Healthy Buttermilk Pancakes

Is there really such a thing as healthy buttermilk pancakes? Probably not, but I’m pretty convinced that it has a lot to do with what you are comparing it to. For instance, do I have to compare my Einkorn Flour pancakes to a salad comprised of freshly picked greens? Or would a more appropriate comparison be old school pancakes made with more mainstream and over-processed modern white flour?

I think the second comparison is the correct one, which allows me to answer Yes, there is such a thing as healthy buttermilk pancakes! Even when, or maybe especially when, topped with an organic maple syrup and maybe a little butter too, instead of the more commercially available fake syrup.

Ever since I started being more careful with the food that I was willing to put in my body, flour has proved to be a difficult subject. While I am not gluten intolerant, and I have no intention at all of dropping flour products from my diet, I certainly am reducing the amount of white flour that I am willing to eat or feed to my family. As I have read more and more about the dangers of eating too much white flour, I keep running across a few people talking about Einkorn flour, and how beneficial it is, especially when compared to what passes now as flour.

So I did a little research of my own, and have been very pleased with what I have read about Einkorn Flour. The gluten levels are much lower, the fiber level is higher than white flour, it contains many more trace minerals that many people don’t get enough of, plus it even has a few antioxidants! But the biggest draw for me is that, while it is whole wheat (depending upon which type you buy), it actually tastes and acts much more like today’s white flour than some of the grassy and harsh whole wheat flours that can really drag down breads, muffins and other baked goods.

On my quest to work my way through all of the ingredients of my healthy buttermilk pancakes, we come next to the eggs, the butter, and the buttermilk. These items were some of the easiest to switch over to when trying to eat a more wholesome and real food oriented diet, simply go with organic pasture raised animals.

If you buy pasture butter, it will be much more nutritious than SAF (Standard American Food) butter, and much yellower as well! Same is true with the eggs from chickens raised on pasture, instead of inside cruel and disgusting CAFOs. The eggs look better, taste better, and are better for you!

Same with the buttermilk. Well, except that it’s not as bright yellow or orange as the eggs and butter. But buttermilk from happy cows raised on pasture, and allowed to eat grass as nature intended, will produce a more flavorful and healthier product. And it totally allows you to stop using the mass produced milk from over medicated cows designed to produce milk at absurd rates, that simply can’t be healthy for anyone.

The last three ingredients I wanted to think about were the baking powder, the salt and the sugar. These three ingredients are pretty easy to handle, and once switched out in your kitchen make future baking much easier. My only consideration when buying baking powder is to make sure it is aluminum free, which most brands are nowadays. For salt, I have switched from the super white processed salt to the real deal sea salt, which contains a few more trace minerals and skips added funky chemicals that you can sometimes find in main stream supermarket salt. And for the sugar, I try to go for organic cane sugar, just because it’s a little less processed than some of the white sugar you can find from many companies. Again, I’m not saying that sugar is great for you, I’m just trying to clean up each ingredient a little bit at a time, and should end up much better off than before.

Print Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Healthy Buttermilk Pancakes

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Servings: 8 pancakes

Calories: 362kcal

Author: Greg Fleischaker

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups einkorn flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp vanilla paste

Instructions

• Pre-heat electric skillet to 325 degrees
• Melt your butter
• Combine all dry ingredients in medium sized bowl
• In separate bowl, mix the buttermilk and eggs, whisk until combined
• Add the vanilla paste and melted butter to the buttermilk-egg mixture, and whisk until smooth
• Pour liquids into dry ingredients, and stir with spatula until pretty smooth, without overmixing
• Pour batter onto skillet, wait a few minutes, until edges set and a few bubbles start to rise through the pancakes, and then flip and cook for a few more minutes
• Cook for a few more minutes, and remove, top with butter and maple syrup if you're into that type of thing, and then eat up!

Nutrition

Serving: 2pancakes | Calories: 362kcal | Carbohydrates: 46.2g | Protein: 10.1g | Fat: 14.9g | Fiber: 1.3g | Sugar: 9.6g

Once again, I feel the need to add a disclaimer along with the little nutrition panel below. I manage to get eight pancakes out of this recipe, and I’m guessing that most people would consider two pancakes a serving. I consider two pancakes to be a serving, but that doesn’t mean that I always stop at two, as the picture above might suggest! So the panel below is an estimate of the nutritional value of two Einkorn wheat flour pancakes, following the recipe above. But if you’ve read a few of my other Einkorn flour recipes, you’ll know that I am not convinced that the service I use to create these nutrition panels knows the difference between regular all purpose flour, and my beloved Einkorn flour. So if I’m correct in my assumption, then there may be a few small differences between this panel and reality. But it ought to be close enough to give you an idea of what you putting into your body.