Apple Pancakes

I love looking at fresh-juiced apple juice.  

The LaFayette, Georgia Goodwill is my newest Achilles heel.  I might as well budget $25 toward every time I walk into that store.  And who can blame me, when there sits a brand new Oster juicer on the shelf for $10.00?  I had been saving up Swagbucks rewards and in another year and a half I'd have enough Amazon gift cards to buy a juicer.  So of course I had to try it out.  After I juiced almost every fruit and vegetable in my refrigerator, I realized the true expense of this critter was in the grocery bill it would produce.  I also saw how addictive it could be, especially watching the pulp and foam layering out in a cup of apple juice.  All of a sudden, the watery junk sold at the grocery store lost all appeal when faced with this complex beverage. 

A fun experiment followed.  I had made shredded apple pancakes before at Christmas, and served them with a spiced apple syrup, but I wondered if this juicer would make apple pancakes a hearty, healthy, non-special-occasion breakfast. 

So, I chose a recipe from Cooks.com:

1 1/2 cups apple juice
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oats
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat together apple juice and eggs in a medium bowl. Add the flour, oats, wheat germ, baking powder, orange peel and cinnamon. Stir until well mixed.Lightly grease a nonstick skillet. Make as you would pancakes pouring approximately 2 tablespoons batter mixture onto hot skillet for each pancake. Flip (only once) when bubbles begin to form around edges.

Simple, right?  And notice something else: the absolute absence of anything that involves milk or oil/fats or sugar (except in the juice itself).  I had neither the orange peel nor the wheat germ, but I did use whole wheat flour.  I would probably use the orange peel next time, the pancakes had a wonderful texture but were a little bland.  They didn't taste much like apples, either, which may have been the fault of my apples.  I usually prefer a stark organic Fuji or McIntosh. 

Here's the batter.  It made about 8 pancakes and fed 4 people.

I used a cast iron quesadilla skillet as a griddle. 

This is rehydrated pulp from the juicer.  It reminded me of applesauce.

The "applesauce" garnishing the pancakes.  Definitely a winner.

Pros and Cons:
Pros: Simple recipe, very healthy ingredients, filling and hearty
Cons: Juicer makes hard cleanup, a little bland (fixable), recipe should be doubled for large families.