Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel

Last week I shared my maple mashed sweet potato recipe and I promised I would let you know what I did with my leftovers.  Without any further ado, here it is--sweet potato pancakes!  I have seen several sweet potato pancake recipes here and there on the world wide web (remember when people used to call it that?) but I passed them up.  They came back to me when I was wondering what I was going to do with the mountain of leftover mashed sweet potatoes I had.  Sweet potato pancakes seemed liked a great use for mashed sweet potatoes that already had a hint of maple flavor.  Put maple syrup on them and you have double maple!  So I searched a couple of recipes, tweaked them a little bit, and made a batch.

I loved these pancakes!  They were hearty from the whole grains, plenty thick, perfectly spiced, and very moist.  Just what I love in a good pancake!  These are similar to the pumpkin pancakes I made this fall, but they have a higher proportion of sweet potato.  While making these, I had an epiphany.  I have a recipe for pumpkin pancakes with a streusel topping that I have never made.  Because the flavors of the two pancakes are similar, I tried the streusel topping on my sweet potato pancakes, with some added pecans.  Sweet potatoes and pecans are meant to be together.  It all came together for some of the most amazing pancakes I have ever had!

The streusel was a bit of a splurge for me for breakfast, but I don't regret a bite of it.  I just put a little bit of streusel on each pancake, but it really took it to the next level.  And it only takes a minute to throw together.  The pancakes themselves are made via our standard prep.  That means there's nothing too it but to do it! 

Start by mixing together flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, flax seed, and brown sugar.  I used flax seed as a substitute for eggs.  If you want to use egg instead, add 4 eggs with the wet ingredients and cut out the 3/4 cup of water.
Then whisk together milk, vanilla, water, applesauce, and mashed sweet potatoes.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Pour that tasty batter onto a hot griddle, 1/4 cup at a time.
Cook until done on one side, flip, and cook the other side.  No, I didn't come up with that part on my own.
Meanwhile, make the streusel.  Follow closely here.  Put all the ingredients in a small bowl.
Then cut together all the ingredients until the mixture is crumbly.  That's it!
Spoon one or two teaspoons of streusel onto each pancake and serve with maple syrup.
I know that it's not exactly sweet potato season.  But these are so good you need to make them now!  OK, you can hang onto this one until November if you need to.  But you'll be sorry!

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 cups skim milk
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup water
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes*
For the streusel:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, spices, flax seed, and brown sugar.  Set aside.
In a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together milk, applesauce, vanilla, water, and sweet potatoes.  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until mixed.
Drop batter, using 1/4 cup measuring cup, onto hot skillet and cook until golden brown on bottom.  Flip and cook until cooked through.
To make the streusel: combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix with 2 knives, a pastry cutter, or fingers until mixture is crumbly.
Top each pancake with about 1 teaspoon streusel and serve with maple syrup.
Makes 24 pancakes.
*I used my maple mashed sweet potatoes.  If using plain sweet potatoes, you may want to slightly increase the brown sugar, especially if not topping with streusel.

Recipe adapted from A Wise Cook and Two Peas and Their Pod

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