Saturday, October 21, 2006

Apple Butter Pancakes

All those apples we picked last weekend inpsired me to make some Overnight Crock Pot Apple Butter. I doubled the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg that I used last time and the results were delicious. I also pureed the cooked apples before turning the crock pot up to high since everyone prefers a smoother apple butter.

This morning I used some of that apple butter to make Apple Butter Pancakes. I was making a quick, before work breakfast for Jim so its a very small recipe but I don't see why you couldn't double, triple or even quadruple it.

Katie's Apple Butter Pancakes
Combine:
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup flax seed meal
1/3 cup crushed walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp brown sugar

Add:
1 cup apple butter
enough plain soymilk to make it the right consistency

Cook on a hot griddle. If you went a little heavy on the soymilk, you might want to cover the pancakes while cooking to help avoid gooey middles.

We rarely use syrup on our pancakes. Instead we'll either eat them as is or top with apple butter or other fruit. In most cases, it doesn't even occur to my kids that they should ask for syrup with pancakes. I think this is one of the best things about a largely unprocessed, vegetarian diet. Your taste buds are more open to the nuances of the flavors of foods rather than the things we add to them, like syrup.

With obesity on the rise, the last thing we need to give our kids is more sugary (calorie laden) foods. To those of you new to a veg lifestyle or unprocessed foods, never fear, taste buds do change over time.

BTW, I've begun archiving my older posts by topic so keep an eye on the topic list on the left side of my blog. I've started at the oldest posts and will work my way forward but with 448 posts, this could take some time! Along the way I'm also adding in some links that were missing from the original posts. I was a little slow at learning how to add links. I hope this makes my blog more user friendly for everyone.

8 comments:

Barbara said...

I made a big batch of apple butter last week. I'd never heard of the stuff till my partner told me about it, now I love it.

Ruthie said...

I've never eaten apple butter, but I love apple sauce. :) I wish it was still apple season here, but, aparently, it is snowing. :)

Katie, here is a little funny question. How do you serve pancakes? We ususally serve them piled on the plate with marg. and syrup on the side. I used to eat them with spread with molasses and peanutbutter, with applesauce on the side, and more recently, I've been layering them with berries and banannas with juse a drizzle of syrup. I'd really like to get to the fruit-only topping phase, but I need some help on presentation. Do you put a couple pancakes on each plate and put bowls of fresh sliced fruit on the table? I'm starting to think that presentation is like 33% of how yummy a food is.

Ruthie said...

Ooh I just saw this and thought you might like it.

Crockpot oatmeal pie recipe:
http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=72

Katie said...

We love it too!

I usually put two pancakes on a plate and then put a dollop of apple butter or other fruit topping across them. I agree, presentation has a lot to do with the taste experience.

Thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

I read your blog regularly, and you inspired me to finally use my crock pot (for the first time!) that I bought about three years ago. It was so easy to do, and the results were fantastic! I posted my recipe (which is vegan, though I'm not) here: http://www.danandsally.com/?p=653
Soooo tasty! I bought the crock pot when I still cooked meat at home, so I wasn't sure how vegetarian food would come out. I'm going to have to try some other crockpot recipes now, though.

Katie said...

That's great and that recipe sounds delicious! I'll have to get some sweet potatoes and give it a try.

pennyspen said...

Hello,
I Google'd "strong apple butter" and found your blog. I know why "strong" apple butter came up. Does anyone else know? I had apples that needed to be taken out of storage & used. I had too many to finish them off fresh. I thought about applesauce but ran across an apple butter recipe, and since my mom loves apple butter, I decided to try an overnight version. Well, I probably flubbed it because of a few factors.
I didn't have the exact amounts, didn't boil it for sure before turning it down all night, and it is way too strong.
Anyway the reason I am on here is cause I am hoping to find something that will go well with STRONG apple butter, cause I have one quart jar & a pint that I couldn't can.
Oh, on another note, have you tried Huckleberry pancakes? MMMM! I'm gonna try them in your recipe, thanks,
Penny

Katie said...

Hi Penny,
Not sure why strong apple butter sent you here but welcome anyway. The apple butter pancake recipe is pretty forgiving, it might work well for you. I've never tried huckleberry anything. Sounds intriguing.