One of the things that I absolutely love to do on weekends is to bake. When I do so, I receive such amazing energy. I enjoy challenging myself by making bake goods with whatever I have in the house. I also try to make them a bit healthier by reducing the sugar and using different flours. My son loves to come down on a weekend morning and try to guess what I am making. Its our own little game of surprise. This morning I broke out my new zester and citrus juicer and made orange cranberry pancakes.
I have never made these type of pancakes before but I had one Valencia orange that needed to be used so that was my inspiration. Using my normal pancake recipe I combined half wheat and half white flour, the zest and juice of one orange and dried cranberries. Normally, I would have liked to use fresh cranberries but I swear you can't find fresh or frozen cranberries in Colorado outside of the month of November. To a New Englander, that is blasphemy. Plus, I used all my frozen island cranberries from Cranberry day 2019. My island cranberries come from Martha's Vineyard picked by my mother at our tribal cranberry day celebration. This day celebrates and give thanks to the Creator for another year's harvest. Without fresh or frozen, dried cranberries were my only option.
To start, I like to dissolve the sugar in the oil then add the eggs, zest, and orange juice. Then I add the dry, white and wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. The batter is a little thin but I let it sit so that the cranberries soften. We are a cast-iron family and I only cook pancakes on cast-iron as I feel it gives them a better crust than you would get from a nonstick pan. When I flipped the pancakes they rose nicely.
When my son took his first bite of his short stack he knew exactly that they had orange in them. The zest really punches up the flavor and the juice gives them a beautiful sweetness. The cranberries softened up nicely and paired well with the wheat flour and orange. I received a thumbs up and will make them again. Next time I will give them a bit more protein by adding pecans. Below is my recipe for a double batch. Enjoy!
2 C flour
2 tbs. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
2 Eggs
1.5 C Milk
4 tbs. Fresh Orange Juice
Zest of 1 Orange
4 tbs. Cooking Oil
Cranberries
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