As my boys get older, I want to make sure that they enjoy some of the staples that most children who don’t have food allergies enjoy.  So I realized one day last year that my kids had to start eating pancakes!!!!  And now, we eat pancakes for at least one meal every weekend.  Sometimes for breakfast, sometimes for lunch, sometimes for dinner.  I have modified this simple recipe to increase the yield (to about 3 dozen small pancakes) such that I usually have some leftovers to heat up with a little maple syrup later in the week for a quick accompaniment to breakfast before getting the kiddos to school.  And this recipe is so versatile that you can make it with bananas, blueberries, strawberries, apples, and/or chocolate chips.  If you use apples, I recommend peeling them first, adding a little bit of cinnamon to the batter, and cooking the apples a bit before adding them to the pancakes so that they are softer and more caramelized in the pancakes.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsps white sugar

6 tbsps baking powder

A pinch of salt

3 cups plain, unsweetened soymilk

6 tbsps oil

a bit extra oil for griddle

1 package frozen blueberries, or about a cup of whatever fruit or chocolate chip you want to add)

A pinch of cinnamon (if making the apple version, or if you want a little bit of spice)

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl (make sure it is large — b/c this recipe calls for so much baking powder, the batter rises quite a bit after mixing), combine all dry ingredients and mix well with a whisk.  Add wet ingredients and combine well (note that there are a lot of air pockets in which dry ingredients sometimes clump, so make sure to blend everything well).  Let rise for a minute.  Fold in blueberries (if using other fruit or toppings, I prefer to drop those onto each individual pancake as I cook).

Lightly grease griddle or other nonstick pan and heat to medium.  Drop about a soup spoonful of batter for each pancake onto griddle.  Add any additional toppings.  When bubbles start to form, flip pancakes and cook until desired brownness.  Serve with maple syrup and try to stop yourself from eating the whole batch!