We are getting into the holiday spirit with decorating our house, listening to Christmas music and looking for holiday-inspired recipes. The boys are dying to make our Santa cookies! Recently we were at a restaurant for brunch and one of the specials were stuffed gingerbread pancakes. They sounded amazing but a bit too rich for me. I've been thinking of them ever since, so I wanted to try out a healthier version of the recipe that I’d feel good about giving my boys on a school morning.
We love making “Breakfast for Dinner” so I thought the gingerbread pancakes would be a good choice served with bacon and fresh fruit. One reason I love pancakes so much is because you can freeze the extras for those busy mornings when you don’t have time to make anything. All you need to do is throw them in the oven to re-heat, and they taste like you just made them.
The boys loved using the mortar and pestle to grind the cloves and nutmeg.
It’s so important to show children the real form of foods so they get an idea of where the food comes from. If we only cook with foods that come from cans and or boxes, then kids will never associate food in its real state. I don’t want my kids to associate pancakes in a box.
Gingerbread Pancakes
Prep time: 10 min.
Cook time: 15 min.
Total time: 25 min.
Serves: 8
Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cloves – freshly ground
- 1 Tbsp. nutmeg – freshly ground
- 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- ¼ cup cold coffee
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
Instructions:
Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon and mix well. In a smaller bowl, combine eggs, milk, coffee and melted coconut oil and mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Using an ice cream scoop, put two scoopfuls onto a hot griddle and cook through until you are able to flip. Continue this process until the pancake mixture is all cooked. Serve with powdered sugar and pure maple syrup.
Trina O'Boyle is a Drexel Hill, PA mom of two boys. This post is adapted from her blog, O'Boy Organic.
