Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes

I made these awesome pancakes for my family yesterday morning. They were really tasty and very very easy. I made the batter very early in the morning and just left it in the fridge until they arrived. They were so good they didn't even really need syrup. Just a little butter and yummmmm...

Original recipe from Eatliverun, it had chocolate chips which I left out but that would be awesome too. I doubled the original recipe because I was feeding several hungry people. Also next time I'm adding either vanilla or molasses. It seems to me that pancakes are just more liquidy muffins, so you could probably put all kinds of nuts or seeds or the zest of an orange, or fruit in them.

Ingredients:

3 small sweet potatoes- peeled and diced, microwaved to cook and then mashed
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cup milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice

water if the mix is too thick

Method:

Mix all the dry in one bowl and all the wet in another bowl while you are microwaving your potatoes.
Mash your potatoes and mix them in to the wet ingredients.
Add dry to wet and mix just until combined.
At this point you would add your chocolate chips or what have you, then possibly a bit of water if the mix is too thick.
Heat up your skillet with a little oil or butter and test out the dough to see if the pan is hot enough.
When the test pancake is really getting cooked properly you are ready to start cooking the rest.

Muffin Thursday: Pear Almond Chocolate Spice Muffins

Christmas has come early!! Muffin Thursday has arrived a whole day early this week. Instead of studying for a huge test that I have tomorrow- I can't look at my notes anymore I'm going insane- I decided to make cookies and these delish muffins. From Pastry Affair, these muffins have the perfect balance of spice and cocoa powder.

Unfortunately I was halfway done the recipe when I realized my mom didn't have any cardamom, so I changed the recipe to ginger and nutmeg. And I threw in some allspice and extra cinnamon. I'll try to remember all of the changes I made. I also halved the sugar. Remember- muffin not cupcake. I think this same basic recipe would be really good with cranberries and walnuts or chocolate chips and hazelnuts instead of the pear and nuts. The basic batter recipe is really easy and lends itself to a lot of different flavor possibilities. It's easy to take cake recipes and make them into muffins by backing off on the sugar and changing the bake temp from 350 to 400 and the bake time from an hour to around 25 mins.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 pears, diced (I used Red Pears)
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put muffin papers in a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until cocoa is dissolved.

In another small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil together. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Alternatively add the flour and cocoa mixtures, mixing gently between additions. Don't mix too much. Using a spatula, fold in the diced pears and chopped almonds.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

And now back to pretending to study.

Muffin Thursday: Chai Spice

Starting something new today: Muffin Thursdays. Every week a new muffin recipe. This week we're doing Chai Muffins. I got the idea from a combination of a chamomile cupcake recipe and chai shortbread cookies. I still want to try the chamomile in a muffin at some point. So I changed some of the proportions and added a few things to make these muffins more hearty and rustic.

(Makes 6 muffins)

Ingredients:

1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C AP Flour
1/3 C Bran Flakes
1/2 C Oats
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Allspice
2 Bags Chai Tea- put tea leaves right into dry ingredients bowl

1/2 C Sugar
2 Tbsp Molasses
1/2 C Milk
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Apple sauce or more if mix looks dry once wet and dry combined

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all dry ingredients (first paragraph of ingredients list) and set and set aside.
Combine all wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) and set aside
Pour dry into wet bowl and mix just until flour is absorbed. If mix is dry add a little milk or applesauce, if too wet throw in some more oats and mix just until combined.
Drop batter into muffin tins and fill just to the top or a little over,
Bake for 10-12 mins and then check them, they should bounce back to the touch and a knife should come out clean when stuck in the middle.

Enjoy!!