Review and Recipe - Bobs Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix

I am not usually a fan of pancake mixes, but I do like experimenting with grains. I make pretty decent oatmeal pancakes, and have tried variations of whole wheat, but usually with mixed success. I stumbled across the Bobs Red Mill 10 Grain pancake mix at the grocery store while looking for something else (barley, I think), and figured we'd try it out. Happily, this mix doesn't taste like cardboard.

My first attempt at preparing them, however, was not great. I followed the basic directions on the back of the packages--1 cup mix, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon oil. They don't specify a liquid amount, so I eyeballed it. And ended up with thick, gritty pancakes. Not good.

Today, I tried again using my own variation of their "fluffy" directions, adding buttermilk for flavor. Much better. Not quite as rich as my normal pancakes (that I make with melted butter instead of oil), but quite acceptable. I added chocolate chips to the kids' portions, and they disappeared.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• chocolate chips, optional

Directions

1. In a small bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks, buttermilk, and oil. Stir in pancake mix until well blended.
3. Fold in egg whites, being careful not to collaps them completely.
4. Heat griddle. Grease if necessary (Note, I find that if using a stainless steel or non-stick frying pan, no grease is necessary as long as the pan is hot enough before batter goes in--medium heat on stovetop.).
5. Pour batter onto hot griddle. Add chocolate chips at this point, if using.
6. Flip after the bottom is done and sides and top have begun to cook.
7. Serve warm with syrup.

*** Disclaimer: Although my Amazon links are affiliate links (aka, I might make a few cents if you click through and buy), I am not otherwise paid for this review. I bought my pancake mix at my local grocery store with my own money, and "Bob" has no idea who I am :)

Happy Pancake Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras -Fat Tuesday -Shrove Tuesday -Carnival -Fastelavn

If you don't already have dinner plans for tonight, I suggest pancakes. Pancakes are a traditional way to use up butter, sugar, and eggs before the Lenten season of fasting. But even if you don't observe Lent, or have any intention of fasting or abstaining from meat, you can still have breakfast for dinner. 

Want ideas? Check these out:

Basic Pancakes

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Triple Chocolate Pancakes

Oatmeal Pancakes

Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

Fluffy Pancakes

Chocolate Filled Ebleskiver

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

 I have no idea why I haven't posted this recipe before, since it was one of the reasons I started this blog. Well, that and my kids' insatiable desire for pancakes. My recipe card is dated October 5, 2008, so I've been making these for a while.  I did make one tweak today from my original version and used melted butter instead of oil. They were delicious. And they are now gone.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons melted butter (or 2 tablespoons cooking oil)

Directions

1. Heat griddle (mine is cast iron set over two burners turned to a smidge higher than medium...your settings may vary).
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices).
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, canned pumpkin, and butter.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a sturdy spatula just until combined.
5. Lightly grease your griddle with oil or cooking spray (no spraying over an open flame please).
6. Pour batter by 1/3 cup scoops (I use a soup ladle) onto heated griddle. Flip once the edges are dry and the bottom is lightly browned.
7. These pancakes are pretty moist and sometimes need more time than normal ones.

Makes about 8 4-5" pancakes.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

  We are entering my favorite season: baking season. Between two grocery trips I have managed to stock up on canned pumpkin, cranberries, cream (for making scones), chocolate, and buttermilk. I would love nothing more than to spend an entire weekend in the kitchen, stocking my freezer and padding my thighs for the cold weather to come. Alas, I am fresh out of entire weekends. So I'll settle for one of our favorite Saturday morning breakfasts: pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes.


Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon each nutmeg, ginger, and ground cloves
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• non-stick cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat griddle to medium heat or to the pumpkin setting or to 350 degrees (depending on your griddle!)
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and spices.
3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, canned pumpkin, and oil.
4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and stir with a spatula just until blended.
5. Spray the griddle with the non-stick cooking spray. 
6. Pour batter into 4" pancakes, spreading them lightly with the back of a spoon or ladle as necessary to avoid super thick spots.
7. Cook on the first side until the top is slightly dry and the bottom is a light golden brown and then flip. Remove from the griddle when the second side is a golden brown. The extra moisture in the pancakes makes these take slightly longer than normal to cook. Don't get antsy and turn up the heat or you will have scorched dough!

Chocolate-filled Ebleskiver

Ebleskiver is a fancy word for a small round pancake puff. It is made in a pan that has small half-round indentations, like this one at Amazon.com:

(I found mine at Target for around $20).

Ebleskiver are easy to make and you can add a variety of fillings to them.  So far, my daughter prefers apple butter and my son prefers chocolate.  I may try small bits of cooked sausage next.

For the bread-part, use your favorite pancake batter (like my fluffy pancakes or maybe my triple chocolate pancakes or heck, even a boxed mix if you're in a hurry).

Preheat the pan over about medium heat until water sizzles and evaporates immediately. Whatever setting you'd use for pancakes. On my stove that's half a tick hotter than the middle (5.5).

These seem to cook best with butter, so I cut up butter into teeny-tiny cubes about 1/4" square. Drop one butter cube into each well on the pan. They should sizzle and foam immediately.  Then pour pancake batter into each well so that it's about 3/4 full.  Immediately follow with about a teaspoon of your filling. Hot fudge sauce, jelly or jam. Even blueberries (I'd suggest thawed ones, not frozen, since they won't have much time to cook).

Cook about 1or 2 minutes on the first side. Then comes the tricky part. To flip them you need two plastic spoons or the handle-end of a pair of rubber spatula or maybe a pair of chopsticks. Carefully flip them over and cook on the second side for another 1-2 minutes or so.

You can serve these with maple syrup like pancakes, or sprinkle with powdered sugar like I did with the chocolate batch above.

The Secret to Fluffy Pancakes

The secret to fluffy pancakes is to own about 10,000 mixing/prep bowls. You're going to need them all.  OK, maybe just 6. And start with an empty dishwasher.

Don't laugh.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

I know it's a school day, but my 4-year old got up early, fed the cats, and was assembling the griddle when I came downstairs around 6:20. He had a cookbook out and everything, looking for a pancake recipe. And have I mentioned how angelic he looks when he's getting into trouble?

So we made pancakes. Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes. I had to say no to the sausage request. Lent and all. But he got chocolate milk so breakfast was acceptable.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Directions

1. In one small mixing bowl, pour milk over oatmeal and set it aside to soak for a minute or two. This is especially important if you substitute regular rolled oats for the 1-minute kind. I usually use a 1-qt liquid measuring cup for this step so that I can use the pour spout for applying pancake batter to the griddle.
   
2. Heat griddle or a frying pan to medium heat (or whatever your griddle directions suggest for pancakes). Yes, I intentionally do this AFTER starting the oats soaking.
3. In another small mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
4. Whisk the egg and cooking oil into the oatmeal-milk mixture. Feel free to pre-beat the egg if you want, or just hand the whisk to your 4-year old sous chef.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the liquid until most of the big lumps are gone. It will be lumpy (duh, it's full of oatmeal), but there shouldn't be large clumps of flour left.
6. I rarely grease my griddle. I have found that, even with a regular (not even non-stick) frying pan, that pancakes don't stick as long as the pan is hot enough first (hint: water should sizzle and immediately evaporate). In fact, for me, pancakes cook better if the griddle isn't greased. Your mileage may vary.
7. Pour pancake batter onto griddle. Cook on the first side until the top is dry and the bottom is lightly golden-brown. if you flip them while the top is still wet, you will likely have gooey-middle-pancakes. If the bottom burns before the top dries, then scale back the heat.
8. I got 9 4-5" pancakes out of this recipe. Feel free to double it for larger apetites.

Happy Pancake Day

Ok, so we make pancakes for dinner too often. Tonight I have an excuse. It is National Pancake Day.

I am happy that we Catholics aren't required to abstain from butter and eggs during Lent anymore, but Shrove Tuesday isn't complete without pancakes and bacon for dinner.

Yes, my bacon is slightly overdone. Don't believe the extra-dark color in the photo. It did not actually taste burnt. Just super-caramelized.

Back to the pancakes. Tonight: oatmeal.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 1 egg

Directions

1. Heat a griddle according to your griddle directions. On mine, that's about 350-375 degrees.
2. In a small mixing bowl, mix the oats, milk, oil and egg. Set aside to let the oats soften.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the wet to the dry and stir until combined. This will be lumpy because of the oats.
5. Pour onto a hot (and possibly greased) griddle and cook the first side until the top is almost dry. Then flip and cook until the second side is browned. Makes about 8 six-inch pancakes.

Sometimes I add a little cinnamon (about 1/4 tsp) to this recipe to really play up the oatmeal flavor, but I forgot tonight.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and the first of 40 days (plus Sundays) where I go chocolate free. No, the Church doesn't outlaw chocolate during Lent, but I was once encouraged to choose an activity that would be a daily reminder of the season, and there aren't many optional things in my life that I do on a daily basis. Yes, chocolate is one of them (and alas, neither the day job nor laundry count as optional...)

Wish me luck. Or maybe I should be asking for prayers...

Triple Chocolate Pancakes

Pancakes are good for more than just breakfast. Like dinner. And dessert. And they are extremely easy to make as a variation on my basic pancake recipe.

This is also a great way to sneak in extra fiber into your diet. Just replace 1/2 of the regular flour with whole wheat. With all that chocolaty yumminess, you'll never notice :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (or 1/2 cup all purpose + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder 
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
• Chocolate and white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Heat a griddle or skillet. For an electric griddle, follow the instructions. I set mine to 325, or a skillet to medium heat. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (not including the chocolate chips) with a whisk and set aside.
3. In a second bowl, whisk all of the wet ingredients together, making sure to disperse the egg. The liquid should be pale yellow
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with  a spatula until the batter just comes together. There will be lumps, but they shouldn't be huge. 
5. Pour batter onto your hot griddle/pan.
6. Before the top sets, sprinkle chocolate chips onto the cooking pancakes. 
7. Cook until the top side looks almost dry. Then flip with a spatula and cook until the other side is a light golden brown.

Makes:
About 8 4-6" pancakes. Serve with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, warmed raspberry jelly, or just a fork.

Blizzard Food: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2011 so far is all about snow days. We are supposedly in the middle of a blizzard today, but so far all we've had is 24 hours of freezing rain and sleet. I think I'd prefer the powdery stuff instead.

Still, it makes for good opportunities for big family breakfasts. Today, my 3-year old requested chocolate pancakes. Yes, I take his suggestions. Frequently. Helps that the kid and I have similar taste buds in breakfast food.

This one is a variation of my basic pancake recipe.

Substitute 1/2 whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour in the recipe (for one batch, that's 1/2 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup all-purpose).

Pour batter onto your frying pan or griddle, and sprinkle the chocolate chips onto the cooking pancakes. Don't try to add them to the batter ahead of time or they all sink to the bottom and only your last pancake has any chips.

It's also a good idea to gently tap down the chocolate chips into the cooking batter and don't let them sit on top of the pancake. Otherwise, when you flip them, the chocolate will melt all over the griddle.

If you want to get fancy, serve these with sweetened whipped cream (done by hand or from a can) and chocolate syrup, or with a fruit syrup.

Basic Pancakes

Pancakes are our family's favorite Saturday morning breakfast. They can be changed up and topped with an infinite variety of flavors to mix things up.

But first things first. The basic recipe. The one almost every other one is built from.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled

Directions:

1. Heat a griddle or skillet. For an electric griddle, follow the instructions. I set mine to 325, or a skillet to medium heat. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients with a whisk and set aside.
3. In a second bowl, whisk all of the wet ingredients together, making sure to disperse the egg. The liquid should be pale yellow
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with  a spatula until the batter just comes together. There will be lumps, but they shouldn't be huge. 
5. Pour batter onto your hot griddle/pan and cook until the top side looks almost dry. Then flip with a spatula and cook until the other side is a light golden brown.

Makes:
About 8 4-6" pancakes.  This recipe doubles (or triples!) easily.

Notes:

A nonstick skillet is not necessary. I made pancakes for years with a 10" stainless steel frying pan. The trick is to make sure your pan is hot before adding the batter, or the pancake will stick. Cooking spray is not entirely necessary either, assuming that pan is hot. For a non-stick pan that has seen better days, you might want the spray.  To test to see if the pan is hot enough, flick a few drops of plain water on the surface. They should sizzle and evaporate almost instantly.

If you use a thin skillet, then be prepared to adjust the stove temperature the first time or two you make these. You can always turn up the heat a tad, or take the pan off the burner if its too hot.

Canola oil can be substituted for the butter, but the butter makes it richer :).

We drink skim milk almost exclusively in our house, but I've made these with 2% and whole also, with no adjustments to the recipe.

Put leftover pancakes into the freezer and pop them directly into the toaster for a quick mid-week breakfast (or dessert!)