Sunday, January 13, 2008

Amazing antioxidant-rich pancakes

Or should I call them heavenly healthy pancakes? Can't think of a synonym for "healthy" starting with "p" though, that would make the perfect alliteration. Anyways, Sunday mornings I always get this craving for pancakes. Today we happened to have some fresh blueberries and some frozen raspberries so I decided to make berry pancakes. I started frying them like I used to do - in a small amount of vegan margerine. However, when I tried the first one, I realized that I had liked them better the way they turned out last week when I had to fry them without any fat. So I just baked the rest in our non-stick skillet without any fat. The trick is to set the heat relatively low so they don't burn or stick.

When I saw the amount of berries left over after making the pancakes I decided to top my fatfree, almost sugar-free goodies with an amazingly antioxidant-rich berry sauce. I just added a teaspoon of confectioner's sugar to the fruits and blended them with my immersion blender. Both blueberries and raspberries are rich in pectin - a natural gelling agent. The sugar seems to help the gelling process. After only a minute or so of blending, the berries had turned into a deep purple, fragrant, creamy sauce. The perfect compliment for my already not-so-unhealthy pancakes. Even the husband who despises all things sweet (to him, sweet is a synonym for unhealthy) admitted that he would feed these to our kids without guilt AND he ate up his entire stack of pancakes. I mean, THAT is a compliment. I'll remind him once we have kids :-)


Amazing antioxidant pancakes


6 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 heaping tblsp soy flour
1 tblsp raw organic cane sugar
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 1/4 cup non-dairy milk


2 cups raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar


Well, you knwo how to do this, right? Combine, whisk in, heat skillet, spoon batter into skillet. Drop some berries into each batter puddle.


Purree the left-over berries with the sugar until they start to thicken and gel. Slather onto your stack of pancakes and dig in. These are heaven.


A note on sugar: I realize that there are cultural taste differences. Americans are used to quite a high degree of sweetness whereas sweets in Germany tend to be comparatively less sweet. (Coca Cola puts more sugar into the coke they sell in the US than into the German equivalent.) Therefore, the amount of sugar I use may not satisfy your palate. Feel free to use much more sugar. Or, start reversing the sugar trend :-) (Truth be told, I added some maple syrup to mine.)


Fat-free depends on the use of fat-free ingredients.
Gluten-free depends on the use of gluten-free ingredients.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks absolutely delicious!!! Yum!!!

Anke said...

thanx :-)

Vegan_Noodle said...

I love your antioxidant rich pancakes!! Perfect weekend breakfast.
I had heard that about the coke in Europe. Maybe that's why I liekd it more, I can't stand soft drinks here!

Anke said...

Hi noodle,

yeah, I also prefer coke with less sugar. of all the brands in Germany, coca cola is the sweetest, and even the sweetest here has less sugar than in the US. imagine...

Veggie said...

I can't wait to try these, hopefully on Sunday morning. The sauce looks very tasty, I don't think I have any raspberries, maybe I'll try peaches.

Anke said...

Hi, veggie :-)

Peaches will work as well, any fruits, I think. Only they may not thicken as well as raspberries since they contain less pectin. Although, thinking about it, mmmhh, peaches. Will have to try this tomorrow morning on my Sunday-morning-pancakes :-)