Protein Pancakes - Attempt 2

Ok...as you know my son likes for me to cook pancakes on the weekend, which I'm good with. I cook extra and they make an easy, hot breakfast during the school week. This week though I had no milk in the house and I didn't feel like going to the neighborhood Country Fair to pick up a gallon in my PJs. So off to the internet I go to find a gluten free, no milk needed pancake recipe that sounded halfway decent to eat. The recipe I decided on was one from Muscle & Fitness Magazine - Protein Pancakes. You're probably thinking, "Muscle & Fitness, that's that magazine for the monster sized body builders." And you're right, it is focused on body building, but an integral part of weightlifting is diet.  So I reviewed the ingredients, had them all, but  realized it would take a bit longer to prepare than other pancake mixes, it being the weekend decided, what the heck, let's go with it.

Ingredients: 

1 c. Oats (or other grain) -->  used 1 c. Steel Cut Oats   

2  Whole Eggs

5  Egg Whites

2 Scoops  Protein Powder --> used Wegman's brand Vanilla whey protein     

1  Banana (sliced) --> overripe so it's nice and sweet     

1 Cup  Berries --> took a cup of mixed frozen berries and defrosted 

2 tbsp  Peanut Butter --> used Wegman's all natural     

Dash  Cinnamon (to taste)

2 tbsp  Coconut Oil --> skipped this all together 

Equipment:

Pan --> used an electric griddle coated w/non-stick spray set to 350

Steel Cut Oats

 

Instructions:

1. Cook the oats as directed: Steel cut oats take 20-30 minutes to cook (see picture of uncooked oats below) and have a consistency a bit thicker than grits, but same mild oatmeal taste
2. Add the eggs and egg whites and beat.
3. Toss in protein, banana, berries, and peanut butter and stir.
4. Shake some cinnamon over the mixture; add sweetener if you prefer: chose not to add sweetener, figured the fruit would add a natural sweetness and if needed, the syrup would too.
5. Heat pan with coconut oil OR heat up electric griddle
6. Spoon in the mixture a little at a time to make silver dollar-size pancakes: if you choose to make the pancakes larger, make sure you have a large spatula to flip them with.
7. Flip when bubbles appear on the surface.

Verdict - they were good. Don't expect them to rise and be fluffy, they are a thinner pancake, not crepe-like, but thinner. They are not ultra-sweet, but just enough. Again, if you like more sweetness, add extra banana, sugar, sweetener or syrup, depending on your dietary needs. I was filled up after about three, remember whole grains will do that for you and best of all, my son went up for seconds.

 

So, if you don't mind a little extra work preparing the oats and separating eggs, these are worth trying.
 



Protein Pancakes

 

Flourless Banana Pancakes - Worth It?

Sundays are lazy days at my house. It's the one day I can sleep in, take my time sipping coffee and get to experiment with new recipes. It's the one day where if I want to spend the day in my PJs I do. A day to look out my kitchen window at the woods behind my house and see what wildlife is there. It's my day to relax and prepare for the week ahead.

As I'm making my coffee, noticed the bananas on my counter were rather on the ripe side, perfect for making banana bread or in this case flourless pancakes, why not?

Flourless Banana Pancakes

1 1/2 large bananas, ripe to overripe (200g) *

2 eggs

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

Place the bananas in a bowl and mash with either a fork or potato masher, leaving some chunks of banana. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs together, then combine the eggs with the bananas and add the baking powder. I also added 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Mix together. Very easy.

At this point it looked more like a scrambled egg mix than a pancake mix, but I continued on.

Griddle had been pre-heating with some cooking spray on a medium-high temperature. I poured the lumpy batter on the griddle, sized small to medium. In hind sight, they should have all have been kept small, silver dollar sized. The pancakes cooked and when one side turned golden brown tried to flip them. Unfortunately the medium sized pancakes fell apart when flipped. Finished cooking and gave them a taste.

To be honest from what they looked like I expected them to taste like scrambled eggs with bananas in them, not the most appealing. First bite went in my mouth and it tasted more like bananas than eggs, thank heavens. The consistency and texture was more like a crepe than a pancake. Put some butter and syrup on it, and continued eating. Fixed a plate up for my son, he said they tasted fine and asked for seconds. A pretty good sign.

Overall it was a very simple recipe, taste was fine, just not fluffy like traditional pancakes are. Paired with some fresh berries would add to the taste and visual appeal of this recipe. Will probably make this again when my bananas get too ripe.

Share with me what gluten free pancake recipes you've tried, did you like them, how was the taste?