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Monday, December 22, 2008

Low Calorie Pancakes

low calorie pancakesHello. Happy Monday and Happy Holidays!

I’ve been trying to create low calorie versions of my favorite treats, and recently I’ve turned to one of my favorite breakfast treats: pancakes. I started with a classic buttermilk pancake recipe, and then just trimmed calories wherever I thought I could without affecting taste or consistency too much. I made a classic batch and a low calorie batch back to back, and was pleasantly surprised by the results. The low calorie pancakes tasted identical to the classic pancakes but were *significantly* fewer calories and fat.

Low Calorie Pancakes (makes 8 medium sized pancakes - 65 calories each):


Ingredients
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour - 1 cup
Salt – ½ tea
Baking powder – ½ tea
Baking soda – ¼ tea
1% Buttermilk – ¾ cup
Skim milk - ¼ cup
Egg white from 1 large egg
Promise Light Buttery Spread – 2 table

Instructions
1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) in a medium sized bowl (at least 4 cup capacity).
2. Combine milk and buttermilk (I do this in a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup).
3. Separate one large egg (and discard the yolk) and beat the egg white using a handheld mixer. It usually only takes about 1 minute on low speed to make the egg white totally frothy. Add the egg white to the milk mixture and mix briefly. The egg beating adds air to the batter creating fluffier pancakes. If you don’t want or care about fluffy pancakes, you can skip the handheld mixer part.
4. Add the Buttery Spread to the milk mixture and mix briefly.
5. Dump all of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix with a fork or a whisk until just combined (over-mixing lets air out of the batter decreasing fluffiness).
6. Heat a nonstick griddle, skillet, or frying pan over medium heat. Coat lightly with a cooking spray.
7. I use a ¼ cup measure as a scoop to pour a well-defined amount of batter onto the cook surface. This recipe makes eight ¼ cup pancakes.
8. After the top of the pancake has started bubbling, when the sides of the pancake have cooked a slightly noticeable amount, flip the pancake. Cooking the second side usually only takes about half the time as the first. If the pancakes are coming out too dark or too light according to your taste, lower the heat or raise the heat respectively.
9. Reapply cooking spray to the cook surface as necessary, and try to cook all of the pancakes within an hour or two of mixing the batter.


Using the same ingredients, each medium sized pancake (see picture) comes out to 65 calories, 1.75 grams of fat, and 1.125 grams of fiber. So, each pancake is one weight watchers point!

What I love about this pancake recipe is that the pancakes always come out extremely fluffy and "bready" (I love bread, so the bread like consistency of the pancakes is a huge added plus with this recipe). I eat mine plain, but you can eat them with or without additional toppings. Some ideas include fresh or frozen berries, frozen bananas, honey, low calorie nuts, cinnamon, maple syrup, or low calorie whipped topping.

What else do you like to put on your pancakes?

Enjoy!
Juliet

12 comments:

The Blonde Duck said...

I am all over these! Now I don't have to feel guilty and can give into my pancake cravings!

The Diva on a Diet said...

I'm all over these too! I haven't had pancakes in ages ... because I've been to lazy to much around with creating a whole wheat batter myself ... and now I don't have to, you did it for me. Thank you!!! :)

Joanna said...

yummy. i love pancakes. i don't think i've even made pancakes before. i like making crepes though.

i always add a nice amount of strawberry maple syrup on them. it's my favorite flavor.

Erica said...

LOVE pancakes- especially for dinner. I like making pancakes with bananas mixed in and just a hint of syrup. So good!

Unknown said...

Yum!! Pancakes are good plain or with PB on them. Those are two of my new favourite ways to have them.

Jenn said...

These looks so tasty! I like adding a bit of canned pumpkin to my batter, too. :)

Marisa @Loser for Life said...

Isn't that whole wheat pastry flour great! Makes for really light baked goods. I use it in almost all my recipes now. I have a similar recipe for pancakes using some canned pumpkin. Great stuff and sticks with you!

Anonymous said...

Your pancakes look perfect :)

Anonymous said...

I Tried this and got lovely results as well :
1 cup wholewheat flour
3 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
white of 1 large egg
3/4 cup water
2 Tbsps olive/soya oil
Very yummy and fluffy too.

Anonymous said...

Can someone please let me know how many calories each wrap adds up to? thanks.
CREPES
1.5CUPS ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
whites of 3 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
+/- 1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsps soya/olive oil

Using 1/4 cup batter for each crepe gives you 9 crepes in all.


FILLING [for 2 crepes]
1/4 a medium sized onion chopped
1/4 large carrot grated
fistful of shredded cabbage
1/3 of a 130g can of tuna [in brine] drained of course.


SPREAD
1/2 tsp mustard per crepe OR
1 tsp lighter italian salad dressing.
NB: All veggies are raw of course.

Anonymous said...

Can you buy whole wheat flour at any grocery store or does it have to be a health food store?

Anonymous said...

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd92/ambiezz45/camPicture025.jpg
I had to use regular flour and just milk instead of the other ingredients
but they still came out delicious and only about 75 calories :D
thanks!

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