Blueberry Pancakes/Waffles
You know that summer is here when the blueberry patches open up for U-Pick. I love blueberries fresh picked, I love blueberries out of the fridge, I love blueberry muffins, I love blueberry smoothies, and I love blueberries in my pancakes and on my waffles. Who doesn’t love a good hot griddle cake lathered with butter and drowned in maple syrup? They are great plain, but you add blueberries to them— it totally changes everything. Pancakes make up the bulk of our Saturday morning breakfast, and waffles are what’s for dinner on Wednesday nights.
For years we made pancakes with whole wheat, then when we needed to go gluten free we changed to buckwheat and millet. Now we are grain free, but we still love a good pancake, and Papa loves his waffles. Now we use Otto’s Cassava Flour to make pancakes—and the key ingredient to make them light and fluffy is kefir. I am sure that you have heard of buttermilk pancakes—well, instead of using buttermilk, we use kefir. When we add kefir to our pancake batter, it makes the batter rise better, producing a fluffier pancake.
Besides kefir, the number one rising agent in pancakes is Baking Powder. Some baking powder contains aluminum, and others contain potato starch or cornstarch. All three of these ingredients are no-no’s in our house so we make our own. I mix together two parts cream of tartar (1/2 cup) to one part baking soda (1/4 cup). I sift it together about three times, and then I put it in a jar with a lid on it. Then you use it 1:1 in any recipe calling for Baking Powder.
I like to mix all my liquid ingredients together first.
Then I dump my dry ingredients on top of the liquid—it floats!
Finally whisk them all together—but do not overdo it or they will be “flat” jacks instead. You want to stir them just until the powder is mixed in— and not a whisk longer.
Cooking pancakes is really not complicated at all. We heat our griddle up for about ten minutes on medium heat. Then we butter the griddle, and using a measuring cup (size depends on how big you want your pancakes) we pour the batter onto the griddle to make our pancakes. When the pancakes have air bubbles start to pop on the top, then it is time to flip them. Once you flip them, you cook the other side until it is golden brown. When we make waffles, we actually cook them longer than one cycle—that way they are crispier.
When we add blueberries to our pancakes, we first drop the batter on the hot griddle and then we put as many blueberries in each pancake as we want. It never fails when you add the blueberries to the batter—you run out before you get to the last few pancakes. When we make waffles, we top the cooked waffle with the fresh blueberries.
The nice thing about Cassava Flour pancakes is that they actually taste really good plain—but I highly recommend indulging yourself and topping them with lots of butter and maple syrup. Just make sure that you got the real deal when it comes to maple syrup—you do not want a bottle of maple flavored corn syrup, or maple flavored cane syrup—you want 100% genuine, Maple Syrup! It is packed full of vitamins and minerals, thereby making it a really healthy sugar.
Cassava Flour Pancakes or Waffles
2 farm fresh eggs
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups kefir
1 1/2 cup Otto’s Cassava Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of blueberries
Whisk wet ingredients first, top with dry ingredients and then whisk together until just mixed. Let stand a few minutes to let the rising agents activate and do their job. Cook on hot griddle (medium heat). Top with butter and maple syrup.
Yields about 5 waffles, or about 16 pancakes.
ENJOY!
