Shalum alechim!
Yes, you read the title correctly... VEGAN PANCAKES!
I'm sure you're thinking "Why is she talking about vegan, when her last entry was about Buttermilk Friend Chicken?". While I am (am will remain) a meat eater, my fiancée is a vegan. I saw his version of these pancakes on his Facebook page in the very early part of our relationship. Now, being the pancake aficionado that I am, I was instantly intrigued. His looked so good and fluffy, I was wondering how could this be done when there is no dairy or eggs? Then one time, we made them together. I was hooked! I am now addicted to these, and considering that these come out perfectly! I have tried to make pancakes the conventional way--using milk and eggs. FAIL! They would come out rubbery. Not good. I will, however, give ultimate credit where it is due--as this recipe is adapted from " Breville presents Make It Vegan: Recipes from the Yiddish Speaking, Nebraska living, post-punk vegan" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
Here are the ingredients for the pancakes.
In this bowl is 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt. The original recipe calls for the dry ingredients to be sifted, but I don't have a sifter. I find that using a wire whisk to mix everything and break up the big flour clumps works just as well as sifting.
Here are the sifted, er, whisked dry ingredients. After that, put a well in the center.
Next, it's time for the wet ingredients. We'll start off with a one cup of non-dairy milk. This is vanilla-flavored almond milk.
Now, 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar is added...
...and one tablespoon of ground flax seeds.
Mix for about a minute, until frothy. Here is your vegan substitute for eggs and dairy
Next, you add the wet ingredients to the dry--along with 3 tablespoons of oil and 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. The original recipe calls for canola oil, but I have vegetable oil in the house, and it works well.
Mix and let rest for about 10 minutes.
While the batter is resting, I take the time to clean up their dishes used for prepping the batter, and to heat up the griddle. I also sprayed the surface with cooking spray.
Here is the batter...rested and ready for the griddle.
The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of batter per pancake. I like my pancakes a little bigger, so I used two 1/4 cup scoops. Now you can put up to four pancakes per side of the griddle. I put one per side because it gives me more room for flipping.
After about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes (or when you see the sides from the bottom dark enough. It all depends on how hot your cooking surface gets and how fast it gets hot), flip. Allow pancakes to cook on the other side for the same amount of time as the first side.
Here are the first two. I'm making a stack of four.
Four vegan pancakes...DONE. Don't they look lovely?
Topped with blueberry ginger sauce--which was a part of the original recipe. I too, adapted the sauce recipe--which called for 16 oz blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used 24 oz. or two bags of frozen blueberries. I used frozen over fresh because fresh blueberries are currently not in season. Frozen ones were picked and frozen at the peak of the season), 2 tablespoons water (I used 4 tablespoons because of the extra blueberries used), 1/3 cup sugar to start (I used one cup), one tablespoon organic cornstarch (I had none, so I used flour. It worked well), and 2 tablespoons of fresh, minced ginger (I cut off a sizeable piece of ginger root. I think I added more because of the extra blueberries). Mix all ingredients, but ginger in a 4-quart saucepan until cornstarch, er, flour is thoroughly incorporated. Cook until a slow boil. Add ginger and simmer for 7 minutes or until sauce is thickened. I did not make more because I had some left over from my last batch.
Yum! Look at that fluffiness!
So, there you have it. Delicious, light, airy, fluffy goodness! Perfect for these cold weekend mornings...or for any time you're craving pancakes. Although the love of my life is vegan, he is not requiring for me to be so. He has, however, been inspiring me to eat less meat. Did you know that the average American eats 100 lbs of meat per person per year? That's a lot. Michael Pollan, one of my favorite authors, says "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That's a quote to chew on (pun intended).
I hope you will try them. Let's talk about it with your comments. Until then..Shalum.
