Easy & Healthy GF Chocolate Pancakes

Gluten Free Chocolate Pancakes

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tiny pinch salt
• 1/4 cup oats

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.
2. Fry on a nonstick surface! (very very important that the pan is nonstick. My other pans couldn’t handle this batter)
3. Serve with a healthy drizzle (dousing) of chocolate ganache (1 tbs of chocolate chips melted in 2 tbs heavy whipping cream)!

On a side note, my camera is still broken :( Luckily I have this picture from before it broke. 

Buttermilk Pancakes with Berry Syrup

Pancakes and I have a shaky history. 

I remember my brother Jonathan took me to an iHop when I was younger, around the time my dad switched to a raw food diet and cut my access to all “junk food” off, and being completely astounded by the sheer number of syrup flavors, let alone pancake combinations, served. Of course, at that time, all food not raw or completely natural had a negative stigma attached to it, so my experience was only slightly tainted by the guilt of eating white flour and sugar (the horror!). Still though, they were delicious and definitely fueled the love for pancakes I have today.

Pancakes and I are on good terms now. I haven’t been to an iHop since (turns out, they’re really not that delicious compared to homemade ones), rather I prefer to make my own pancakes. My favorite part of homemade pancakes is making syrups to go along with them, a process which is actually super, super easy. Berry syrup, caramel syrup, pudding (?), the toppings for pancakes are endless.

I’m definitely going to be making pumpkin pancakes sometime soon, but for now, these super simple, but delicious, buttermilk pancakes ought to suffice. 

Buttermilk Pancakes

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/8 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Stir together the flour, baking soda, sugar,and salt.
2. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and butter.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and GENTLY fold together. Do not overmix.
4. Cook on medium heat until golden brown.

Berry Syrup

• 1/4 cup pancake syrup (I used this sugar-free syrup, and I highly recommend it. It’s delicious!)
• 1/4 cup diced/crushed berries (I used about 3 strawberries and 2 blackberries)

1. Combine the syrup and berries together in a pan. Boil until the syrup is thick and the berries are cooked.
2. Serve with buttermilk pancakes! (Or basically anything)

Oatmeal Stuffed Baked Apples

I have a pretty solid routine when it comes to being on the computer.

I usually start off with facebookstalking, move on to checking my email, scroll through a billion pages of reddit, look for any tumblr updates, check my deviantart, and if I have time, oogle at the mind-numbing brilliance of foodgawker.

The other day, managing to get through my whole checklist, I was drooling at desserts on foodgawker when I came upon a recipe for this.  Ice cream stuffed apples? Yum.  My cranium began turning and all of the sudden, a simple idea invaded my thoughts: oatmeal stuffed apples.

This is a new, revolutionary food-so healthy (you get your apple a day to keep the doctor away!) and yet so simple.  Portable, filling, and best of all: DELICIOUS!  

Today’s version (I’m betting there will be more in the future ;)) is super simple-an apple stuffed with cinnamon apple raison oatmeal.  They take about 30 minutes to make, but I betcha they could easily be made on a weekend, and heated in a microwave for breakfast (who wants to turn on an oven for breakfast anyways).  

Eat them plain for maximum nutritional value, or top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for maximum yum factor.

Cinnamon Raisin Apple Oatmeal Stuffed Baked Apples

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbs brown sugar (add to taste)
• pumpkin pie spice, to taste (I used 1 tsp)
• 2 apples (dense apples probably not the best for this recipe)
• 1 tbs raisins
• OPTIONAL 1 tbs butter- I didn’t use.
• OPTIONAL- 1 tbs walnuts, chopped

1. Combine the oats and water in a large bowl, and microwave at high heat for four minutes.  Carefully watch to make sure it doesn’t overflow.  OR cook the oats on a stove until done.
2. Combine the brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice in a ramekin.
3. Take the apples and cut the tops off.  Scoop out and dice the flesh of the apples.  Cut off the stems.
4. *OPTIONAL* Rub the butter along the inside of the apples.
5. Take about 1 tsp of the brown sugar spice mixture and spread on the inside of the apples.
6. Add the remaining spice-sugar mixture to the oatmeal, along with the raisins, diced apple flesh, and walnuts, if using.  I only used the flesh of one apple, and fed the rest to my dogs.
7. Place the tops of the apples back on, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
8. Serve plain, or with whipped cream and/or ice cream. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Cake

Guess what? It’s finally autumn!

Well, I guess technically it has been autumn for a little while, but I judge seasons by the weather, and it finally started raining today! :) 

It’s actually really funny because my dad, who despises cold weather, was visiting Czech this past week, and while he was gone it was super sunny and warm.  The day he came home it actually started raining, so he missed all of the good weather! 

EDIT: Yikes! This post got deleted! I’m not sure how

Well, I’ll add the recipe asap (a.k.a when I can find it!)

EDIT2: Here it is:

Oatmeal Cake

• 1 1/3 cup boiling water
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup shortening or butter (I replaced half with applesauce)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar (I replaced both sugars with 2 c palm sugar + 1tbs molasses)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup flour

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I’m notorious among the people I know as being a baker.  In fact, whenever my friends come to my house, it’s normal to find us crafting various baked goods (well, in some cases it’s me baking and my friend eating XD).  My friend Sonia came over last week, and we made chocolate chip pancakes.  But, the problem (well, I wouldn’t say it’s much of a problem!) was that we made a rather large batch of chocolate-studded batter, even too much for two teens with voracious appetites!  Even after gorging on countless pancakes, I still had a gallon of batter.  Then, I proceeded to eat pancakes at every meal for the next three days.  Um, yum.  But anyways, one would think that after all those pancakes, I wouldn’t be able to look at them without feeling sick.  Nah, my love of pancakes remains firm.  

These pancakes are perfectly fluffy, flavorful, and filling. If you’re not super paranoid about preservatives, you can make them super quickly using Bisquick, but if you’re more of a from-scratch type of cook, I’ve included the homemade biscuit mix recipe I myself use.  The homemade biscuit mix makes a lot, I must warn, but don’t fear, it can be used in any recipe calling for Bisquick.  (In fact, I’ll have an amazing recipe for pumpkin pie which uses the mix, which I plan on sharing shortly, perhaps when the weather cools down a bit)

Bisquick Style Biscuit Mix

• 4 cups all purpose flour (some can be subbed with WW flour)
• 2 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk power (dry milk can be subbed, but buttermilk powder ensures optimum texture)
• 1 cup shortening (I used non hydrogenated, and it works great!)

1. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  Whisk to combine.
2. Add the shortening, and kneed the mixture with your fingers until shortening is evenly distributed, and the mix barely holds its shape when squeezed.  Use in any recipe calling for bisquick.  

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

• 2 cups bisquick/biscuit mix (2 1/2 cups for thicker, but still fluffy, pancakes)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup milk (buttermilk if using bisquick)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (increase or decrease as desired)

1. Mix the sugar, lemon juice, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.
2. Pour into bisquick/biscuit mix, and stir until barely combined.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Cook the pancakes at medium heat for about 2 minutes, flip, and then cook until no raw batter remains.  The batter can be stored for up to three days (maybe even more, but there’s no way they won’t be all eaten by then!), covered, in a refrigerator.
5. Serve with whipped cream or pancake syrup, and enjoy!