Blueberry Spelt Pancakes with Pear Syrup

Adapted from Dreena Burton's "Eat, Drink & Be Vegan: Everyday Vegan Recipes Worth Celebrating."

As requested, here are my favorite spelt pancakes! If you like spelt flour, Dreena Burton uses it a lot in her baking. It's light, flavorful, nourishing, and delicious.

Dreena is also a mother of small children, and has a lot of child-friendly recipes.

This is an easy recipe. I whipped it up in about 5 minutes.

Essie gave it thumbs up!


First, put all of your dry ingredients together.

Then whip up your wet, which is only 2 ingredients. Plant milk, and vegetable oil. Experiment with this. If you are trying to eliminate (I am currently trying to minimize) oils, try using applesauce in equal measurements. And let me know how it turns out!

This is how your batter should look, pre-blueberries. If it's too runny, gently stir in some more flour. Try not to stir too much, as over-stirred pancakes are rubbery, thick, and tasteless.

After adding the blueberries, poor batter onto a lightly oiled fry pan or griddle. Cook until small bubbles form on the outer edge and then flipp'em! Remove from griddle when they are lightly browned, 1-2 minutes.

Then I made a 5 second syrup that my kids have grown to love. My siblings and I grew up on this stuff -- I got this easy idea/recipe from my dear, sweet, health-conscious Mother! Thanks, Mommy!

You just get a large can or jar of pear halves (or apricots! YUMMY!) in 100% natural fruit juice. Avoid the cans with pears in syrup, even the light syrup. Pour the entire jar, juices included, into the blender. Blend until a fine puree forms. Pour the syrup in a microwavable glass dish (I just poured mine back into the glass jar) and microwave on high for 1-2 minutes. You may need to stir it again after it comes out of the microwave, as it tends to separate. Serve warm over pancakes, waffles, or even muffins!

No oils, no added sugars, no tummy aches.

Try it out on your kids. If they are used to pure sugar syrups, they may not like this at first, so you could sneak in some maple syrup to make it a bit sweeter. Then, after they decide they love it, when you make it again ditch the maple syrup.


Blueberry Spelt Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup spelt flour (you could probably use white whole wheat, but reduce it by 1/8-1/4 cup)
2 tbsp brown rice flour (or just more white whole wheat)
1 tsp cinnamon, heaping if you love cinnamon like we do!
1 tbsp coconut palm sugar, or any granulated sugar (optional)
1/8 tsp celtic sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups plant milk
1 tbsp organic canola oil (or 1 tsbp coconut oil, which I believe to be healthier)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
coconut oil (or canola) to coat pan or griddle

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a small bowl, combine plant milk and 1 tbsp oil and mix well.

Add wet mixture to dry, stirring until just combined. If too runny, wait just 1-2 minutes to see if it thickens up by itself. If not, adjust ingredients.

Gently stir in blueberries just before you are ready to are ready to cook pancakes.

Lightly oil a non-stick frying pan or griddle (using the edge of a paper towel). On medium-high heat, heat pan for a few minutes until hot. If using a griddle, I had mine turned onto about 350 degrees.

Using a ladle, scoop batter into pan to form pancakes. Cook for several minutes, until small bubbles form on outer edge and into the center.

Flip pancakes to lightly brown other side, for 1-2 minutes. Repeat until all batter is used.

Serve warm, and with your favorite toppings! (I recommend you try the pear syrup!)


These can easily be doubled for larger families or for leftovers. I even put them in lunches sometimes, or use them as snacks.

ENJOY!

And keep the requests coming!

Ashlee