It's Saturday. We sleep in, and 'Nita makes us a lazy breakfast. Sometimes it's Dutch Babies, but usually it's griddle cakes. She likes a recipe she adapted from "Wheat Germ Griddle Cakes" by Selma Johnson in Doris Janzen Longacre's More-with-Less Cookbook. The recipe makes 16 cakes. Serve them with butter and pure maple syrup. Then go out and cut the grass to work it off. Or not.
'Nita's Cakes on the Griddle
1 cup raw wheat germ
.5 cup oat bran
2.25 cups reduced fat milk
3 eggs
3 T canola oil
3 T ground flaxseed meal
1.25 cups unbleached bread flour
4 t baking powder (we prefer Hain brand "Featherweight Baking Powder" without aluminum)
1 T sugar
1.5 t salt
.5 t ground cinnamon
.25 t ground ginger
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl with a whisk. Beat the eggs in another and add the milk and oil and mix. Then gradually add the wet to the dry, stirring as you go.
Preheat a cast iron griddle over medium heat for a few minutes. Coat it with a thin slip of canola oil. Drop a bead of batter on the griddle to test for readiness. Use a 1/4 cup ladle to pour out the batter. Reduce the heat to medium low and proceed. Keep the cakes warm in the oven as you go.
It's summer, so serve with some sliced water melon or other fresh fruit on the side.
