Whole Grain Carrot Cake Pancakes

Not every summer is a golden summer. This might be especially true if you've got a booty load of kids coming home after 10 months of being at school. There can be fighting, jealousy, sibling rivalry, mosquito bites, broken arms, broken bikes, and let's not forget lost library books, Most moms have had summers like that or even just moments in their otherwise golden summers that are like that.

But there are also those summers--where the weather is warm, but not too warm, where you kids reach a perfect balance in their ages where they play together beautifully, imagining that they are spies or princesses, where they dress up their stuffed animals and do cartwheels and paint each other's faces with face paint. There are summers where you read together on the couch still in your pajamas at ten in the morning, when you children sit for hours learning how to do origami animals while you clean your house or die of peaceful shock, when you make pancakes and no one even complains that it's not Lucky Charms. Sweet sweet summers. Or at least some sweet sweet moments in an otherwise hectic summer.

It is that golden summer that I wish to write about today. For a golden summer like this, you need a golden pancake.

I invented this lovely beauty last week when I was making a carrot cake for a friend bright and early(ish) in the morning. I accidentally grated too many carrots. What was a woman to do? Honestly, I thought about just making more cake batter and pouring that awesomeness onto a skillet. But then I repented of that evil (sort of). And realized that if I reduced the sugar and oil a bit and added whole wheat flour instead of white, I would have a right decent little pancake--a bit on the sweet side still, but loaded with whole grain and carrots.

They were delicious. You can eat them plain or with nut butter because they're already sweet, but if you happened to drizzle on a bit of syrup or (cough) some leftover cream cheese frosting, I won't tell anyone.

Whole Grain Carrot Cake Pancakes
Makes about 10 smallish pancakes
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes for the batch
Cost: $.80 (That's breakfast for $.08/pancake. No breakfast cereal can compete with that on price or nutrition because, hello, you just ate carrots for breakfast)
sugar: .05, oil: .10, egg: .10, carrots: .20, whole wheat flour: .20, milk: .15

1/4 C sugar
1/4 C neutral oil, such as canola
1 egg
1 C grated carrots
scant 1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (can even do 1 1/2 tsp if you love cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 C whole wheat flour
1-1 1/2 C milk (or buttermilk)

Combine sugar and oil. Add egg. Add carrots. Mix in dry ingredients. Then whisk in milk just until combined.

Drop by 1/4 C "spoonfuls" onto a skillet (set just below medium works best for me). Cook until the underside is golden (and they've puffed up). Then flip and cook until the other side is golden.

Enjoy plain or with toppings. (P.S. I added a few white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips, solely for experimental purposes I assure you. Experiment successful.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE

German Pancakes

One of my cheapskate codes of conduct is that if someone offers you a food that you do not hate (and that is healthy), and asks if you can use it, you say, "Yes." Even if using it will require a little bit of effort or creativity. Such a thing happened several weeks ago when a friend who has chickens brought by no less than 4 dozen eggs right after I had just bought 2 dozen eggs and one of our ducks had decided to start laying. "Can you use them?" she asked.

"I'm sure I can," I said.

But as the days went by I wasn't making my way through them very fast. Six dozen eggs plus a few duck ones called for a few drastic measures. I made this egg bake and these waffles (doubled). I made crepes. Also, I remembered this recipe for German pancakes (sometimes called Dutch Babies) that my sisters had introduced me to. It was easy enough to assign to a 7-year-old (minus a certain hot butter step), used half a dozen eggs, tasted good, and could be eaten with savory or sweet toppings. Also, it puffs up in this groovy kind of way. Perfect.

My kids were a little skeptical, but when I told them they could sprinkle a bit of powdered sugar on it, they agreed (oh, how gracious of them) to give it a try.

German Pancakes
makes 1 8x8 inch pan, thick OR 1 9x13 inch pan, thin (we opted, sort of accidentally for the 8x8)
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cost: $1.35
eggs: .60, flour: .10, milk: .15, butter: .50

1/8-1/4 C butter (you'll use 1/8 in a 8x8 inch and 1/4 in a 9x13 inch)
1 C flour
1 C milk
6 eggs

Heat oven to 450 and set rack in middle. As it heats, put butter in pan and stick that pan int he oven so the butter melts.

In the meantime, mix eggs, milk, and flour until mostly non-lumpy (mine always retains a few lumps and they are never noticeable in the finished product).

Take out your pan of butter, wait for the oven to finish heating, and then dump (careful not to splash the butter) your batter in and put it into the 450 degree oven. (Note: The butter won't all stay on the bottom; some will swish around and even get on the top of your German pancakes. Not a problem.)

Bake for 15 minutes or until eggs are at least 160 degrees and preferably a little hotter (they'll be firm when a fork is inserted and just beginning to brown at the edges).

Remove and top as you like. You can use sweet things (my favorite one is powdered sugar with a sprinkle of lemon juice) or savory ones (roasted tomatoes anyone?).

Note: These stay hot for a while so don't chomp right in and burn your mouth. I think the butter keeps them extra hot for a little longer than you'd expect, especially if you made the thick ones.

PRINTABLE RECIPE