Vegan Pancakes

Making a vegan pancake is just as easy as making any other kind of pancake. The good thing about vegan pancake batter is you can throw all kinds of healthful ingredients in, if you want, and nobody will be the wiser. The basic batter can be changed and adapted to what you have on hand. Blueberries or bananas are always a welcome addition, or ground seeds or nuts. I used up the yogurt that separated (because I didn't follow my own recipe ...), and every pancake was gobbled up. We like to eat our vegan pancakes with applesauce, organic Smart Balance, and syrup.

Dry Ingredients 
4 cups ― whole wheat pastry flour (or use a combination of other flours)
1 Tblsp. ― Rumford baking powder
1Tblsp. ― Sucanat or other sweetener (not essential)
½ tsp ― cinnamon (if you want more flavor)
¼ tsp ― salt

Stir this together in a medium bowl. You can make up this mix ahead of time to take on a camping trip or for faster pancakes in the morning.

Wet Ingredients 
¼ cup ― sunflower oil (I left this out one time and it still worked, though the texture was different)

Stir this into the dry mix.

4-4 ½ cups ― liquid (this can be soy, nut, or rice milk and water or soy yogurt. I used a pint of yogurt with the remainder being water.)

Mix this into the dry ingredients, and end up with something the consistency of drippy batter. The thicker the batter, the thicker the pancakes will be.

Method
Get your griddle hot. I use a cast iron griddle, one of my luckier finds at a yard sale years ago for a quarter. I pour about a half tablespoon of oil on it and spread it around with my metal spatula. Open the window and turn on the fan, or the house will fill with smoke. An oil with a high flash point, like peanut, is better for this use, but it is hard to find in organic, so I usually just use the sunflower oil and suffer with the smoky oil.

 

The first pancake is usually the worst, it being too oily. The griddle is still heating up too. The first pancakes will cook for two minutes on the first side, until the edges look cooked, and some bubbles start showing in the centers. Flip and cook another minute and a half to two minutes. As the griddle gets hotter, the times will decrease to about one minute per side.

I cook one large or four small pancakes at at time, stacking them on a plate until they are all done. Then serve with applesauce, Smart Balance, and syrup.