Sunday, December 29, 2013

Carrot cake pancakes





The best part about making carrot cake is having a piece of it for breakfast the next morning. Hence the absolute genius of this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers Joy, from joythebaker.com. It is a carrot cake in healthy breakfast form. It is perfectly divine and my absolute favorite thing to make for my family in the morning. The only annoying thing about this recipe is that you have to hand grate the carrots finely. If you use a food processor or the bigger holes on the grater (both of which speed up the process of grating significantly) the resulting larger shreds of carrot will not cook fast enough in the pan. So, it will take you several minutes of tedium to get 2 cups of finely shredded carrot but it is worth it. I usually try to shred the carrots the night before, that way the batter only takes 2 minutes to whip up.  **June 2019 UPDATE: I grated carrots this morning by just throwing baby carrots into my Magic Bullet. Used only 1 cup because the Magic Bullet made it very finely grated. Worked great!** 

The other great thing about making these for breakfast is the frosting. Out of maple syrup? No worries, you don't need it! The thought of this frosting sustained me through a 5:30am shouting wake-up of "mommy play! Mommy play! Play mommy come play!!"





Carrot Cake Pancakes

*June 2019 update: make these gluten-free by substituting 1/2 cup almond flour and 1/2 cup King Arthur Gluten Free Flour blend for the 1 cup flour*

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 large egg
2 tablespoons sugar, white or brown
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups finely grated carrots (about 4 medium carrots)

For the frosting (optional but highly recommended)
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature 
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. In a small bowl whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined. Gently fold in carrots. Now preheat a skillet (or two or three), and cook pancakes by the 1/4 cupful with a smidge of butter over medium or low heat. Flip the pancakes when bubbles appear on surface then cook until golden brown. You might need to adjust the heat to get it just right.

While the pancakes are cooking make the cream cheese frosting. Beat the cream cheese in a small bowl until smooth. Add the sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk, vanilla and cinnamon and beat till smooth and creamy. Add the extra tablespoon of milk if needed. 

Serve pancakes topped with frosting.

Yum.

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