Oatmeal Flour Pancakes

These pancakes are just so amazingly good...

"Bisquick never again," I thought as I ate my second bite from a small stack of these tasty morsels. These pancakes are hearty and dense, but still a tad airy, with a pleasing moist, chewy texture. The flavor is slightly sweet with the added richness of oatmeal. I highly recommend these pancakes. 

This recipe makes about 14 pancakes that are about 4" in diameter. I think they would freeze well, if you want to make some for later, but they're definitely the tastiest right off the griddle.

Making the oatmeal flour: It's a simple process. It should take much less than 5 minutes to make what you need for this recipe.

Process about 2-1/2 cups of rolled oats (I used some labeled "oven-toasted old fashioned oats") in a blender or food-processor until the mixture resembles a coarse flour. You'll need 1-1/2 cups of this flour for the pancakes. I used a blender because I disdain washing all the food processor's parts. I pulsed the oats a few times then blended them on a medium setting for about 15 seconds. Then I stopped the blender and stirred toward the middle any oats that weren't getting mixed in from the edges. After pulsing a few more times and blending a little bit more, the flour was ready.

Extra oatmeal flour: Try adding leftover oatmeal flour to a fruit smoothie. It's tasty and provides some additional nutritional goodness.

The story behind the oatmeal flour: For the past few weeks, I've been making granola frequently. It's a nice alternative to packaged cereal (especially since my favorite cereal costs a bunch), I can monitor exactly what goes into it, and I really like oatmeal. Once I make a batch or few of a granola that I really really like, I'll post the recipe. Until then, I'll continue tweaking.

Anyway, to fuel this granola-making endeavor, BT and I picked up a 10-pound box of oatmeal at a warehouse store. It was a great price! Then, at home, I looked at the box and realized it wasn't the quick oats that I had thought we were buying; instead, it was a mammoth amount of old-fashioned rolled oats. I prefer using mostly quick oats for granola-making because it produces a granola with a nice clumpy and chewy (but not too chewy) texture.

Temporarily unnerved by my discovery, and despising the thought of returning the huge package of oats, I quickly realized a solution: I would just process those rolled oats in a blender and use the resulting chopped-up-coarse-flour mixture along with some rolled oats in my granolas. It worked. (Sorry, profs, that is totally an incomplete sentence devoid of an antecedent.)

In the midst of the oatmeal-to-flour processing, I remembered once hearing about oatmeal pancakes. And thus the muses lent me the idea for this pancake recipe.

A few days later, I decided to create my own oatmeal flour pancakes. After researching five different pancake recipes (some involving oatmeal, some not) and comparing the common ingredients and typical ratios, I wrote down a list of ingredients I wanted to use and put away the sample recipes. Then I started measuring and pouring.

"Hmm...that looks about right....I guess," I'd think with each scoop and stir. Finally, with hesitant excitement, I dropped two quarter-cup scoops of batter onto a hot griddle. Waiting....watching....whoa! Bubbles appeared! That was a good sign! Then I flipped over the pancakes and--behold! Two perfectly golden pancakes!

And a small bite proved that they even tasted like pancakes--and delicious ones, at that!

So the moral of this story is the following: If you like pancakes, you should try this recipe. :-)

Oatmeal Flour Pancakes
Total Estimated Time: 30 - 40 minutes (includes 5 minutes for making the oatmeal flour from rolled oats)
Makes about 14 3"-4" diameter pancakes
Serves: 2 - 4

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups oatmeal flour *
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (plus some extra)
• 1 teaspoon imitation vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

* To make the oatmeal flour, process about 2-1/2 cups rolled oats (a.k.a "old-fashioned rolled oats") in a blender or food-processor until it resembles a coarse flour. You'll need 1-1/2 cups of oatmeal flour for the pancakes.


Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together oatmeal flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Mix thoroughly.
2. Crack 1 egg into a small bowl. Beat slightly.
3. Add 1 cup of milk to the dry mixture in the medium bowl. Stir. Add the egg, vanilla, lemon juice, and applesauce. Stir well to combine. Add an extra tablespoon or two of milk if needed. Batter will bubble slightly.
4. Heat an ungreased nonstick flat griddle over medium to medium-high heat. (The heat level will determine the darkness of the pancakes, as well as their cooking time.)
5. Drop batter by 1/4 cup scoops onto the griddle (each should be an inch or more apart).

6. Cook until small bubbles (about 10) appear in the pancakes (about 2 minutes).

7. Flip the pancakes over, and cook them for about 3 more minutes.

8. Transfer finished pancakes to a plate. Keep them covered or in a warm (but turned off) oven.

9. Repeat steps 5-8 with the remaining batter (makes about 14 pancakes).

10. Serve pancakes with butter, syrup, jam, or whatever you like. They're even tasty plain.

Enjoy!