I seem to have encountered a lot of recipes lately requiring egg yolks. And my sister had me thinking about pancakes from her post about King Arthur’s pancake recipe [her blog no longer exists so I have no link for you]. So last night when I was thinking about these egg whites I had sitting in my fridge, wondering what to do with them, I started wondering what the whole grain pancake possibilities might be if I whipped the egg whites first to lighten the whole grains. And so these pancakes were born—and they were really good. You would never guess they were whole wheat. I figure they must be healthier with all that whole wheat flour and no egg yolks, right?
I apologize for the lack of pictures. We usually have oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast, so my kids are used to breakfast being on the table right away on weekday mornings, so they were not going to wait for me to take pictures of the pancakes before serving them! So just picture thick and fluffy, but not really airy, golden pancakes—you’ve got the idea.
Laura’s Health(ier) Whole Wheat Pancakes
Ingredients
5 large egg whites
1 ¼ cups low fat buttermilk
5 ½ oz whole wheat pastry flour
2 oz AP flour
2 t vanilla
3 T melted unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
¾ t salt
2 t baking powder
3 T sugar
In a large mixing bowl (but not the bowl of your mixer unless you own multiple of those) whisk together the flours, salt, sugar and baking powder. In a second bowl or measuring cup mix together the buttermilk, oil and vanilla.
Meanwhile, using the whip attachment to a stand mixer (or a hand held mixer) whip the egg whites until they form fairly stiff but still glossy peaks.
Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the flour is totally moistened (do not overstir). Pour in the melted butter and mix it in. Remove ¼ of the egg whites and quickly but vigorously stir them into the batter. Then gently fold the remaining egg whites into the batter. Fold until there are no lumps of egg whites remaining.
Heat a nonstick skillet (or seasoned cast iron) on medium heat. It may take you the first pancake of adjusting up and down and watching carefully to find a good heat setting. For me, after that first pancake (my heat takes forever to warm up if I don’t set it at least the
halfway mark) it was medium low—the pancakes are thick enough that to have the heat any higher would mean the outsides burned before the insides cooked. Dollop the batter by the one-third cupful onto the skillet and gently spread a bit with whatever spoon or ladle you are using. When they bubble up and start to lightly brown at the edges, flip the pancake.
This recipe made 7 filling pancakes for us—7 weekday servings, maybe more like 3 on a luxurious, leisurely weekend morning.
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