Recipe: Basic Yogurt Pancakes or Waffles and Variations with Quick Fruit Sauces

BASIC YOGURT PANCAKES OR WAFFLES

This recipe is wonderful as is, or it can be used as a starting point for variations. Buttermilk is the traditional base for pancakes, but for me, this raised several dilemmas: One, even the largest supermarkets were often out of stock, and two, even when I did find it, it was never organic. I discovered that yogurt is an excellent base for pancake batter, producing tender, golden results. Once we went vegan, I found that soy yogurt works just as well.

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds, optional
1 1/2 cups low-fat yogurt or soy yogurt
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups low-fat milk or rice milk
2 tablespoons non-hydrogenated margarine
Pure maple syrup, all-fruit preserves, or one Quick Fresh Fruit Sauce

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and flaxseeds, if using, in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the yogurt and milk. Stir with a whisk until the batter is just smooth; it should have an easy-to-pour consistency, but not too thin. Add more milk as needed. Don't overbeat.

2. Heat a nonstick griddle or a large nonstick skillet that has been lightly coated with some of the margarine. Ladle on the batter to form 3- to 4-inch pancakes. Cook on both sides over medium heat until golden brown. Serve hot with maple syrup.

VARIATIONS:

MULTIGRAIN:
Substitute 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the flour with another type of flour such as spelt, kamut, buckwheat, cornmeal, or rye, or use a combination of two different types of flour equaling 1/2 to 3/4 cup.

FRUITY PANCAKES:
Add a cup or so of thinly sliced fruits--one kind or a combination--to the batter. Try pears, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, wild blueberries, or other berries.

CINNAMON-APPLE PANCAKES:
Add 1 heaping cup very thinly sliced, peeled apple (any soft cooking variety such as Cortland, McIntosh, or Golden Delicious) and ground cinnamon to taste to the batter.

BANANA-NUT:
Add 1 medium thinly sliced banana, 1/4 to 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans, and a pinch of ground nutmeg to the batter.

WAFFLES:
The basic pancake recipe makes a good waffle batter if you reduce the amount of milk to 1 cup, or just a bit more if needed. You can use the multigrain variation, but the fruity variations may be too chunky and/or sticky for your waffle iron (waffles are delicious, however, topped with any of the Quick Fresh Fruit Sauces, below). Before cooking the waffles, I like to lightly spray the waffle iron with cooking oil spray (light olive oil spray is a good choice). On weekday mornings, I don't consider it a big job to prepare waffles, if I cut the Basic Yogurt Pancakes recipe in half to yield 4 large Belgian-style waffles.

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QUICK FRESH FRUIT SAUCES FOR YOGURT, PANCAKES, AND WAFFLES

"These nifty combinations of finely diced fruit and all-fruit preserves create nearly instant sauces. Each combination makes enough for four to six 1/3- to 1/2-cup servings as a topping."

PEACH OR NECTARINE SAUCE:
Combine 2 cups finely diced peaches or nectarines with 2 to 3 teaspoons all-fruit peach or apricot preserves. Stir together well.

STRAWBERRY OR STRAWBERRY-BLUEBERRY SAUCE:
Combine 1 pint thinly sliced strawberries (or 1 cup each blueberries and sliced strawberries) with 2 to 3 teaspoons strawberry jam. Stir together well.

PEAR AND MANGO:
Perfect for winter! Combine 1 cup diced, peeled pear and 1 cup diced mango with 2 to 3 teaspoons peach or apricot all-fruit preserves. Stir together well.

PURELY MANGO:
Combine 2 cups diced mango with 2 to 3 teaspoons mango, peach, or apricot all-fruit preserves. Stir together well.

Makes 4 to 6 servings
Excerpted from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas
Copyright 2004 by Nava Atlas. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.