These oatmeal griddle cakes are made with whole wheat flour, oats, and tangy buttermilk, and they are currently our kids’ favorite breakfast. Although there is a vigorous disagreement regarding whether banana or raspberry is better. So, naturally, I make both.
These are so popular around here that my daughter found part of an old one in her brother’s car seat earlier today and ate it before I could stop her. Fortunately, it’s been cold around here, so I think our car was a bit like a refrigerator? I hope.
Missing my 20s
I made these after a friend mentioned trying the delicious (apparently) oatmeal griddle cakes at Salt’s Cure in the city. The pictures looked amazing. To be fair, their pictures involve a powdered sugar dusting. And probably professional photographers. Had we been back in the pre-kids day, I would have demanded my brunch-averse husband join me there within the week.
But we are no longer in our pre-kids era.
So, instead, I dreamed about what the griddle cakes probably taste like, drooled over pictures, looked up whether Uber Eats delivers this far out from the city, considered whether that’s a wise use of money, decided probably not, plus the pancakes would be cold and maybe even soggy by the time they got to our home, then looked at more online pictures, found and read the pancake mix they’re selling – all to guess what might be in these pancakes. So I have tried, diligently, to recreate the pancakes I have admittedly never tried.
This is psychologically healthy, right?
Whole Wheat Flour
I’m also trying to move away from using white flour. (Here’s why.) That means I’ve been testing out various whole wheat pancake recipes. (For instance, here is a sourdough version of this same oatmeal griddle cakes recipe). Unfortunately, it’s quite difficult to mimic the texture of white flour in pancakes. It’s better just to try for something different. One way to make a whole wheat pancake situation more yummy is to add oats – that way you’re going for a chewier texture, and not trying to have a lighter-than-air pancake in the first place (impossible to mimic with whole wheat).
In the end, I have no idea how similar these oatmeal griddle cakes are to the Salt’s Cure pancakes. But these pancakes are objectively delicious and have a really interesting texture – somehow crispy, chewy, and light at the same time – due to the oats.
Timing (UPDATED)
I originally thought that this recipe required a bit of planning ahead due to the oats needing to sit in the batter to absorb moisture. With the ratios below, that is true. It’s best if part of the batter sits for at least 1 hour before you start cooking, otherwise the batter will be too runny.
But as someone who perpetually fails to plan ahead, I’ve now made this recipe several times right before cooking and I can confidently say that it turns out just fine. The oats will be slightly chewier. You just need to reduce the amount of buttermilk accordingly. I have included notes on this below in the recipe.
Saving Time in the Morning
Another time-saving measure: You could just mix everything together the evening before. That way you have pancake batter ready to go in the morning. The only downside of this is marginally less fluffy pancakes. I actually do this a lot, because I only use about 1/2 of the batter at a time. That means that some batter often sits in our fridge for more than 24 hours before it gets used.
Now, on to the recipe.
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Oatmeal Griddle Cakes
These oatmeal griddle cakes are made with whole wheat flour, oats, and tangy buttermilk – and they are currently our kids’ favorite breakfast. Although there is a vigorous disagreement regarding whether banana or raspberry is better. So, naturally, I make both.
For those failing to plan ahead (I’m right there with you): If this is a pancake emergency and you need pancakes IMMEDIATELY, reduce the buttermilk to 2/3 cup and cook it all immediately. BUT – if you save leftover batter for another morning, the batter will become much thicker as it sits in the fridge and you will need to thin it back out with more buttermilk until it’s a thick porridge consistency.
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
“Overnight” Mixture
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (unless cooking immediately – then use only 2/3 cup of buttermilk)
2 tbsp honey
Later . . .
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
For Raspberry Pancakes:
1 1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
For Banana Pancakes:
2 medium bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
1. Prep the overnight mixture.
The reason this needs overnight is to let the oats and whole wheat flour absorb some of the moisture from the buttermilk. To create the “overnight” mixture, mix together:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
- 2 tbsp honey
*If you didn’t plan ahead and are cooking pancakes within 1 hour of making this recipe: Reduce the buttermilk to 2/3 cup and cook immediately after mixing. Note that if you save the leftover batter for another morning, the batter will become much thicker as it sits and you will need to thin it back out with more buttermilk until it’s a thick porridge consistency.
2. The next morning, melt the butter.
Melt the butter (1/3 cup) and allow to cool a bit.
3. And finish preparing the batter.
To the “overnight” mixture, add:
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup melted butter, slightly cooled (so it doesn’t cook your egg).
4. Decide if you’re going plain, banana, raspberry, or halfsies.
Plain: Skip to the next step. Huzzah.
Banana: Peel two bananas. Place them in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave them for about one minute. This will cause them to soften. Then you can easily mash them up with a fork. Then mix in the 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp salt. Fold the banana into the pancake batter.
Raspberry: Add 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries into the batter.
Halfsies: Split the batter in half. Add 3/4 cup of raspberries to one half. Add 1/2 of the banana mixture to the other. This is my standard these days.
5. Make some pancakes.
Preheat a pan for at least a minute (2-3 minutes if you’re using a cast iron) over medium heat. You want the pan to be quite hot and evenly heated when you start the pancakes.
Right before you’re about to cook, add some butter to the pan. My favorite way of doing this is to take a stick of butter, peel the paper off one side, and literally rub the butter stick all over the bottom of the pan. That way, you get complete coverage. I always save a stick of butter in our fridge for just this purpose. The butter should immediately foam up – then you know the pan is hot enough. If any areas are not foamy, this is a good indication that the pan is not evenly heated – consider readjusting the pan on the stove and wait a bit longer before throwing on the pancakes.
Add a large spoonful of batter to the pan. The butter should bubble around the batter – not a ton, but a little. If not, your pan is not hot enough OR you don’t have enough butter in the pan.
It’s ready to flip when there little bubbles come to the top of the pancake all over (not just around the edges). This takes longer with the raspberry pancakes. Err on the side of overcooking here, because the oats will prevent the batter from drying out too much, but the raspberries can slow down the cooking (particularly if you added frozen raspberries). If you think the bottoms are burning, turn down the heat a bit.
Flip, and remember that pancakes always brown faster on the second side.
6. Enjoy!
Notes
Can I just make the whole batter ahead of time? It’s probably best to make the overnight mixture and finish mixing up the batter in the morning – but I sometimes just go ahead and make the full batter and let it rest overnight. I’ve had no issues with this approach and I’m not 100% sure I could tell the difference between the two. Theoretically, the pancake batter that sat overnight should result in less fluffy pancakes because the effect of the baking soda and baking powder wears off over time.
Missing an ingredient? Check out my substitutions guide.
- Prep Time: overnight
- Cook Time: 10 min
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: stovetop
