Whole Wheat Pear Pancakes

I love treating myself to a pancake breakfast every once in a while. Whether it's on a Saturday morning like today, or in the quick half hour before I have to catch the next bus to class, pancakes are always worth making. Pair them with scrambled eggs, or just a simple bowl of yogurt, in the end, you'll feel full and satisfied.

A few days ago, in that 'quick half hour' mentioned above, I tried out a recipe for whole wheat pancakes, which were surprisingly good. I decided, though, that they could be even better if I combined them with another recipe I'd found, which adds grated pears to the batter.

This morning seemed like the perfect time to try them out.







WHOLE WHEAT PEAR PANCAKES
based on Sprouted Kitchen's Pear + Buckwheat Pancakes
& Gina's Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (I used ground sea salt)
1/2 cup skim milk
3 large egg whites
2 tsp applesauce
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
a dash or two of nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
2 pears, peeled and grated*
butter flavor cooking spray**


Directions

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients, and mix with a hand-held whisk or spoon until just combined – don't over-mix. (The batter will be somewhat thick.)

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Spray the skillet with butter-flavored cooking spray, or melt a thin pat of butter. Pour 1/4 cup pancake batter onto the heated skillet. When the tops and edges start to bubble, check that the bottom is browned, then flip. Continue with the rest of the batter. Top the finished pancakes with honey or syrup, or topping of choice.

This should make between 8-10 pancakes.***



* The original recipe calls for firm pears. We bought a large amount of pears at Costco earlier in the week, and they've finally softened and ripened. The softened pears grated just fine, but were a little wet. I did lower the amount of milk the original recipe called for, however. If you use very firm pears, you might need to increase the amount of milk (or applesauce, which replaces oil).

** I didn't have this, so I just used butter this time.

*** This is just an estimate, honestly. I only made three pancakes for myself. I made enough batter for my roommates to have some, should they wish. But as they are all either asleep, out, or getting ready to head out again, I've still got a bowl of batter sitting on my kitchen counter. The original recipe made eight, but that was without the pears.





I topped my pancakes with honey.

I am notoriously bad at cooking and flipping pancakes, but this is probably because I try to cram two or three at a time onto the skillet. This time, I tried just putting on one at a time, and, miracle of miracles, they came out actually pancake-shaped! Who'd have thought?