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I'm a big pancake fan, but also a big fan of eating healthy. How can you go about making your pancakes more healthy, provided that you're starting out with a recipe consisting of eggs, milk, wheat flour and oil? I'm talking both about the pancakes themselves, and whatever you eat them with (I'm using jelly).

As an example, I tried exchanging the wheat flour for squashed chick peas. That wasn't very good, but fairly healthy I'm sure.

Speldosa
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    Standard pancakes are a reasonably healthy meal if used with healthy fillings as part of a balanced meal. Use it for casserole, bean dishes etc., not just sugars! European pancake use in lunch and dinner meals is generally like this – TFD Nov 13 '11 at 06:35
  • @TFD Still, the white flour can't be especially good for you. Isn't this ingredient the reason you should stay away from white bread? Nice idea to use it with more regular food. I've had crepes, but your suggestion was a little bit different. – Speldosa Nov 13 '11 at 12:28
  • A very simple step up is to use whole wheat flour. – MSalters Nov 13 '11 at 13:16
  • @MSalter Have you tried this yourself? In my experience, the pancakes does not taste so good when you exchange the wheat flour for whole wheat flour. But I'll experiment! – Speldosa Nov 13 '11 at 13:45
  • Are you talking about US-style fat pancakes or french style crepes? Whole wheat flour rises somewhat worse, which isn't that big a deal in crepes. – MSalters Nov 13 '11 at 14:19
  • @MSalters: I was thinking of the french style crepes version, but what's the difference though? Baking powder? – Speldosa Nov 13 '11 at 14:39
  • Hi Speldosa - you need to be more specific than "more healthy". We're happy to discuss specific aspects of nutrition (such as converting a recipe to low-fat/low-carb/etc.) but we do not provide general nutritional advice here - see a dietitian about that. If you can clarify what your specific nutritional goals are then one of us will be happy to reopen the question. Please also keep in mind that phrases such as "bad taste" don't help us solve your problem; as with nutrition, different people have different tastes and you need to be specific about what you do or don't want. – Aaronut Nov 13 '11 at 18:42

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We have had good luck with canned pumpkin in the pancake batter. That and some pumpkin pie spices go really well with maple syrup. We just add half a can to a variation on Alton Brown's pancake recipe. It generally adds one pancake or so to the pile.

Adding a cup of blueberries or sliced strawberries has also worked out well (especially with a thumb of minced ginger tossed in).

baka
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  • Canned pumpkin you say? Where are you situated? I don't I've ever seen that in the store shelfs here in Scandinavia but I'll keep an eye out for it. – Speldosa Nov 13 '11 at 03:00
  • The Southern US. It's easily acquired around here this time of year, what with our Thanksgiving holiday coming up. Any sweet winter squash would probably work, though. – baka Nov 13 '11 at 03:03
  • Canned pumpkin is unfortunately nearly impossible to get hold of in stores in Europe. Selfridges in the UK sells it in their food halls but that's about it. However, there are quite a few American candy/food websites based in Europe, mainly catering for American servicemen and their families. – ElendilTheTall Nov 13 '11 at 10:14