Vegan Pancakes

I am not a big breakfast eater. I pack me a pb&j sandwich or eat my cereal at work. Weekends used to be no different, wake up late, skip breakfast, eat lunch. But with the baby in the house, we are waking up bright and early even on the weekends (actually we are forced out of the bed by the little one). Since I have to make him breakfast, I started making for us too.

This weekend I made these vegan pancakes from Vegan with a vengeance by Isa Chandra. They were really very good, fluffy and cakey. My son definitely loved them.

Recipe adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance.
Ingredients:
All-purpose flour – 1 ¼ cups
Baking soda – 2 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Soy milk/ Rice milk – 1 to 1 ¼ cups
Water – 1/3 cup
Canola oil – 2 tbsp plus oil for the pan
Pure Maple syrup* – 2 tbsp
Vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Method:

• Sift AP flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
• In a smaller bowl (I use a measuring cup), mix all the other ingredients.
• Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined. Do not overmix or the pancakes will be tough; few lumps are OK.
• Oil a large skillet (I pour about 2tsp oil and quickly wipe the oil on the skillet with a paper towel) and pre-heat on medium-high flame.
• Cook pancakes until browned on the bottom and bubbles form on the top; about 4 minutes. Turn the pancakes over and cook until the bottoms are browned. Repeat with remaining batter.
• Serve with maple syrup* or fruit preserves. This makes about 12-14 medium size pancakes.
• 1 cup of blueberries can be added to make blueberry pancakes.

* Pure maple syrup is quite expensive ($16.99 for a quart from Costco) and pouring it all over the pancakes (or French toasts for that matter) is going to put a big dent in the purse and big bulge in the belly. So to stretch your buck here is a nifty tip: Pour syrup in a shot glass half way through. Using a fork lightly dip a pancake piece (no dunking please) in the syrup and eat syrup side of the pancake first. Check it out and you will be amazed how little syrup you really need.