My wonderful husband had a birthday (he’s very good at getting older;) and his favorite cake is carrot cake. I started looking for a killer carrot cake recipe only to find that just reading the ingredients made my stomach hurt. I don’t really bake and I always find it alarming just how obnoxiously bad for you these treats are. I’m a big fan of the ignorant bliss in ordering cakes someone else made! So, in light of that I started plotting a carrot cake alternative and, after all, what’s better than breakfast/dessert for dinner?! He came home to these handsome, rich little devils on his birthday and, I must say, we were both genuinely surprised at how decadent and satisfying they were! They are definitely in the top 5 best gourmet pancakes I’ve had, which is saying a lot with some of the breakfast spots we frequent that specialize in gourmet pancakes. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t health food but it’s a heck of a lot less bad for you than their cake counterpart and I must say, I like these more.
Go on, getcha some breakfast for dinner!
- 2 cups carrots, finely shredded
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (or gluten-free all purpose flour)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1- ¼ cups 2% milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
- coconut oil, just enough for cooking
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ⅓ cup plain yogurt
- 3 Tablespoons good quality maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- ½ Tablespoon ground ginger
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, milk, vanilla and sugar. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently to mix. Stir only enough as needed and no more. Let sit for a few minutes.
- In another bowl, combine cream cheese, yogurt, maple syrup, cinnamon and ginger. Blend together with hand mixer until smooth.
- Heat some coconut oil in a skillet. One hot add about ¼ cup of batter and cook for a couple of minutes on each side.
- Plate and top pancakes with a generous amount of topping. I sprinkled some brown sugar on the topping to get the little design.
food photographer, food photography, los angeles, crystal cartier
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