Everyone knows that eating too much white flour is a bad thing. White bread on the supermarket shelf is now outnumbered by the variety of whole wheat, whole grain, 7, 9, and 12 grain breads, flax seed, honey wheat, and on and on. In our house we jump from variety to variety weekly. I've tried most of the options out there but we still eat too much white flour. It seems like all of my baking in the past was done with plain old all-purpose flour. This combined with the fact that my son prefers pancakes, waffles, and scones for breakfast nearly everyday makes for quite a flour situation. Awhile back I started adding some bran to our pancakes to make myself feel a little better about eating them...but lately I feel like that is just not enough. So, I've finally branched out and started trying a few other flour alternatives. The latest is flax seed. After trying a loaf of flaxseed bread, I picked up a box of milled flax seed "flour" and gave it a try. I was so thrilled with the results that I started adding it to things like waffles, cookies, and muffins.Flax seed is hailed as having "Nature's richest plant source of OMEGA 3-oils. It totals 2600 mg of OMEGA 3, 15% of your daily fiber in 2 Tablespoons, and 3 grams of protein. So, I can feel even better about eating all of those pancakes.
I usually replace a quarter to a third of the white flour with flaxseed, as I find more than that makes the bread/cake too crumbly. Give it a try and see what works best for you.
Buttermilk and Flaxseed Pancakes
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup flaxseed (Start with 1/4 cup and work up to what ratio you like)
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 Tbs. unslated butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
In a bowl combine all ingredients and mix until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Preheat pan or griddle over medium-low heat. Grease griddle/pan and add batter 1/3 cup at a time. Flip when pancakes appear bubbly and slightly dry on the edges. Serve with honey or syrup.
