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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Finally...Blueberry Yogurt Multigrain Pancakes


So I apologize for the lack of posts, things have just been QUITE crazy lately!  I married the most incredible man I know and we went on a fantastic honeymoon to Greece and Brussels (pictures to come once my husband finishes editing them).  We had soo much fun!!  It was a whirlwind though and we weren't ready to come back.  Our apartment is a debacle because we haven't finished (even close) to unpacking, and I've been working like crazy trying to get my application for a big test finished. 

Through all of this I've really missed cooking and have been trying to squeeze some in here and there without much/any success.  One of the many important lessons I've learned: never EVER try to make pizza dough without yeast.  I made the mistake of assuming I had some yeast in the house, but when I got home from work I couldn't find it.  I must have thrown it out before I moved, or I just haven't gotten to the box that it is in.  I spent some time researching and thought I had found a good recipe that would be great for a yeastless pizza dough.  Trust me, this may look pretty, but I took one bite of it and almost busted out crying because it was one of the MANY failures I've had in the kitchen lately.


Meanwhile, while I have been failing miserably in the kitchen, my husband has been doing great, cooking me awesome meals and doing his best to choke down my horrible meals and trying to keep me from crying about them.  I was getting desperate.  Almost to the point of making a re-peat of one of my favorites (I typically do not make the same meal more than once in a year unless it is really REALLY good...life is short and I want to try EVERYTHING!!).

Finally this weekend I hit jackpot!!  It was a special weekend for my husband and I; it had been one year since we went out on our very first date.  We both really love breakfast, so, even though my husband makes the world's best breakfasts, I decided to give it a whirl.  Before I met Raymond, I made some good breakfasts myself anyway, so I figured there has to be something there.  I have a list I keep of recipe's and ideas of things that I want to make (yes, I really just admitted that), and on it, I saw a recipe for Blueberry Yogurt Multigrain Pancakes.  The last time I went to the store I finally remembered that I want to start baking with whole wheat flour, and finally bought a bag.  I hadn't made anything with it yet, and I knew it would tast a little more complex, so I tweaked the recipe a bit.  Though I'm a fan of multigrain, with my luck lately, I decided to start slowly with the homemade whole grains so I can learn a bit more about cooking with them.


Ingredients

2 large eggs
6 oz. plain, low fat Greek yogurt
4 Tbs milk
3 Tbs butter
1/2 tsp lemon zest
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. rolled oats
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs flax seed
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
1 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried

Directions

Melt the butter and remove from heat.


Whisk eggs, yogurt, and milk together in a large bowl.


Whisk in melted butter, lemon zest and vanilla extract.


Put rolled oats into a food processor and process until the oats are chopped into a flour-like powder.

In a sparate, small bown, combine flours, rolled oats, sugar, flax seed, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.


Wash blueberries and heat your skillet or griddle to medium.


Stir dry ingredients into wet just until the dry ingredients are moistened.


Lumps are okay here.


Prepare your skillet/griddle using either cooking spray, for those health conscious, or butter (I use butter for pancakes because it just wouldn't be the same without)

Spoon about 1/4 a cup of pancake batter onto your cast iron skillet or griddle.  The batter will be thick, so you may have to use your spoon or spatula to spread it out a bit.


Press blueberries into each pancake.


When pancakes start to get dry around the edges and you can see bubbles form (3 to 4 minutes), flip the pancakes.


Cook for another 3 minutes or so, serve with your choice of toppings and enjoy!!!


These pancakes turned out fantastic and I'm so happy to finally have something I'm proud of to put on my blog!  They are jammed packed with lots of good for you ingredients and yet they still taste great!  Much better than the thin, sugary pancakes that come from a box.  I felt like adding the blueberries in the end really was a great idea because they were directly cooked and came off the cast iron oozing their juices, which I think gets missed if you add them in initially with the batter.

To my delight, after Raymond and I devoured the ENTIRE batch of pancakes he told me that he'd be dissappointed if I never made these again.  I think I actually cheered at this comment (those that have seen me do this are probably imagining me clapping my hands...well, you're not far off).  These are so easy to make with most ingredients that you probably already have on hand anyway.  You should make them this weekend!

Amanda's Tips:
These pancakes have Greek yogurt in them which I know scares some people off.  Raymond doesn't much care for Greek yogurt, but he still enjoyed the pancakes.  I didn't tell him they had Greek yogurt in them because I didn't want him to have any pre-concieved thoughts. (Yes honey, you had Greek yogurt this weekend).  If you still don't want to try Greek yogurt, you can use regular plain yogurt, just eliminate the milk.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen