Carrot Cake Pancakes

The endlessly variable carrot. They are abundant at the moment, both large overwintered roots and the more delicate first-of-spring bunches. Those big orange beauties are still delicious, and they are perfect cooked in savoury and sweet dishes. In fact, that well known bright orange colouring, due to their beta carotene content, is best absorbed when cooked. When eaten raw we are only getting about 3% of the beta carotene, which the body converts to Vitamin A. When carrots are cooked that number rises closer to 40%, so mix up all your raw carrot sticks and salads with baked, roasted, grilled or steamed versions.

I admit it- I may create awesome cakes for people, but I’m really not a cake eater. Unless that cake is carrot cake, in which case just hand me a fork and let me at it.

 Today I wanted carrot cake goodness, but I didn’t have the time to make and bake a cake just to satisfy my craving. Instead I tossed those flavours in the blender and cooked up carrot cake pancakes. These are a delicious alternative that skip the oven time but not the flavour- subtlety sweet, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. Pile them high and top with whatever sounds best- yoghurt, whipped coconut cream, maple or honey.

200g Grated Carrot 

200g Oats 

2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Cinnamon  

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg 

1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt

2 Eggs (or 2 Chia or Flax Egg)

1 Cup Milk of Choice

-optional additions: a handful of sultanas, walnuts, and/or coconut. For a naturally sweeter pancake, substitute 100g of grated carrot with 100g of grated apple.

Put oats in a blender and give them a good whirl, until they're headed for a flour-like consistency. To the oats add: grated carrot, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt, eggs and milk. Blend well. If the mixture is too dry, slowly add extra liquid until you have a nice loose batter, not dough. If using sultanas, walnuts or coconut, stir them in now, without blending.

Warm a pan over medium heat. Use a dob of coconut oil or ghee to grease the pan. (I usually make one tester pancake first, to check that the batter has sufficient liquid and the temperature is correct.) Wait to flip the pancake until you see small bubbles forming on the top, and the batter seems to have lightly ‘set’ around the edges. Then flip on over using a metal spatula and allow to cook for an additional minute. 

I cooked three at a time, so they were a small-medium size. You could make anything from cute pikelet size to large, though the larger they are the more you may want to lower the heat so they cook through without burning.

Stack them up, cover with yoghurt, cream, coconut, maple, honey, tahini caramel -whatever! Make a beautiful leaning tower and then dive on in. Dessert as breakfast for the win.

-you can substitute flour for the oats, though you should use about 140g flour instead of 200g whole oats

-if you’re a sweet tooth you could add 2 Tablespoons of raw sugar to the blender mix

-leftovers keep well in the refrigerator in an airtight container; they’re actually really good the next day spread with PB&J and rolled up!