Saturday, November 29, 2008

Pancakes

When I was a child my mom used to make the best pancakes for dinner. She would make zucchini pancakes, carrot pancakes, potato pancakes and even chocolate pancakes. She would serve these pancakes as a side dish, usually with meat as our main course.

I think of all of the various pancakes I’ve tried, zucchini pancakes are my favorite:

2 cups grated zucchini
4 eggs (use 3 eggs if they are extra large)
¾ cup flour
3 tablespoons oil
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add zucchini and mix well using a fork. Using a spoon, add flour, sugar, salt, pepper and oil. Mix well. Add baking powder and mix. Fry as you would any other pancake.

We love these with jelly on top. I’ve seen folks serve these with sour cream also.

What’s wonderful is that both the zucchini and carrot pancakes are a great way to get vegetables into a meal that kids will enjoy.

The recipe I’ve always used for carrot pancakes uses a sweet cream cheese topping, almost like the icing you put on carrot cake:

Pancakes:
2 cups finely grated carrots
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar (white or brown, if you use brown, pack it first)
2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans (optional)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash nutmeg
1 egg, lightly beaten

Cream Cheese Topping:
4 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash cinnamon

In a bowl, combine flour, pecans, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and nutmeg. Set aside. In another bowl combine egg, sugar, milk, carrots and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Fry as you would any other pancake.

For topping, blend cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Sprinkle with cinnamon, and serve on top of pancakes.

Audrey :)

2 comments:

Mandy said...

Yummy! I've never thought of zucchini pancakes, but I have a whole bunch of zucchini in the freezer!! Thanks for sharing.:)
-Mandy

Anonymous said...

The zucchini pancakes sound great! Thank you for sharing the recipe!