Pancakes, what’s better after a long week of working on the mountaintop? There is nothing my Ambitious Feller loves more than Sunday morning pancakes!
Remember the old days when we didn’t think much about gluten, wheat, dairy or sugar?
I remember those days well. When you wanted pancakes, you bought a box of Aunt Jemima complete pancake mix. No stack was complete without Aunt Jemima or Mrs. Buttersworth syrup in the glass bottle. Do you remember those? As a child, I loved the glass bottle! Occasionally, at my insistence, my mother would wash an empty bottle for me to keep. Talk about way back when, giving me a glass bottle to play with. How funny is that! I really don’t know what I did with it though!! The syrup was sticky and yummy. I imagine the high fructose corn syrup, caramel color and other artificial flavors and preservatives made it so tasty! What did we care, gluten and sugar were not even on our radar back then. We ate our pancakes with joy and abandonment until every last piece was consumed!
One of the best gifts!
Now that we are living on the mountaintop, one of the best gifts we can give each other is the gift of health! By that, I mean doing our best to eat things that are healthy to fuel and nourish our bodies. Do we always eat perfectly, of course not! But we do strive to make better, cleaner choices. Sometimes it is not so much about doing without the treats and dishes we enjoy, but swapping out ingredients for healthier alternatives to give us a more healthy benefit. You really can eat the things you love with just a few tweaks.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and it was time to whip up a batch of pancakes for my Ambitious Feller. He loves them so much. Fortunately, our local grocery store carries The Full Circle organic brand that is gluten-free. The pancakes have a wonderful texture and are so delicious.
The one thing Ambitious Feller likes with his pancakes is sausage. Because we are trying to keep it healthy, I brown turkey sausage to add to the batter. Once it has browned, I will just add it back to the batter to mix with the other ingredients. We swap out milk or water for Almond milk and it has a very nice texture.
There are several key things that take these pancakes over the top.
Most importantly, is a hot cast iron skillet or griddle that includes a teaspoon or two of coconut oil. When cooking pancakes in cast iron, it is essential to get the pan really hot, but not to the point of smoking.
Equally important is getting the batter the right consistency. We like to keep our batter thinned down so the pancakes aren’t too thick. By doing this, the edges become crispy in the coconut oil. This step is the part Ambitious Feller loves the most. . . crispy pancake edges! Because the sausage has already been added to the batter, it gives these such a wonderful flavor. It doesn’t take a lot of sausage, just enough to give it that extra yum factor.
We like to top them off with pecans and pure maple syrup! It’s the best. If you notice, our pancakes aren’t perfectly round and we like them that way. Because our batter is thinner, it likes to expand in uneven directions once it hits the hot cast iron griddle!
It’s the way we like them on the mountaintop! Organic, gluten-free, crispy with uneven edges. The best part, you don’t have that stuffed, slightly queasy feeling once you have taken that last bite.
May your Sunday mornings be filled with all the things you love and maybe a stack of Ambitious Feller’s sausage pancakes!
~Enjoy~
