I’ve fallen behind in cooking after being sick for the past few days. I actually only made one recipe between last Sunday and today. When I got up this morning, though, I didn’t feel like sweating over a bowl of chicken noodle soup (like I did yesterday at lunch). I decided it would probably be a decent time to make Cooking Light’s Oatmeal Pancakes. This recipe looked like it would be incredibly quick, with minimal mess to the kitchen, and I’d be able to cook the pancakes on my griddle so it wouldn’t warm up the house too much in the freak heat wave we’re having.
I was surprised by the slight amount of flour that went into these (a quarter cup). I didn’t have quick oats, so I used regular oats. I made sour milk in place of the buttermilk, and used oil instead of melted butter. I mixed together the dry ingredients, added the wet, and preheated my electric griddle (affiliate link) to 375F (which is what I cook all other pancakes at, usually successfully). I forgot to spray my griddle with cooking spray before making the pancakes.
My batter looked a little soupy, so I looked at the reviews of the recipe to see what they suggested if you use regular oats, which take longer to cook. It was too late for me to soak my oats in advance (as one reviewer had), so I decided to see how much milk the oats would soak up while the griddle heated, and made a couple of pancakes before adding flour. I didn’t like the way the liquid spread out from the oats, so I added about a tablespoon of flour to the remaining ⅔s of the batter. The rest of the pancakes looked better, and more pancake-like, with the extra flour.
These were okay. I enjoyed the hint of cinnamon, and the crunch of the oats. The use of regular oats may have changed the texture of the batter, because the pancakes were still pretty dense, and slightly doughy, even though they looked done enough on the outside. I didn’t expect them to be light and fluffy, but I didn’t expect to have difficulties getting them done enough since I’ve learned how to properly make pancakes on my griddle this year. Considering I’m still a little sick, though, it’s possible that I was impatient and didn’t cook the pancakes quite long enough.
All in all, these tasted fine and seemed pretty healthy. These were very oaty pancakes, and it was nice to have something without as much flour for a change. If you’re going to use regular oats, definitely soak them in the buttermilk/sour milk a little first, or try adding extra flour when you make them. I wonder if you might lose the crunch of the oats if you soak them first, though. This recipe was okay, but considering there’s lots of other pancake recipes I like, I’m not sure if I’ll try it again. (My favorite is Brown Sugar Oatmeal Pancakes.)
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