Make These Oatmeal Pancakes for a Hearty Breakfast
A day off is reason enough to celebrate with a special breakfast. Whether it’s a regular no-obligation Saturday or you’re celebrating Mental Health Day mid-week, you should put “break” on a high-stack pancake “breakfast”.
But not any pancakes. Regular pancakes made from all-purpose flour are good, but they lack substance. You deserve a hearty breakfast, a pancake that can handle a puddle of syrup and a mountain of juicy fruit. Make your breakfast better with a tower of oatmeal pancakes.
Oatmeal pancakes get all their charm from oatmeal. This rustic breakfast grain has a wonderful texture and excellent binding properties. This is the difference between chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Both are good, but if you love texture, bulk, and rustic chewiness, the oatmeal cookie wins every time. Along with the soothing knotty texture of oats, pancakes have a unique moisturizing power. You may be used to buttermilk or yogurt being the only humectants in your pancake mix, but oatmeal works differently. Just like when you make a bowl of oatmeal, the oatmeal swells and becomes jelly-like, the same thing happens with pancake mix. The extra moisture softens the oats, but instead of becoming sticky like oatmeal, the starch bonds well with other pancake ingredients. This makes oatmeal a much more effective gluten-free pancake flour than almond or coconut flour, which break down so easily that it’s almost impossible to flip them in a pan.
I don’t follow any gluten free diet, but I prefer these pancakes to all-purpose flour every day. I formulated this recipe because I had leftover oats in a canister that I needed to use up. I thought about making oat milk , but decided it wasn’t something I wanted to mess with, so it was oatmeal. Making oatmeal is too easy, and it doesn’t need to be perfectly ground for this recipe. In fact, I prefer to grind old-fashioned oats to the point where most of it turns into a fine powder, but I can still see some larger particles (about the size of raw quinoa). I think the uneven grind adds to that. the rustic charm I always look for in oatmeal products.
Once the oatmeal is ready, proceed with the recipe just like any other pancake batter. There is one important difference that must be observed: soaking. As the wet and dry ingredients combine, the dough will become a bit runny. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. It’s when the oatmeal absorbs the water from the dough that the starches begin to gelatinize and, most importantly, bond with the other ingredients. Don’t miss this waiting time. Chop up some fruit, cook some scrambled eggs, play with the cat, just let the oatmeal do its thing. When you stir it after 15 minutes, you will understand what I mean. On the other side, you will be greeted by a thick fluffy dough ready for a hot pan.
Ellie’s Oatmeal Pancakes (yield: 8-10 pancakes)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups oatmeal
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup almond milk
- 2 eggs
- Pan oil
Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk wet ingredients in a measuring cup.
Pour wet ingredients into dry mixture and beat until combined. It’s gluten-free, so you can whisk until all of the oatmeal is completely combined.
Cover the bowl and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes to moisten the flour. After the waiting time has elapsed, stir the dough a little.
Lightly oil a skillet and place ¼ cup batter over medium heat. Cook until bubbles are dry around the edges and bubbles appear in the middle but are not completely dry. Flip and cook for another minute, or until the center bounces when pressed lightly with a spatula. Enjoy all your favorite pancake gadgets.
If you don’t eat them all, they will freeze well. Arrange the pancakes individually and flat on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer. After 30-40 minutes, when they have hardened, remove them from parchment and place in Tupperware or a storage bag for up to two months.