OK, not a very diabetes-friendly, or hypertension-friendly, food. But I was not in the mood for omelets, and it’s one of those days that I need to think of making breakfast for both of us. Time to experiment in the kitchen again!
So, how am I reworking the pancakes this time? For starters, I use Featherweight sodium-free baking powder at home, and I see no reason why a sodium-free powder should require sodium chloride (table salt) to rise. I also don’t see any reason to add in a whole lot of unnecessary fat (aka “salad oil”) into the recipe for any reason other than fluid volume. I left out the half-teaspoon salt and replaced the two tablespoons oil with an egg white. The household quart of milk is always skim milk, but I also use buttermilk powder (dehydrated low-fat buttermilk) – a relatively new ingredient for me and one that I feel will be essential in creating a great “buttermilk pancake” recipe…
I will admit to using some white flour this time since I’m experimenting with dropping the salt and oil…
- 90 g white whole wheat flour (this soft summer wheat is sometimes sold as "whole wheat pastry flour")
- 60 g unbleached white flour
- 30 g low-fat buttermilk powder
- 15 g sodium-free baking powder
- 1 extra large egg
- 1 egg white
- 1 cup skim milk (approx 240 g)
- 1 t vanilla extract (approx 6 g)
Note: no sugar, no oil. The only fats were the natural fats in the whole-grain flour, the dairy fats in the buttermilk powder, and the fats in the egg and egg white… and the two tablespoons unsalted butter it took to fry up everything.
The pancakes were light and fluffy, but they really missed the “salty” taste of adding in the 1/2 teaspoon salt the original recipe called for, and didn’t have as sour a taste as the buttermilk pancakes I grew up with.
OTTH, now that I’m convinced that the rising action does not depend on the presence of salt, gluten, or fat, I think the next time around I’m going to replace the white flour with soy flour and add back in some of the salt. And maybe use buttermilk instead of skim milk (but still keep the buttermilk powder).
And I’m going to check back the TiVO’d ep of “low carb cooking” that featured “low-carb pancakes” to see what the “pros” did…