Flax and Oats Pancakes

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it is said. I fully believe it. I have been enjoying sourdough pancakes lately, and added organic flaxseed meal from Bob's Red Mill to them for added nutrition and good stuff. I had been making a huge batch on the weekends and freezing them to eat during the week. This has worked out wonderfully because the pancakes don't take more than 2 minutes in the microwave to thaw, so they are quick, easy and delicious. And, you can top them with anything from honey to peanut butter and jelly - whatever you like, they are really versatile - or even eat them plain, which is how I usually have them actually.

Eating breakfast does provide me with energy throughout the morning. I'm more focused and feel less tired after eating breakfast. Flax is high in fiber and I have noticed when I eat the flax pancakes, I am not hungry one hour after eating (as sometimes happens when I eat cereal for breakfast). The pancakes hold me over longer, and I am not STARVING (and grumpy!) when lunch rolls around. :-) All good things!

This afternoon I decided to make another batch of pancakes. But, I did not have any sourdough starter pour-off, so I just made them without it, following the Better Homes and Gardens recipe for pancakes. And, I added oats and ground flaxseed meal. They turned out great, slightly sweet, a little crunchy from the oats, and slightly nutty from the flaxseed meal.

Flax and Oats Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup 1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal (When I made this I actually doubled the recipe, and 1 cup of oats and 1/2 cup of flax is what I put in when it was doubled. Ooops! Sorry!)
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cooking oil

1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, oats and flaxseed meal.
2. In a second mixing bowl beat the egg and add the milk and cooking oil, and stir. Add egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy - and will be even more so with the oats).
3. Pre-heat a pan or griddle over medium heat. Using a ladle, spoon batter onto griddle to whatever size you like. Watch for the bubbles at the edges of the pancake to pop and remain tiny holes. Once that happens, the pancake is ready to flip. Cook for another 2 minutes or so until the pancake releases easily from the surface of the griddle.

These are really fast, easy and healthy! Flaxseed meal is high in fiber, Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids. Oats also are high in fiber and are a whole grain. Oh yeah, they taste good too, with a minimal amount of sugar. Enjoy!

Baking Bread - Sourdough #1

My husband and I love sourdough bread. In my quest to learn how to bake bread, of course, this was one we both wanted. It is much more involved than other breads. I won't say difficult, but, involved is accurate. Not one I would recommend for a first loaf ever baked. So, naturally, it was my second loaf ever.

This was the result of my first attempt to bake sourdough bread.

The inside was rubbery. It did not rise at all. I could still see the layers from the kneading and the rounding. It was not pretty! And, I would say, not edible! (Sorry the picture is not great, it was taken at around 11pm with the camera on my phone. I was sending it as a picture message to my husband, who wrote back to say, "It looks like the loaf exploded!")

I can understand why baking bread is intimidating or time-consuming. I was just way too impatient. I never thought I would learn patience from baking. But, it is a necessary skill, trait, virtue. . . whatever you want to call it, you need it, especially for baking sourdough.

So, I learned that real San Francisco sourdough is made from a particular type of wild yeast and lactobacillus that are naturally found in the San Francisco area. If the sourdough is not made with this combination, it is not San Francisco sourdough. I purchased my San Francisco sourdough starter from Linda at SourdoughBreads.com. She has a very reasonable and competitive price, and offers free technical support, which has been awesome for me.

The starter was easy to activate. Feeding it flour and water for 3 days and watching it grow and bubble was cool, like a science experiment! But, I had trouble getting the active sponge right for my first loaf - obviously. I thought it was supposed to ferment overnight and be very active (bubbly) in the morning. It wasn't very bubbly in the morning, but I used it anyway. (Impatience!)

I was bummed with the result, but I felt like I knew what I did wrong - not using an active sponge and being very, very impatient. After watching the starter for 3 days, I had a vague idea of when it was active. So, I thought I would skip the fermenting overnight part and just use the starter when it was very active.

I put my plan into action, and the second loaves were much more successful. (Sorry, no pictures! We ate them too fast!) I still wasn't real happy with them. I thought they were kind of doughy and too dense. But, we gobbled them up so they must not have been that bad.

One thing about baking sourdough with this starter is in order to keep the starter from getting huge and possibly taking over your kitchen, it is recommended to pour all but 1/4 cup down the drain before feeding with the 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water.

It got to me after a while, just throwing this stuff down the drain. So, I poured the excess off into another bowl and thought I would figure out what to do with it later. I continued working with the 1/4 cup in the main bowl. When my husband saw the extra, he decided to make sourdough pancakes with it.

They were really fluffy! I guess the yeast made them rise a little when cooking. They were yummy, too. He made a bunch and we froze what we didn't eat that day. So, I think that's what we'll do when we bake sourdough bread now - make pancakes with the pour-off!

Sourdough #2 coming later . . .