Oatmeal, Wheat and Banana Pancakes

This is the story about how one recipe becomes another.  I started out with the intention of making the Flying Biscuit's Organic Oatmeal Pancakes I mentioned in a previous blog.   But, I'm going to tell you what really happened.

At the start of this weekend, a Friday, I decided to get my grocery shopping completed for next week.  I concluded I didn't want to do much of nothing this weekend, so I had to get the shopping out of the way.  I did this without a grocery list and without recently reviewing the recipe.  This means, I had no buttermilk for the intended recipe. 

I intentionally purchased wheat flour as I've been thinking about making wheat bread.  My mother is visiting this month and I'm hoping that we will make the wheat bread she used to make when I was in high school.  I decided to wait for her arrival because I haven't kneaded bread or worked with yeast since high school.  I might as well wait for Momma.  In the meantime, I thought I would use some of the wheat flour and make wheat-based pancakes.

I buy bananas almost every week, only about 3 or 4.  Sometime weeks I eat them up but most times I don't.  Very ripe bananas are great for cooking.  I needed to get rid of a few.  I often freeze ripened bananas and use them in smoothies or baked recipes.

In my freezer I keep items for baking and toppings such as coconut, semi-sweet chocolate chips and an assortment of nuts that I buy in bulk.  No matter what happens, these tasty toppings can add flavor and make it look pretty.

Organic.  I just can't call my recipe organic.  What exacly does organic mean?  I started to research the term organic, but that is for another post for another day.  I didn't want to get lost in the internet abyss.  I've started a search on a single topic and en route - looked up the price of the newest Juicy Couture fragrance, discovered that The Walking Company has professional shoes, bookmarked blogs of interest, downloaded music and check the weather.   Two hours later...I decide that I don't have enough information to make an informed decision.  So, after careful consideration of what could happen should I go this route, I decided not to call these organic pancakes.  Instead, I'll call them exactly what they are- Oatmeal, Wheat and Banana Pancakes.

Oatmeal, Wheat and Banana Pancakes

The night before I combined one cup of oatmeal with 1 cup of 1% milk in a container and placed it in the refrigerator.  I kept this suggestion from the Flying Biscuit Recipe except that it called for buttermilk. 

Combine dry ingredients
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
Pinch of salt

Combine wet ingredients using a food processor
1 cup of oatmeal and 1 cup of 1% milk mixture (refrigerated from overnight)
1 mashed banana (the riper the better)
1 egg
1 tablespoon of oil

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the food processor.  Mix long enough to combine.  I ended up adding almost another half cup of milk to loosen up the mixture. 

Cook on oiled, preheated griddle until bubbles form and edges start to dry. Flip and cook until lightly browned.   Add oil as needed between batches.  Normally I cook pancakes on a relatively high heat.  I decided to reduce the heat to medium/low.  After the first batch, I reduced the heat to a level 3 out of 10.  I'm cooking on an electric stove. 

Although halved, this recipe produced 12 small pancakes.  These are heavy, dense pancakes.  I had three which were very filling.  I topped them with a sliced banana,  a sprinkling of semi-sweetchocolate chips and a little syrup.  I thoroughly enjoyed this meal.  I wrapped most of the remaining pancakes and placed them in the freezer.

A few more thoughts on this recipe, in case you haven't heard enough about this experience.

• I found a recipe online for wheat pancakes that I used to get the ratio correct for the dry ingredients
• I forgot to add cinnamon which goes very well with oatmeal and bananas.
• In the future I plan to try folding in beaten egg whites after combining all of the ingredients to see if this makes the pancakes lighter or fluffier. 
• A serving of oatmeal provides 4 grams of fiber.  Likewise, so does a serving of whole wheat flour.  Regular (white) flour provides no fiber.  Bananas provide additional natural sweetness, 2 more grams of fiber and other nutrients.