Too good to be true pancakes!

About the time I thought to take a picture of these beautiful gems, this was all that was left of them! Not that you need a picture to know what a pancake looks like, but it just makes the blog prettier, you know?



My wonderful Stedman family has an amazing recipe for whole wheat pancakes. Carrie-Mom has worked all kinds of recipes to make them healthier. Her pancakes are one of them, and they are certainly top-notch. I've been making them for several years as my go-to recipe. No more boxed mixes around here.

As much as I love Carrie-Mom's recipe, I have been thinking about what kinds of baked goods would do okay with a substitution of applesauce in place of oil, and maybe agave nectar in place of sugar. The pancakes seemed a good place to start. The result is a bit lighter and fruitier. I hope Carrie-Mom approves!

Ingredients:

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1-2 eggs
1 3/4 c. milk (for about half of this amount, I used vanilla almond milk)
5 Tbsp. agave nectar
4 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
6 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients first. Then add wet ingredients and whisk together. Drop ladlefuls (I like to use a medium-sized ladle for pancakes, muffins, cupcakes. It's so much less messy than a spoon!) onto hot griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the pancake's surface, then flip. Remove when lightly browned and cooked through.

This recipe makes 12-14 six-inch pancakes.

I like to serve this with butter, real maple syrup (Grandpa's, of course!), strawberries and blueberries. Matt prefers his with butter, syrup, and bacon!

Enjoy!! (Did I mention they come in at around 25 calories per pancake? That's about 1/4 the usual pancake calories. Eat up:)



Here is our puppy-dog being cute.



I took a random, arm-stretched-out picture of Matt and I and it actually turned out great...on the first (not fifteenth) try!