Specific guidance and direction on how you can tweak a recipe at home, starting with the humble, yet delicious pancake.
Where to Start?
Do pancakes seem like a funny place to start? Breakfast is always a perfect place to start. I always tell people who are struggling to make homemade meals to start with breakfast.
Homemade breakfasts are fast, easy, cheap and so much tastier than store bought varieties. Plus, if you can start out your day on a good foot, at least one foot is in the right place.
Tweaking recipes for your family may be simply switching from boxed cereal to one homemade breakfast a week, while others might need to switch from a beloved pancake mix to a homemade variety.
You might be doing pretty good health wise in your kitchen and just looking for some different options to change things up.
Start where you are and take one step to improve. That’s the best thing we can do!
Does it Matter?
First things first, why the heck does it even matter? Is it worth all the extra effort to plan, study and prepare my own food, not to mention clean the dishes afterward? I am here to tell you, that yes, it does!!
Whether you are worried about your own body and health or the bodies and health of family members or children in your home, it does matter and it is worth it. It matters because you matter.
What is “Tweak it”?
Let me break it down for you, so you can see what “tweak it” really means. When I look at any recipe, I break it down by each ingredient.
We have certain food sensitivities and allergies in our home so we have to work around those, plus I change other things for health reasons but not necessarily allergy reasons.
Let me show you what I mean with the humble, delicious pancake.
Which Pancake to Choose?
There are probably a million different recipes for pancakes all over the Internet and they are probably all fairly similar- some sort of grain, a liquid, an egg, a sweetener, a leavening agent or two, perhaps a fat and salt.
There are some magical pancakes made out of bananas and pumpkin puree, which don’t follow the regular route but in general they will all be pretty close to the above formula.
I’ll show you a nice simple basic pancake recipe. It will make yummy pancakes and then I will show you simple things you can do to tweak it to make a pancake that will be healthier for you or be suitable if you are working around food allergies or intolerances.
A Recipe to Show you the Way
This is a basic pancake recipe from All Recipes. It has almost 14,000 five star reviews. That seems pretty good to me. It is called “Old Fashioned Pancakes”
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 egg
I made this recipe just as it is written so I could add a review as well. They are good pancakes – fluffy, but not too fluffy that they fall apart, sweet enough to be a pancake but not too sweet that the addition of syrup makes you gag. Now for my family, I would take this very recipe and would change a few things. At this point you get to decide what is necessary for you and/or your family. Are you gluten free? Are you grain free? Do you want whole grains? What about the dairy? Sugar – yay or nay? Egg – free? I hear ya.
Whole Grains?
Adding whole grains to this recipe is easy and yummy. If you are just venturing into whole grains you can do half white flour and half whole grain or you can just go all in and do 100% whole grain. Either way is fantastic though the 100% whole grain will be a little more dense.
Which whole grain do you want? Whole wheat is great. Spelt will work amazingly well. Einkorn is yummy and some people digest it better than other whole grains. Rye or kamut will be great too. If you want to use 100 % oat flour, you totally can but it will be a smidge more dry.
You know what else, you can use a combo of any of these grains and you can call them “Magical Multigrain Pancakes.” They might really be magical too.
If you want to go 100% grain free, this recipe might not work well. It would be ok but not super great. I have a grain free recipe that I have used for years that is great and I will share it later. Grain free recipes require a few special tweaks.
Gluten Free?
If I were to convert this to gluten free, I would use my favorite gluten free flour blend and almond flour. So in place of the 1½ cups all-purpose flour, I would add 1 cup gluten free flour (I use Bob red Mills 1:1 or my own mix) and ½ cup Almond flour. The almond flour adds moisture so your end result isn’t dry.
If I didn’t need to change anything else besides the flour, I would also add an extra egg to increase the moisture. Gluten Free flours are typically drier. Leave everything else the same and you will have a delicious pancake. Yum!
Dairy Free?
How about Dairy Free? If you want it to be gluten free and dairy free follow the directions above and then substitute 1¼ cups milk with a dairy-free milk. I love canned coconut milk. The higher fat content in the coconut makes them softer but they will be good with almond milk, or rice milk.
For the butter, you can replace it with coconut oil or a butter substitute. I like the Organic Earth Balance spread (because it has soy in it, you want to make sure it is organic). If you want a soy-free alternative, Miyoko’s Creamery Vegan Butter is made with a coconut oil and cashew base. It is organic and it is yummy.
Sweetener?
White sugar – how are you feeling? It’s better to avoid it and for this recipe, it’s a simple change. Coconut sugar is a good option. I buy my four-pound bags of Madhava Coconut Sugar at Walmart for about $10.00. It is organic and it is the best price I have found. It doesn’t spike blood sugar the way white sugar does and it really doesn’t change the flavor much at all.
The other options are liquid sweeteners. I use honey bunches in lots of recipes. Squeeze a bit into this batter and call it good. Pure maple syrup will work perfectly as well. Because it is such a small amount of sweetener in this recipe, you won’t have to adjust anything else if you change from a granulated sweetener to a liquid one.
Eggs?
Egg free isn’t too tricky either. If you are doing gluten free as well as egg free, you may notice a slightly drier texture but it will still be good. Egg can be replaced with chia seed and/or flax seed. Both of these seeds will add nutrition to your end product as well. 1 egg can be replaced with a tablespoon of either chia or flax seed and 3 tablespoons of water. You can mix it up in a separate bowl if you like and let it get gelatinous but it isn’t necessary. For the quickest option, throw the seeds and water right into the batter and call it good.
You can also sub out 1 egg for 1/4 cup applesauce. The applesauce adds the moisture that the recipe gets from the egg.
Baking Powder?
Baking powder? Some baking powder has cornstarch in it so if you have to avoid corn, read the labels. Also Aluminum… Lots of baking powders don’t have aluminum anymore but some still have it. Aluminum isn’t a necessary addition and it actually can impart a metallic taste to food. There are studies on both sides saying aluminum doesn’t affect your health and lots that say it does. Just skip it if you can.
The Finish Line
You feeling good? You should be. Pancakes are delicious and nutritious when made right. On the side, throw on an egg or some fruit or even some sautéed veggies and your plate will be beautiful and complete. Pancakes are an easy, quick breakfast. At our house, when Dad is out of town, pancakes are a favorite, easy dinner as well. You can make delicious things that are healthy and even healing for your body. You got this! Pancakes for the win baby!
