NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota
State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
June 11, 1998
It's almost a certainty that the skies of June will produce at least one rainy day to disrupt the routines of outdoor-loving children and active adults. What to do? Follow my recipe.
First, be glad it's not January. A rainy day in June, by comparison, is a piece of cake, which is exactly what you should be eating to celebrate. Get out your electric skillet or your griddle and make some pancakes, the perfect rainy-day food.
Pancakes make a person feel cozy in summer like soups and stews do in winter—but a happier kind of cozy, one that doesn't involve so much pain beforehand. No freezing fingers or faces. No lumbering through snow or careening along ice-covered roads.
Summer is an easier time, one that produces blues, not blahs, and nothing can beat back those rainy-day summer blues like pancakes. For those of you with young children in the house, pancakes produce an added bonus: making pancakes, with the measuring and mixing it requires, is a good way to introduce some math concepts.
My favorites are buckwheat pancakes, served with an apple-flavored syrup. The recipe that follows is one I adapted from Betty Crocker. It's quick, easy and if you like thick, substantial pancakes, you'll love these. After eating, I bet you'll be purring like a contented cat. What a perfect time to curl up and take a nap. Let the rain sing you to sleep.
Buckwheat Pancakes
Yield: 4 to 6 servings (about 12 5-inch pancakes)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flaxseed
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
5 egg whites
1 teaspoon butter pecan flavored extract (optional)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups buttermilk
Procedure:
Whisk together first eight ingredients (flour through nutmeg) in large mixing bowl. In another bowl, lightly beat together remaining ingredients. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, and stir until combined. Do not overbeat batter. Use a ½-cup measure to drop batter onto electric skillet or griddle set to 350 F. Cook pancakes about 2 to 3 minutes, flip and continue cooking about 2 minutes longer.
What's Your Take on This, Julie?
Many people think of pancakes exclusively as breakfast food. I grew up in a home where pancakes were more likely to be served as the evening meal. We preferred eating cereal and toast to waiting by the griddle in the morning.
Unfortunately, we've become a nation of breakfast skippers. Skipping this important meal takes a toll. According to recent research, skipping breakfast reduced performance in memory-related tasks, verbal skills and arithmetic in children and adolescents. So, not only can children learn math from helping you make breakfast, they can learn math better in school by eating it. Eating breakfast also has been shown to enhance physical endurance and creativity.
People skip breakfast for many reasons. Some think it's a way to cut calories and weight. Others hit the snooze button too often to catch breakfast.
Skipping this early energy source generally prompts people to eat more food or higher-fat foods later in the day. While donuts and coffee at 10 a.m. may taste good, they provide few essential nutrients compared with the fat and calorie content.
A serving of buckwheat pancakes (1/6 of the recipe) provides about 300 calories and 13 grams of fat plus fiber, calcium, iron and B vitamins. This recipe features two North Dakota grains: buckwheat and flax.
Flaxseed, or "linseed," is a grain with a rich history. Many people associate flax with non-edible items such as linen fabric, made from fiber flax, and early paints and varnishes, made from oilseed flax. Some women even soaked the seeds in water to release the gum-like seed coating, which produced a natural hair-setting gel.
In recent years, flaxseed has been the focus of much nutritional research. Some research studies have shown that eating flaxseed may reduce LDL cholesterol levels and possibly lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Cancer researchers are studying flaxseed because it contains plant chemicals known as lignans, which may help prevent some types of cancer.
Flaxseed acts as natural laxative due to the gum-like outer seed coating, and flax may help regulate blood glucose levels due to the soluble fiber it contains. But ground flax also contains compounds that we should eat only in limited quantities; researchers advise eating no more than 50 grams a day, an amount slightly less than 2 ounces, by weight (1/8 of a pound).
Regardless of the grain, try to make breakfast a habit. While cereal and toast are good options, they certainly aren't the only ones. If you prefer, eat a sandwich or cold pizza. Grab fruit and yogurt on the go. Or make the pancake batter the night before, skip the snooze button and treat your family to some comfort food—rainy day or not.
###
Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136 & Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187
Click here for a pdf version of this graphic.