BF Makeover: Peanut Butter Pancakes

~by Nikki

We’ve been talking about breakfast a lot lately, haven’t we? I guess we go through cycles, just like any other food blog. Rest assured we have plenty of stuff for the other four meals of the day coming up (and Jen has already led the charge with a great snack recipe and me just yesterday with my “magical food”!).

But today, we talk about breakfast again. One of our readers sent us a great breakfast recipe, which she liked a lot, but that she thought might benefit from some tweaking. Well tweaking is our middle name! (Actually it isn’t…my middle name is Lynn. I’m not sure what Jen’s middle name is…?)

So the reader’s name is Sunni and she played around and concocted a recipe for peanut butter pancakes! (Excuse me while I swoon at the thought). She said they are delicious but that they are quite dense, not fluffy. I took a look at her recipe and almost immediately I could see why that was, but I wanted to make the recipe as she gave it to me to make sure I got the same results as she did. Here’s the recipe Sunni sent:

Sunni’s Peanut Butter Pancakes

1/4 cup of peanut flour (Trader Joe’s)

1/4 cup ricotta cheese (i used whole milk type but any reduced will work too)
1 large/ jumbo egg (or egg white substitute)
1 tsp pumpkin spice mix (can omit or pick your spice flavor)
1 packet Purvia (adjust to your taste but can get the sweetness from the toppings/syrup)


Directions:
 
Mix well and set aside. in nonstick skillet I melted 1/2 tbsp butter but you can use cooking spray or other reduced product



Spoon about half of the mixture into the pan and let cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes until edges are browning/drying out a little then add fruit of your choice.
 
I sprinkled about 1 tbsp frozen blueberries on to my pancake but i think sliced banana would be great in these. Flip the pancake and allow to cook for another minute. Transfer to plate and serve.
 
 

 
Ok, so she described her pancakes as “heavy” and “not like the fluffy pancakes of days old.” And she was right. They were very tasty, but also heavy and difficult (for me) to flip! Looking at the recipe, the first thing I notice is that there isn’t  a leavening agent in there. Leavening agents are used in starchy foods to create air bubbles that cause the starchy food to rise. No leavening agent=no fluffiness.
 
The other thing that creates fluffiness, particularly in pancakes, is fat. Fat+leavening=cloud-like pancake. But since we are trying to live a different way these days, we can’t exactly go about this the way…say…Denny’s does. The best pancake recipes use shortening to create their fluffy texture. We don’t want to do that. But there are some things we CAN do to get Sunni’s pancakes on the lighter side.
 
Here’s how I tweaked the recipe.
 
Sunni’s Peanut Butter Pancakes (a la Bariatric Foodie)
 
1/4 c. ricotta cheese
1/4 c. cottage cheese
(I should stop here and acknowledge that I am using Eggface’s famous ricottage pancake methodology. Here at BF we always give credit where credit is due!)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c. Peanut Flour (PB2)
3 tbsp. Atkins baking mix (or Carbquik…or, if you have neither, soy flour or whole wheat pancake mix will do)
2 tsp. baking powder (the Atkins mix already has baking powder in it, but you need extra if you are going to achieve fluff)
2 tbsp. no-calorie sweetener
 
NOTES: I skipped the pumpkin pie spice because I was low on it and the blueberries because I’m not fond of blueberry pancakes. A note about using blueberries in pancakes though. If you use them, it’s usually good to use either fresh or thaw your frozen ones (and drain of excess liquid). Then before you transfer them to your pancake, toss them around in a bit of flour or dry pancake mix. It helps them not sink to the bottom of the pancake and burst. Unless you like pretty pink pancakes, in which case–go for it!
 
Directions:
 
In a mini-food processor, combine ricotta and cottage cheese until they are a smooth consistency. Slowly add peanut flour, sweetener, baking mix and, finally, baking soda and pulse until smooth.
 
Spray a skillet or griddle with nonstick and allow it to get hot. Your mixture should be fairly thick. If it isn’t, put a little more baking mix in. It should be almost the consistency of pudding (thick batter=fluffy pancake).
 
Spoon mixture onto hot skillet or griddle and cook until bubbles on the top. Any really good pancake should look like this when it’s ready to flip:

When your pancakes look like that, flip ’em and cook another minute or two. Transfer to a plate and enjoy!
 
This recipe yielded about 6 small pancakes which, while still more dense than a traditional pancake (these have a LOT more protein so it’s bound to be) were a good bit fluffier. Since the divas were away for the weekend, I ate three and froze three. I topped with a bit of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray and sugar-free pancake syrup. For some reason I like the peanut butter/pancake syrup combo (I do it in my oatmeal often). Here’s mine:

 
Anyway, thanks to Sunni for sharing her recipe and being open to a “BF Makeover.” If you have a recipe you need made over, give us a holler. We’re happy to do it for you!