Made from fresh whole grains, real cultured buttermilk, and you don’t even need a grain grinder.
Why fresh grains?
Because you’ll become addicted, that’s why. When you buy whole grain flour at the store, particularly wheat flour, you’ll notice something — it’s bitter.
That’s oxidation at work. Once the grain is ground into flour, it immediately starts to oxidize.
Experts say it takes 6 months for whole wheat flour to go rancid.
A person who grinds it fresh will tell you it starts to “turn” in as little as a week.
That’s because real freshly ground flour isn’t bitter. It’s sweet.
What happened to eating less grains?
Oh, that.
I still don’t eat very many grains, and when I do I still make sure they’re sprouted, soaked, or fermented. Pancakes are a rare indulgence. This is how we make them.
The Players
- 1 cup whole grain kernels (I’m using wheat kernels here, but you can use 1/2 rolled oats and 1/2 kamut for all the difference it will make to this recipe.)
- 1 cup cultured buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of milk (raw is best!)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp. baking soda
The How-To
The night before you want to eat pancakes for breakfast, put 1cup of whole grains and 1 cup of buttermilk into your blender.
Add the vanilla and oil, then start your blender! Blend for a good 3 minutes or so unless you’re blessed with an awesome, over-the-top, spectacular, show-stopping blender like the VitaMix that doubles as a grain grinder and ice cream maker because of it’s power and durability. If you’ve got one of those, you probably only need to blend this for a minute or so.
Now, let this concoction soak overnight.
In the morning, begin heating your griddle or skillet to medium-high heat. Add an egg, 1 cup of milk, and blend again. If you don’t see this whirling vortex of whole grain batter bliss, add more milk until you do.
Add cinnamon and salt directly into the vortex whole. This helps avoid clumping.
Add in your baking soda (again straight into the vortex).
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Looks fantastic – and easy. Sourdough pancakes are a big hit in this house.
Jenny
Food renegade, thanks for your insightful comment on my blog about raw milk for the lactose-intolerant – I feel my wisdom took a quantum leap! And I love this recipe. I did not know about grains losing their vitality after being ground. But of course – it makes sense.
I like the step-by-step pictures. But is that a teaspoon of vanilla/oil – it looks like a ladle not a teaspoon – perspective, eh?! And – do the grains in your recipe start the sprouting process during the overnight- buttermilk stage?
Thanks – you are a renegade after my own heart!
Elisabeth
So in that first picture, you have just dry whole grains? And they blend up eventually into a smooth batter? I find this exciting and hard to believe! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I’m loving your sso far!
Michelle @ What Does Your Body Good?
Elisabeth — yes, it really is a teaspoon! To answer your question, the grains don’t sprout, but soaking them in buttermilk (or another acidic medium) overnight will neutralize the phytic acid in the grain and make it more digestible.
Michelle — Yep. Just dry whole grains, and they blend into a nice smooth batter after soaking them overnight in buttermilk.
This sounds delicious – thanks for sharing! I’m going to try this recipe this weekend.
Juliet
I just made these and they turned out tasting GREAT! However, my batch made some REALLY thin pancakes…i dont even know they can still be called pancakes they are so thin, lol.
Any suggestions on how to thicken them up? More flour, more baking soda, less buttermilk or milk maybe?
Hi Tamara — First, I notice you said “flour.” There is no flour in this recipe. Could that have been your mistake? I start with whole grain kernels, not flour.
To get the same consistency out of flour, you would need about 2.5 cups.
Assuming that you didn’t make that mistake, though, and that you followed the recipe the first thing I would try is adding less milk. I generally add mine quite slowly just until the vortex forms. That’s usually about a cup for me, which is why I put that in the recipe.
As for why you ended up with crepes? Your buttermilk could have been thinner than mine, your egg less firm (particularly if it’s not from pastured hens), or your baking soda weaker/older. Or, it could just be a difference in altitude/barometric pressure.
Let me know how it turns out next time!
This looks wonderful! Thanks for this. I’m currently looking for alternatives for breakfasts.
Emma
I have just discovered your site and am enjoying reading it through. I’m learning about soaking grains etc – never knew about this before recently reading Nourishing Traditions and your site.
I have made pancakes in a similar way – grinding them in the blender. I used soft wheat berries (you can get organic white soft berries through Bob’s Red Mill) which will grind up easier than hard winter wheat. The last time I made these pancakes I added some almond meal to thicken up the pancakes a bit. I look forward to trying my recipe by soaking the grain the night before. Thanks for this recipe.
Made these this morning from 3/4 spelt and 1/4 barley – so yummy! They’re thinner than our favorite pancake recipe, but the cinnamon really made my day. Thanks for the recipe! (We figured if it makes 30 pancakes, by the way, each pancake is about 30 calories, if anyone cares.)
Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship
I’m trying this recipe this morning, and when I came back to it after letting it soak on the counter overnight, a dark film had formed on top. Is that a bad thing? Was I supposed to refrigerate it? It was about 65 degrees in my kitchen overnight.
Well, we mixed them up and ate them, and they were terrific! We used a 1/4c less milk, and might use a touch less salt… But they were sooo delicate and delicious! Thanks for educating me about the ability of blenders to grind flour. What a neat trick!