort) in a blender)
3/4 cup wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp salt (1tsp if you want a salty note)
1 tsp baking powder
To blend
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cup warmed milk
2 tsp vanilla (you could substitute with 4-5 cardamom pods (powdered), if you prefer)
1 medium sized banana (the more ripe, the better)
1.25 cups mashed sweet potato, from 1 medium sized sweet potato (I microwave peeled and sliced sweet potato with just a dash of water in a covered bowl for 5 minutes and mash once it has cooled)
1 tsp molasses, for mildly sweet pancakes (I would think you can substitute with sugar or honey, but molasses has a rich flavor and color that isn't easily replaced by substitutes)
Oil/butter to make the pancakes
Method
Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl. Blend the wet ingredients using a blender.
Mix the two using a whisk. Do not overmix. The batter should be thin enough to pour, but still retain its shape, rather than flow shapelessly, when poured into a skillet. Add a touch more water/milk if needed to get to this consistency.
Heat a skillet (I use my trusty cast iron skillet). Add a film of oil or butter (I use oil).
You don't want the skillet to be too hot as that would burn the pancakes. Medium low heat is best.
Once the skillet is hot, pour 1/3 cup batter into the skillet per pancake.
Cover and cook. Once bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake and the top looks a little dry, flip the pancake. Cover and cook for a minute or so, until the other side has browned as well.
Serve with fresh fruit/butter/honey/maple syrup or all of the above.
 |
| Take 1 |
Weekend breakfasts are a different matter altogether. I like lingering over the stove. Often, I'll make an egg dish, like shakshuka. Occasionally, it is masala dosa and coconut chutney for breakfast. And as I said, these days, we have something of a weekend pancake tradition going.
 |
| Take 2 |
On one of my brother's birthdays, my mother decided to organize a masala dosa party, with the dosa being the star of the birthday menu. The thing with masala dosas is that they must be served fresh off the griddle. The shorter the delay in a dosa being transported from griddle to plate, the better. Dosas wilt if left too long on a plate. The steam makes their undersides soggy, and in minutes, they lose their defining crispiness. My mother, being a cook worth her salt, naturally planned to be in the kitchen for part of the evening, to serve freshly made masala dosas to the young invitees.
A bunch of prepubescent boys, perpetually starving by definition, showed up at home in the evening. One of my brother's friends displayed, in the most literal sense, an insatiable appetite for dosas. Let's just say my mother spent all evening in the company of dosa batter. Eventually, this dosa loving friend went on to become a doctor. I bet he advises his patients to exercise moderation in all matters, as doctors always do. Although it has been close to two decades since I last ran into him, my enduring memory of him is watching him at our oversized dining table, eyes glued to the kitchen, waiting in anticipation for the next dosa to appear, and the next, and the next.
***
Back to my pancake trial-athon. I tried all sorts of permutations and combinations with a few core ingredients - flour, milk, and eggs. Melissa Clark's recipe from the New York Times proved to be a good starting point, but I wanted to reduce the butter and eliminate the cornmeal (which is rarely, if ever, in my kitchen pantry). It took me and my cast iron pan several tries before I finally came up with this recipe.
These days, my husband has been smugly mouthing a new quote he heard somewhere, when I am hunched over a new cooking experiment in the kitchen - "If it tastes good, spit it out". These pancakes taste good, and I would hazard to say they are also good for you - they contain wholegrain, sweet potato and banana, and hardly any added sugar. You don't need to serve them with blueberries on the side to feel virtuous. And I can assure you that nobody will be able to bring themselves to spit it out.
 |
| Take 3 - soft, fluffy pancakes |
To whisk together
1and 1/4 cups oat flour (I make my own by powdering old fashioned oats (not the instant sort) in a blender)
3/4 cup wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp salt (1tsp if you want a salty note)
1 tsp baking powder
To blend
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cup warmed milk
2 tsp vanilla (you could substitute with 4-5 cardamom pods (powdered), if you prefer)
1 medium sized banana (the more ripe, the better)
1.25 cups mashed sweet potato, from 1 medium sized sweet potato (I microwave peeled and sliced sweet potato with just a dash of water in a covered bowl for 5 minutes and mash once it has cooled)
1 tsp molasses, for mildly sweet pancakes (I would think you can substitute with sugar or honey, but molasses has a rich flavor and color that isn't easily replaced by substitutes)
Oil/butter to make the pancakes
Method
Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl. Blend the wet ingredients using a blender.
Mix the two using a whisk. Do not overmix. The batter should be thin enough to pour, but still retain its shape, rather than flow shapelessly, when poured into a skillet. Add a touch more water/milk if needed to get to this consistency.
Heat a skillet (I use my trusty cast iron skillet). Add a film of oil or butter (I use oil).
You don't want the skillet to be too hot as that would burn the pancakes. Medium low heat is best.
Once the skillet is hot, pour 1/3 cup batter into the skillet per pancake.
Cover and cook. Once bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake and the top looks a little dry, flip the pancake. Cover and cook for a minute or so, until the other side has browned as well.
Serve with fresh fruit/butter/honey/maple syrup or all of the above.
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