Cottage Cheese Pancakes

The Recipe: High-protein, low-carb pancakes made from scratch with cottage cheese, whole wheat flour and no added sugar and no added oil. You won't "taste" the protein or "notice" the whole wheat or "miss" the sugar and oil – these taste pancakes are amazing, they just like your favorite pancakes!

The Conversation: How a small-town cafe turned my mom, a fabulous home cook, onto Hungry Jack, the pancake mix. But don't worry, it's just a funny story. The recipe I'm sharing is for homemade pancakes.

COMPLIMENTS!
"... they were fabulous ..." ~ T.

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Every little town in America has one, a short-order café where locals, truckers and the occasional in-the-know traveler converge for breakfast at 6 a.m., coffee mid-morning with a cookie, a fast lunch at noon, afternoon coffee with a piece-a-pie.

Three bucks will cover breakfast, not just coffee for heaven’s sake, and five will get you lunch. The plain-fare food is usually decent and more often quite good.

Growing up, the local standby was Rausch’s, a few-stool, few-table place on the main road through town. Next door, attached actually, was a truck stop, gas station and auto repair place. Back then, the Missus ran the café, the Mister the station.

Every morning, my Dad, the Catholic priest, the Methodist minister and the just-retired newspaper publisher convened for coffee and conversation of the what’s-our-world-coming-to variety, then flipped a coin to decide who was buying.

My Mom was less regular but loved the plate-sized pancakes fresh off the griddle. One day, she asked about the recipe. Mrs. Rausch puzzled a moment, then grinned. “Hungry Jack.”

Mom never again mixed pancake batter unless it came from a box. So call it irony that My Mom's Pancake Recipe, her recipe pre-Hungry Jack, is one of Kitchen Parade's most popular recipes!

And I like to think that these light, moist and healthy Cottage Cheese Pancakes might have helped change her mind.

ALANNA's TIPS Full-fat cottage works fine, so does non-fat cottage cheese although obviously, the nutrition information will change. For years, I made Cottage Cheese Pancakes with all-purpose flour but just recently switched to the finely ground whole-wheat pastry flour. If you have regular whole wheat flour, use 1/3 cup whole wheat flour and 2/3 cup all-purpose flour. To cook pancakes, use a non-stick skillet, a well-seasoned cast iron skillet or our family favorite, especially when cooking pancakes for more than two people, an electric non-stick pancake griddle. Whatever its form, the cooking surface must be hot! If you add the batter before the pan’s hot enough, the first pancakes will disappoint with pallid color and gummy texture. To test the pan's temperature, flick drops of water off your fingertip over the warming skillet until it sizzles as the water hits the pan.

COTTAGE CHEESE PANCAKES

Hands-on time: 10 minutes to mix
Time to table: 15 minutes for first pancakes, after that depends on size of the skillet
Makes 10 medium-size (five-inch) pancakes

• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 cups (16oz/454g) 1% or 2% low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 125g
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom or other spice (optional but delicious)

• 1 teaspoon (or more) butter or bacon grease, for the skillet

Place eggs, milk and cottage cheese in a blender and whir until frothy. Add the remaining ingredients and whir again until just mixed. (The batter can be made ahead to this point. Leave it at room temperature for up to a couple of hours, otherwise refrigerate, including overnight.)

Heat a large skillet on medium, add fat and let heat. (See ALANNA’s TIPS.) Fill a 1/3 cup measure with batter, pour into skillet. Let pancake cook, untouched, until small bubbles form and begin to pop in the middle, about 2 minutes. With a flat spatula, turn the pancake over and brown lightly, about 1 minute.

Serve immediately with butter and syrup or fresh fruit, applesauce, sour cream or even deliciously plain. Or for even more protein? With an egg on top!

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per one pancake/two pancakes: 112/224 Calories; 2/5g Tot Fat; 1/2g Sat Fat; 12/24g Carb; 2/4g Fiber; 499/999mg Sodium; 86/173mg Cholesterol; 10/20g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS WW OLD Points 2/5 & WW PointsPlus 3/5. CALORIE COUNTERS 100-calorie = 1 pancake (10g protein). This recipe has been "Alanna-sized" with reductions in fat and portion size and increases in no-calorie flavorings.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. Follow Kitchen Parade on Facebook!

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Let's Talk ... Pancake Mixes

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you a fan of Hungry Jack or another pancake mix? You wouldn't be alone, even the America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated folks are high on Hungry Jack for “extra fluffy” and “wonderful, thick, light” texture. My notes from 2014 say that Hungry Jack was chosen by staff AND a studio audience AND even by the irascible Chris Kimball!

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