Carrot Apple Pancakes | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with carrot apple pancakes. That's right. I was eating a carrot apple salad and I thought to myself, "This is good, but I wish it was pancakes." So, I headed back into the kitchen and I created what's basically a cross between carrot cake, apple fritters, and pancakes. And they were every bit as good as that sounds. And to get started, we will peel and grate a carrot. And if you're a beginner, make sure you do it in that order. And we'll use our box grater with the side with the biggest holes so we get some decent size shreds. And as usual, don't be a hero. When you get down to the end, stop grading and have yourself a little chef snack. Right. In the business, we call that stopping while you're ahead. And once we have about one cup of grated carrot, we will head to the stove where we will melt some butter over mediumigh heat. And once that happens, we will transfer in our carrot along with a nice pinch of salt. And then we'll cook these stirring for a few minutes or until they've lost that raw crisp edge. And by the way, you can make these with just raw grated carrots. But since we're going to put melted butter in the batter anyway, to me, it just makes sense to take advantage of this hot pan and kill two delicious birds with one stone. And that's it. After a few minutes in the hot butter, we'll transfer those into the bowl from whence they came. And we'll let that cool for about 5 minutes while we grab the rest of our ingredients. And those are going to include some freshly grated ginger. And if you don't have the root, you could just use a little powdered ginger, but I do prefer the fresh here. And it pairs perfectly with apple and carrot, as does some ground cinnamon, which we'll add next, along with a touch of white sugar. And then we'll also want to add in one large egg, followed by the juice of one half lemon. And once we've squeezed that in, we'll give this a quick mix before adding the co-star of the show, one unpeeled, hopefully very sweet, fresh apple, which we'll go ahead and grate in skin and all. And as usual, I'm using Honey Crisp since that's my favorite all-purpose eating and baking apple. But anyway, no matter what you use, we will grate that in. And then we'll also at this point toss in our walnuts, which like all nut additions is optional. But I really do think it's a key element. So I'm kind of hoping you add those in. And then what we'll do is give that a quick mix before we add the last ingredient, which is going to be just a little bit of self-rising flour, which is flour mil with baking powder and salt. And if you don't have that, we'll give you the ingredients in the written recipe so you can make your own. And as soon as that flour disappears and everything's evenly mixed, our batter is done. And we'll go ahead and grab a spoon and clean off our spatula, which we will then use to transfer this batter into our pan. And that's it. We'll simply let this sit for a few minutes while we melt some more butter in our skillet over medium heat. And then we'll transfer in roughly a/4 cup of batter per pancake. And I'm going to make three right now, but the entire recipe will make six total. And once our batter has been transferred in, we'll use the back of our spoon to flatten them out a little bit and give them a nice uniform shape. And as I started to do this, I remembered a great old tip where we dip the back of the spoon in the hot butter in the pan, which prevents it from sticking to the batter and makes this flattening and shaping step a lot easier. And that's it. Once formed, we'll grab a spatula and make sure these are nicely spaced. And we'll let that first eye cook for about 3 minutes or until it's beautifully browned. And then we'll go ahead and flip those over and give the other side about the same time. And as far as a test for dness, generally when the pancake springs back to the touch, it's cooked. Okay, if it still feels mushy and your finger leaves a depression, maybe give it another minute or two. But these were looking and feeling perfect. So I pulled them out of the pan. And I went ahead and plated it up and decided to garnish with a little bit of yogurt for a little bit of creamy tanginess. And I followed that with some maple syrup. And instead of yogurt, you could use creme fresh or sour cream if you want. I mean, you are after all the mother goose of your dairy use. Which reminds me, this is the perfect recipe to make with the kids. Okay, the sooner you teach them to cook, the sooner they're cooking for you. And that's it. I finished up with some chopped walnuts and a little sprinkling of cinnamon. And then I grabbed a fork and dug in. And that, my friends, was a perfect, perfect bite of pancakes. as in I would not change one single thing if I make this again, which I will many, many times. Right? The texture was perfect, the acidity was perfect, the balance between the carrot and apple was perfect, the sweetness level was spot-on, and the amount of the ginger and cinnamon we put in perfectly complimemented the apple and carrot without overwhelming it, which can sometimes happen with those two things. So, using a very light hand was the way to go. And I really could not have loved these pancakes anymore. And I cannot think of a more perfect breakfast or brunch item for a chilly autumn morning than this. But having said that, this is way too good only to eat a few months of the year. So no matter what the calendar says, I really do hope you give these a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And is always enjoy.