COMING OUT HOT! Sweet Potato Pancakes

I’ve been promising to make sweet potato pancakes for awhile, and am glad when I went grocery shopping this week I finally focused on buying sweet potatoes. Well, I guess I officially bought yams, which I’ve read are sweeter and a slightly different texture, but in most cases will work. I figure for pancakes, sweeter is better!

I love my misshapen pancakes. Mmmmm.

As promised in my “Upcoming Recipes” section, I used this recipe. My friend Alisa, who I made this recipe for, told me the sweet potato pancakes she had at Jimmy’s Egg were so sweet she didn’t need syrup. I could tell by looking at this recipe I’d likely still want syrup. Either because I eat significantly sweeter stuff than Alisa, or because they weren’t going to be as rich as the recipe she had.

Nonetheless, I plowed ahead. As usual I read some reviews before making my version because I planned to use whole wheat flour. I also substituted old fashioned oats for part of the flour, added vanilla and used pumpkin pie spice instead of just nutmeg.

I also halved the recipe, but these are so good I suggest making the whole thing. They seem to be the type of breakfast that will freeze well. Here’s the final recipe I used:

Ingredients

• 6 ounces sweet potatoes or yams – this was about one small/medium yam
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cups milk
• 1/8 cup Brummel and Brown spread, melted

First, I nuked my yam in the microwave using my Tater Baker bag. Then I cut it in half and scooped out the flesh (and threw away the skin). The recipe gives slightly different directions, but this was really easy.

This is what I call the “cut and scoop.”

Then you mix the potato (which I mashed with a fork because my hand mixer is already packed) with all of your wet ingredients: egg, milk, melted butter, and stir well. In another bowl mix your dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and spices. Then mix the wet and dry ingredients together and stir until just-mixed. Remember, Mom says if you mix too much, the pancakes will be tough. Unlike our daughters, we don’t want tough pancakes.

Pre-mixing. All my ingredients are excited at what they’re about to become.

While these are the dry ingredients, I can guarantee they’re anything but boring.

And my barely-mixed batter. Salivating?

Look, Kim! I’m using my griddle! These pancakes are a little more dense than normal pancakes, but you still cook them until bubbles start to form. I had to physically spread my pancakes some otherwise they would have been pan-balls. And probably undercooked in the center.

Once the bubble form, flip and cook a few more minutes on the other side. I had my griddle around 300 degrees, I think. Although I did turn it up and down some.

Bottom line, Alisa, these were delicious. I wanted to eat the whole batch. They were also really easy. Some reviews said they took forever, but I think if you nuke the potatoes, they aren’t too time consuming. I used the time the potato was in the micro (about 5 minutes) to assemble my dry ingredients. And get my wet ingredients ready.

I also put the milk directly on top of the potato to cool it so it wouldn’t start cooking the egg. Not sure if that’s a real fear, but I feared it nonetheless since I wasn’t doing the whole boiling then submerging in cold water thing.

Your kids would probably like to help make these! And if you want the batter to be sweeter, you could probably add brown sugar. Or… Marshmallows! I’m just thinking sweet potatoes here, people!