Fluffy Oatmeal Pancakes

This weekend, dig into these super Fluffy Oatmeal Pancakes – guilt free, gluten free, refined sugar free goodness in one meal! ❤

I’ll be the first to admit that my relationship with food is complicated. Moving from one city to another has meant changing eating habits, lots of takeout, quick breakfasts that amount to nothing in nutritional value, late dinners that make sleeping hard and so much more. For a bit there, I was stress eating, a tendency I first noticed when I was still in high school. And then there was a brief sugar addiction. It’s safe to say, I’ve put my body through a lot. 😦

Hence, I decided that it’s time to inculcate healthier habits. (I say this when I have just scarfed down a serving of Berry Apple Crisp; at least it was wholegrain!) 😛 That’s not to say that I’m off cake FOREVER, or that I’m crash-dieting or going vegan. I’ve learnt that I like a balance of the good and the ‘not-so-good’. (I can’t call it bad; it’s food, dude!) I don’t want to deprive myself and end up bingeing. So instead, I practice moderation; or at least what I THINK is moderation. (I can hear my parents warning me ‘Too much of anything is too bad’, like it was yesterday; a phrase I heard far too often as a kid) 😀

So, being at that point in life where I’m making conscious food decisions, means not indulging in pancakes every weekend. But we can’t have that, can we? 😀 The solution – cloud-like Fluffy Oatmeal Pancakes, adapted from Davida’s recipe for The Fluffiest Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes over at The Healthy Maven! These are gluten free AND refined sugar free. Win win, yeah? 🙂

This recipe serves 2 and makes 6 pancakes. Here’s what you need:

Oat Flour – 1 cup (ground old fashioned, gluten free Rolled Oats)
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
A pinch of salt
Cinnamon Powder – 1/2 tsp
Greek Yogurt – 1/2 cup
Milk – 1/4 cup
Egg – 1, small
Vanilla Extract – 1 & 1/2 tsp
Honey – 1 tbsp
Butter/Cooking Spray for cooking
Mini Peaches – 4, sliced
Sugar – 3 tbsp
Water – 1/2 cup

Here’s how to make these Fluffy Oatmeal Pancakes with Peach Compote:

In a bowl, sift in oat flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder.
In a separate bowl, mix together milk, Greek yogurt, egg, vanilla and honey until well incorporated.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until it’s all mixed in.
Heat a non-stick pan and brush it with butter/spray with cooking spray. Pour 1/3 cup batter onto the pan. Place sliced peaches on the pancake and allow it to cook until bubbles appear on the surface and begin to pop. Immediately flip the pancake over. Take it off the heat when the second side is golden and the peaches have charred. Repeat with the remaining batter.
In another pot, place the sugar and water and bring to a boil. When the sugar dissolves completely, tip in the remaining sliced peaches and cook until they are soft, mushy and the compote is thick and syrupy. Pull out the peach slices and reserve the compote.
To assemble, stack the pancakes, garnish with mushy, sweet peaches and drizzle (pour) the peach compote over it. DIG IN!

Ever been in a fix, where your brain tells you that the healthier version of a classic should taste like cardboard, but you love it so much, you can’t imagine going back to the heavy, rich classic? If you have, these Oatmeal Pancakes will bring back the feeling. And if not, you’re in for one helluva surprise! 😛

These beauties are tall, pillow-y, ultra fluffy and lip-smacking! While the texture is nearly perfect – with a slight graininess from the coarse oat flour which I particularly LOVE – the honey and cinnamon lend a lovely, mild flavour that reminds you of how weekend mornings should be – sweet and fresh! And the peaches, some tossed onto the pancake, and others cooked down into a compote, are the perfect accompaniment to these pancake heroes – tangy, bursting with zest and packing a punch! My kinda sunny-side-up! ❤

I can’t tell you that these Fluffy Oatmeal Pancakes are the healthiest breakfast out there; the Lord knows they’re not! But they are a great lighter alternative to rich and indulgent pancakes. And I think, for the weekend, light’er’ is good enough! Because you deserve a treat too! ❤ Go on, whip up a batch and let me know how you like them in the comments below! 😀

Tips:

You can substitute Almond Milk for Whole Milk to make these pancakes healthier.
Feel free to leave the peaches out completely. Granted that the peach compote nullifies the refined sugar free quality of this recipe, but that’s just how we enjoyed them that one time. Since, we’ve topped these pancakes with berries, chocolate chips, honey, Nutella, maple syrup, the works. Trust me, everything sings!
If you’re not too keen on the slightly coarse texture of oat flour, you can go with a combination of 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour/all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of oat flour. This way, you will achieve that perfect pancake texture, while retaining the nutritional benefits of oats.

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