Wild Rice, Whole Wheat Pancakes

If there’s one thing I’m doing on a snow day, it’s making breakfast.  These pancakes have been on my “to-make” list for literally years.  The ingredients kind of intimidated me: wild rice flour?  Well, I smartened up and decide to make my own wild rice flour—and it couldn’t be more simple.  Since my pantry now stays stock with whole grain superfoods like wild rice, I already had all of the ingredients.

First, I cooked the wild rice.  Wild rice is notorious for taking a long time to cook—double or even triple the time that it takes other rice to cook.  Perhaps that’s because wild rice isn’t rice at all, but is a species of grass.  It’s high in protein, fiber, and other nutrients.  I then made the wild rice flour.  This recipe calls for 1/2 cup of wild rice flour, so I measured 1/2 cup of wild rice and put it in my coffee grinder/spice grinder.  I pulverized it until it was powdery.  Voila!

I then easily made the pancake batter—the same as any other pancake batter.  I then put a heaping teaspoon of cooked wild rice in a buttered skillet, and then pancake batter on top.  When the edges of the pancakes were bubbly and the edges appeared brown and hardened, I flipped them.  I topped the pancakes with bananas and honey, because that’s what I had laying around my kitchen.  These would also be great with maple syrup, fruit, whipped cream, or all three.

Wild Rice, Whole Wheat Pancakes Recipe

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour (you may use all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup wild rice flour
1 tablespoon ground flax seed (ok to sub with whole wheat or all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup sugar (natural cane sugar preferred, white granulated sugar OK)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2  1/4 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cooked wild rice (optional)

1.  Combine the flours, ground flax seed (if using), baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.   Then add the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter.  Stir until all of the ingredients are just combined.  Do not overmix.

2.  Heat the skillet to medium.  Add a pat of butter to the skillet, and melt.  Sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of the cooked wild rice in the pan, and pour 1/3 cup batter on top.  Cook about three minutes, then flip.  Cook another minute or so, until cooked through.  Repeat with remaining batter.  Add your favorite toppings, or just enjoy au naturel!