Cinnamon-Oat Whole Wheat Pancakes

I love to make these hearty pancakes on Sunday when no one is stressed trying to get out the door in the morning and I don't have to worry about getting things done by a certain time.  I also love to make these on Sunday because Sunday is my free day and I don't have to worry about measuring my syrup or feel deprived if I want to put chocolate chips into the pancakes.  This is actually a weight watchers recipe and so you can easily make this in the morning and stay on track.  You just have to measure your pancake batter.

*Note: This recipe calls for 2 cups of buttermilk.  This makes the pancakes thicker and fluffier.  However, I have made it several times with homemade buttermilk if you don't want to buy buttermilk at he store here is how to make buttermilk at home:

How to make your own buttermilk: To make 1 cup buttermilk, take 1 tbsp vinegar and place in a liquid measuring cup.  Then add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the 1 cup mark.  Let sit for at least 5 minutes.  For this recipe you need 2 cups, so just take 2 tbsp vinegar and place in a liquid measuring cup, then add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the 2 cup mark.  Stir and let sit at least 5 minutes.

Very easy!  But the pancake batter will come out thinner.  I have made it both ways and it tastes great either way.

Cinnamon-Oat Whole Wheat Pancakes- 7 points plus for two pancakes of 1/3 cup batter

Ingredients

	1 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats
	1 cup(s) whole wheat flour
	1 cup(s) all purpose flour
	1 tsp baking soda
	1 tsp ground cinnamon
	1/2 tsp table salt
	2 cup(s) low-fat buttermilk
	2 large egg(s)
	2 Tbsp packed brown sugar, dark variety
	1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
	1 tsp vanilla extract

  
Directions:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, both flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, sugar, melted butter and vanilla extract. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients; mix until combined 

To cook pancakes, preheat pan over medium heat.  DO NOT COOK PANCAKES IN A STAINLESS STEEL PAN! Stainless steel sticks like crazy and it is incredibly difficult to clean burnt pancakes off of it.  Make sure you have a non-stick pan or griddle.  If you are not a fan of non-stick (teflon) then use ceramic cookware.  

I am not a fan of cooking spray since it contains aresol and leaves a sticky residue on my cookware that is very hard if not impossible to remove.  So I just take a little bit of canola oil (or you can use coconut oil) and a silicone basing brush and rub it around the pan and that works perfectly.  I usually only have to do this once for the whole batch.

You can cook them plain: 

Or you can add chocolate chips.  I used to just add the chips to the batter but I found that all my chocolate chips would sink to the bottom.  So now I just add some to the pancakes after I put the batter in the pan.  It works better that way I think. 

And here they are flipped over

Nice and golden and fluffy.  As you can see, I don't really fuss over making them a perfect circle, to do that you need to have a large griddle or only put one pancake in the pan at a time and I don't have a large griddle and I am too impatient to cook only one at a time.

For the kids I usually make some small ones

And I always deck out my pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries!  Love it that way.

And as you see, so does Chloe :-)  Or maybe she just loves the whipped cream haha!

Face First!