Gingerbread Pancakes

Gingerbread Pancakes

What do you get when you combine the recipes for Gingerbread Muffins and Buttermilk Pancakes? Gingerbread Pancakes!!  And the perfect Christmas (or any) morning breakfast.  The best part of this recipe is that the batter can be made the night before and then all you have to do in the morning is (get your husband) to cook the pancakes!  And you honestly don't even need syrup or anything else on them.  They are high in fiber and whole grains and all of the spices make them especially good for you, and tasty!!  You can easily make them vegan by using the soaked chia seeds instead of eggs, oil instead of butter and soy milk and vinegar instead of buttermilk.  Either way, they are super simple, and absolutely unforgettable. I am so glad I took the time to figure out this recipe and that they turned out so perfectly on the first try.  Considering this was the first Christmas morning my family and I didn't travel to visit any extended relatives, it was important to me to have a memorable morning meal for my family of four. And the left overs are great heated up in the toaster as well!!  

Buttermilk Pancakes

smiley faced pancakes

Nothing is better than waking up on a weekend morning and enjoying a delicious plate of warm pancakes.  I know it always puts a smile on my kids' faces and they are happy to wait longer than usual for their morning meal because dad is cooking three dozen pancakes, four at a time. I always make an extra large batch because I want to make sure there are plenty of leftovers to save for another day.  I like to have them in the freezer for school mornings: just pop a few in the toaster oven and they taste almost as fresh as the day we made them.

I have to admit that I do sometimes resort to using a boxed pancake mix since I have found a few great whole grain ones in the organic section of my local grocery store. But this recipe is a basic, simple, buttermilk pancake recipe that is almost as easy to whip up as pouring a box of mix into a bowl and adding some eggs and oil.  I have amended this recipe many times to make the pancakes either chocolate, banana, pumpkin, etc... and have added different types of fruit and nuts as well. I hope this weekend you surprise your kids with a delicious batch of healthy buttermilk pancakes!!