Carrot Cake Pancakes

October 21, 2012

A while ago my son’s school had a book fair. As I was browsing the books he had picked out I couldn’t help notice the table of cookbooks they had set up. I caved and bought two books I had been wanting for a while, Heidi Swantons Super Natural Cooking and the Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook. It wasn’t until I got home and saw them sitting stacked on top of each other on the table that I realized what a strange pair they make. It might seem strange that the same person would want both of these cookbooks, but together they illustrate a lot of who I am as a cook and eater. As you can tell from my blog I love intensely delicious over the top sweets and desserts, and creating them is my definition of fun. While that is great for special occasions or holidays, in our normal everyday lives I try to make sure that my family and I are eating healthy, wholesome, nutritious food that is not overly sweet or processed. There are of course weeks that I do better at that than others, but healthy eating is something that is very important to me.

These healthy carrot cake pancakes are one of our favorite special breakfasts. They get most of their sweetness from the natural sweetness of the carrots and my kids absolutely adore them. The cream cheese sauce makes them feel especially decadent but actually has less sugar than the amount the pancakes would have if they were smothered with maple syrup. In the interest of full disclosure I usually serve a dairy cream cheese sauce made of greek yogurt, low fat cream cheese and a bit of sugar. I found that to, my taste, the parve cream cheese sauce, while still absolutely delicious, needed more sugar to taste right. Feel free to experiment with it according to your own tastes. As a warm and comforting fall breakfast I thought these would be the perfect contribution to the October Kosher Recipe Linkup since the theme of the month is root vegetables. Check out the links below to see the delicious things everyone else has made.


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Ingredients & Quantities

Pancakes:

  • 1 large carrot (approximately 4 oz)
  • 1 cup (4 oz or 120g) whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • scant ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon refined coconut oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup non-dairy milk of choice (such as soy or almond)
 

Cream Cheese Sauce:

  • 4 ounces parve cream cheese
  • ½ tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 5-6 Tablespoons (1.5 oz) powdered sugar (or to taste)

Preparation Instructions

To make the pancakes:

Finely grate the carrot (a microplane works best for this) into a small bowl and set aside.

Place the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Combine the oil, egg and milk in a medium bowl and mix until well blended.

Pour the liquid mixture into the flour and stir gently until just combined. Stir in the carrots.

Place a small amount more oil in a skillet and heat over medium heat. Spoon the batter into medium sized circles in the pan and cook the pancakes until bubbles cover the top surface. Flip the pancakes and cook a few more minutes until cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter. Transfer to a plate and serve with cream cheese sauce.

To make the sauce:

Place the cream cheese in a medium bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until well combined and smooth. (This can also be done in the bowl of an electric mixer).

Recipe Times

Prep

15 Minutes

Cook

15 Minutes

Total

30 Minutes

Recipe Yield

6-8 smallish pancakes

Recipe Categories

14 Comments

  1. I love this idea! My husband and I are huge fans of carrot cake and I’ve even used carrot cake batter on salmon (I’ll bet this pancake batter would also be amazing on salmon!). I can’t wait to make these pancakes for my family…possibly for dinner tonight!

  2. It is so funny, but that is exactly the kind of cookbook collection I have: decadent desserts and whole food healthy recipes.

    I love the idea of pairing the carrot pancakes with cream cheese sauce.

  3. I wouldn’t totally get those two cookbooks too. I don’t quite make the same level of desserts as you, but you have inspired on many occasion as I do enjoy having some fun with sweets, but most of the time I go for health. These pancakes are a great in between, looks like a dessert but is healthy. I probably have to pretend they don’t have carrots though to get my kids to eat them.

    • It isn’t that important. I think it adds a bit more richness than regular vegetable oil so that is what I use but it shouldn’t make too much of a difference in the overall flavor.

  4. i totally relate to the cookbook contrast. I love healthy, nourishing recipes, but definitely have a weakness for sweets. These pancake look delicious, i wish my kids liked pancakes, maybe ill try these and they’ll change their mind!

  5. Carrot cake is one of my absolute favorite comfort foods and this pairs my favorite comfort food with my favorite meal of the day! Can’t wait to try it out for Sunday breakfast! Fantastic post! Thanks for sharing it!

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