I love the Harvest Grain 'N Nut pancakes at IHOP, and for some time have wanted to make a nutty nutritious pancake at home. I've sprinkled in a handful of rolled oats with the regular Aunt Jemima mix, which was fine but nothing special. Today I had pecans on hand, so I modified a regular recipe from my trusty red-checkered cookbook. A lot. And they were fantastic. Soooo good. When I posted a boast on facebook, a few friends asked for the recipe. Now maybe they were only humoring me, but I am really so excited about these pancakes, I don't care if they are.
And my recipe makes enough to feed my family of 5 (well, 6, but the baby doesn't eat pancakes yet.) Have you noticed how recipes and mixes always tell you the batch will make 8-10, but really you get only 5 or 6? I hate that. This makes 8 very large pancakes. Like, 8 inch diameter pancakes. No, I didn't actually take out a tape measure. But I did think about it. Instead I held up an 8 inch cake pan and compared. I wanted to be solid on my claim.
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
I wanted the texture to be subtle, so I put the pecans and oats in our small Ninja food processor and gave it 3 or 4 pulses. That's a big deal for me, I HATE pulling out small appliances, I prefer to beat mixes by hand and chop til the cows come home to avoid cleaning kitchen appliances. It has to really be worth it. This is. Just pulse it til it looks like big crumbs.
Then mix all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Except I always put the salt in the wet ingredients so that it disolves evenly. And if you are one of those people who doesn't understand why you need salt in a sweet recipe, just please go with it. Don't omit the salt. It's a tiny bit, and contrasts so nicely with the sweet of the syrup. Never make pancakes, french toast, or waffles without salt.
So then beat your eggs, milk, oil, and salt together, then dump it all into the dry. Whisk slowly just to combine. OVERMIXING WILL KILL YOUR PANCAKES. Keep it lumpy.
Now let it bubble up a bit while you preheat your pan and find your spatula. I keep the burner right at medium high, put in a bit of butter to test it, and a quick sizzle means it's ready.
I pour a big pancake. And I like it thick. Of course, it's ready to flip when edges are dry and there are lots and lots of bubbles. One pancake is enough for each of my kids.
Can I take this opportunity to point out that corn syrup does not need to be refrigerated? So you can keep your Log Cabin bottle in the pantry, and it won't make your pancakes cold. Or if you have real maple syrup on hand, like we did today, which does need to be refigerated, you can warm a bit in the microwave. I use a small glass beaker-looking thing from my son's Pumpkins and Potions birthday party in October. Microwave half a cup or so for 40 seconds at 40% power.
Enjoy. They're good for you!
