I love making soda breads with yogurt. It is acidic so you can add baking soda as well as baking powder as a leavening agent. One day I went to the grocery store to buy a bottle of Kéfir. On accident I bought drinkable yogurt. What an interesting opportunity for waffles. This morning I made waffles with 2 pots of raspberry yogurt with the balance in orange juice. YUM
The trick in using yogurt is factoring in how stiff the yogurt is and how much sugar it has. Plain Greek yogurt has no added sugar but it is stiff. I thin it with some milk and add the usual amount of sugar. If using Drinkable Yogurt, drop sugar as the drink is sweetened and no need to thin.
When my wife and I get up in the morning, we love a quick breakfast. Toasted bagels are a favourite. On weekends, I sometimes make waffles or pancakes. I saw a frozen waffle ad and thought that would be so convenient, but I am a waffle snob. Why not make and freeze my own waffles.
Kéfir (pronounced kə-FEER) is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt that is made from kéfir grains and milk. Kéfir is found in grocery stores near the yogurt. Kéfir adds an interesting flavour to the pancakes. My wife even likes them without syrup, just some butter. Kéfir does make a thicker batter, so you adjust with milk. I find adding 25% milk results in the batter stiffness I like. How much milk you use depends on how thick you like your waffles. Kéfir comes in a one litre bottle, so a quad recipe would use it all. I could then freeze them for a quick toasting later.
I always comment that my wife’s homemake stew and soup is better the next day. The flavours have time to develop. In the case of toasted waffles the outside gets crispy while the inside stays soft and yummy.
Tip: When making a large batch, place a waffle on a rack to cool then place in the freezer. Later collect up the frozen waffles and bag. As they are frozen already they will not stick together.
Update: I show the waffles being heated up in a toaster, BUT! I find toaster ovens and counter top ovens make lousy toast. The problem is the heating element is too far from the bread. With frozen waffles, a toaster crisps up the outside but so quickly that the inside is not hot. A toaster oven does a better job. Set the oven to 350°F/180°C, put the frozen waffles in, then turn the oven on. About 5ish minutes and they are crisp outside while the inside is hot.
I find a Belgian waffle maker is better if your goal is to freeze them. The waffles are studier.
I bought kéfir (pronounced kə-FEER) so I could try Kéfir Pancakes. Kéfir is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt that is made from kéfir grains and milk. I have made waffles with yogurt as the dairy, but thought kéfir sounded interesting. Kéfir is found in grocery stores near the yogurt.
Kéfir adds an interesting flavour to the pancakes. My wife even likes them without syrup, just some butter.
Milk is added to thin the kéfir. How much milk you use depends on how thick you like your pancakes. 1/4 cup milk on the 2-cup batter recipe will result in a thick pancake. I prefer mine fairly thin, so I use 1/2 cup milk. If you use 1/4 cup milk, spread the batter on the griddle with the bottom of the ladle. Note, this recipe does not use any baking powder. Kéfir is acidic, so only baking soda is added. Whisk the wet and dry ingredients together for a short period, as the baking soda/acid bubbling comes quickly. A long mix drives the bubbles out. You can add some baking power to help with the rise if you mix too much.
Recipe inspired by Kefir Pancakes – Hubert Cormier, nutritionist.
https://www.liberte.ca/en/kefir-pancakes
Included with each pancake recipe.
A common question in North America is why use a scale. When I went to baking school, the first thing we were told is to do measuring with a scale. Especially for flour. Flour packs and a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 100 grams to 140 grams. I use 125 grams as a cup so regardless of whether you flour is packed or just sifted, 125 grams is a cup. For small measurements I do use measuring spoons.
Why grams and not ounces? Commercial baking is done in grams and my training is commercial.
You can freeze and reheat extra pancakes. Store in a freezer bag then reheat at 350°F/180°C for a few minutes.
One of my favourite things my wife bakes is pumpkin pie. She buys a large can of pumpkin puree and goes to town. She mentioned that a small amount was left over so I thought, what about a pumpkin spice pancake? This is a spin on my Lemon Milk Pancakes adding pumpkin and three spices. I found many of the other recipes too strong. The aroma of pumpkin pie was in the air. The only trick is the pumpkin tends to thicken up the batter. I found if I poured it then spread it out some the resulting pancakes were nicer.
Also the batter is orange so it turns dark quicker. Again, I thought the pancakes were done when it was just them turning dark. Great with butter and some maple syrup. If you have any left over, just place on a rack to cool then bag and freeze.
Watch the batter rise in the oven.
German Pancakes are popovers. They are also known as Dutch Babies, Bismarcks or Dutch puffs. Think of a cross between an omelette and a soufflé. Simple recipe of milk, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and butter. Once removed from the oven, they collapse to form Yorkshire pudding-like sides with an omelette centre.
Serve with a fruit topping, icing sugar or your favourite maple syrup and butter.
2020 Feature recipe of the Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival.
Want your family to eat more whole wheat flour but they don’t like the taste? Try using orange juice instead of milk in your pancakes. The citric acid dulls the fibre taste and makes for an interesting flavour. I like to use orange juice with extra pulp for even more flavour surprises as you eat. As the juice has so much sugar, no need to add more. The sweet juice makes for a dark colour as the sugar caramelizes on the griddle.
This recipe uses the acid in the juice and baking soda to build on the baking powder leaven to make for a high soft pancake.
My third waffle to pancake recipe is Simple Milk Pancakes based on my Simple Milk Waffles. Like that recipe, this is a foundation recipe to me. It is what I build others from. This is a light fluffy pancake. I prefer the Lemon Milk Pancakes. Mainly I use this as a foundation recipe to build on when I don’t want to add an acid.
In the Oat Gluten-Free Lemon Milk Pancakes recipe, I explain how I convert a waffle to a pancake recipe.
My second waffle to pancake recipe is Lemon Milk Pancakes based on my Lemon Milk Waffles. Like that recipe, this is a foundation recipe to me. It is what I build others from.
Lemon Milk Pancakes use lemon juice and baking soda to build on the baking powder leaven. I love the hint of lemon the juice adds.
I was recently advised to reduce my carb and sugar intake. I have been exploring pancakes so I decided to take my Oat Gluten-Free Lemon Milk Waffles and convert it to pancakes. The bonus was that the oat waffles have no sugar. Pancakes require a thinner batter with less fat/sugar and more milk. My starting point to convert a waffle recipe to pancakes is:
I love my soft fluffy waffles, but I wanted to create savoury crisp waffles – something that you could pile toppings on, lift and eat without the toppings falling off. Reading recipes for other bread/cake products gave me ideas. Biscotti is an Italian biscuit that is baked, cut into slices, then baked again. The Italian word ‘biscotti’ translates to ‘twice-baked.’
When my waffles come off of the iron, they are slightly crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside. I thought, suppose you put them in an oven and bake until they are dry throughout? The oven temperature needs to be hot enough to dry, but not so hot as to bake them. I found 325°F/160°C/Gas 3 for about 20 minutes dries the waffles out without baking them more. The result is a light, crispy wafer.