Bright Beet Pancakes

Since Thursday was Valentine's day, and we can't all have breakfast together on Thursdays due to preschool, I decided that we'd have our 'Valentine's Breakfast' on Friday instead... and we made these bright pancakes together.  They turned out rather well, and although more work than my usual pancake recipe, the kids loved them and I would probably make them again... as long as I already had beet puree prepared before hand.  This recipe was once again adapted from Parenting magazine... see page 54 on the Feb 2013 issue for more fun things to do with beets.

 

Bright Beet Pancakes

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp brown sugar (I omitted this and used a bit less than 1/4 cup date paste*)
1 Tbsp baking powder
dash salt
3/4 cup beet puree** (enough from one beet)
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1 large egg
3 Tbsp melted butter (if salted, omit the salt from the recipe)
1 tsp vanilla.

Sift together flours, sugar (if using this.  If using date paste, put that in with the wet ingredients), baking powder and salt into a medium bowl
Whisk together the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Once blended, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Drop about 2 Tbsp of batter onto a greased pan (or pancake griddle) over medium heat.  Cook 3 minutes per side.  Serve with raspberry sauce, honey, or syrup.

We just buttered ours and added fruit to the top.  We also added thawed strawberries and raspberries to the batter to stretch it a bit, and that fruit tasted great in there!

* To make date paste, take as many dates as you can manage and pack them tightly into a large measuring cup. Add water just to fill in the spaces to let them soak and soften (if they are soft enough already, I believe you can skip this step). Soak for 1-4 hours, depending (some say 1hr, some say overnight... I just do whatever until they feel soft enough to process alright). Drain and reserve liquid, and put the dates into the food processor. Process until smooth. If very thick, add some of the reserved liquid. Put in the fridge for up to 3 months. It probably won't last that long though, if you are like me. :) Use as a substitute for sugar in recipes!

**Basic roasted beets: Preheat oven to 375F. Wrap the beets in tinfoil and bake 45-60 minutes, until fork tender. Remove from the foil and set aside until cool to touch. Wear disposable plastic food gloves (or use Ziploc baggies over your hands) to avoid staining your skin, and rub the skins off the beets. Puree in food processor until smooth.

Chocolate Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Adapted this recipe from Parenting Magazine.  Made it a sugar free recipe!

 

This is a nice alternative to red velvet chocolate cupcakes.  The flavor is chocolaty, the color is a deep red/brown, and the frosting a lovely deep pink color.  My kids loved these, and while I wasn't sure how well these would turn out, they were surprisingly good!  I am not a fan of beets, and while you can taste them in this recipe slightly, the cream cheese and the cocoa balance things out nicely so that the beets do not take center stage.  At all.  In fact, if I didn't still smell them in the air from baking them, I don't think I would have noticed them at all!

 

Chocolate Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Ingredients
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat, half unbleached white)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar (I omitted this and added 3/4 cup date paste* to the wet ingredients)
1/2 tsp salt (I omitted this completely)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I melted coconut oil in its place)
1 large beet, roasted and pureed** (about 3/4 cup puree)
2 tsp vanilla
NOTE:  I found this very thick as there was no milk listed originally, so I added about 1/2 cup milk to the batter.  I found out on the website that apparently they forgot to add the 1 cup milk to the recipe in the magazine.  They turned out OK though, either way.


Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. 
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the rest of the ingredients.  Slowly stir in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients mixture.  Pour into 12 paper-lined muffin cups.  Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:
Place into a mixer and beat on medium high until blended:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter (I used coconut oil)
1/4 cup powdered sugar (I used honey instead)
1/2 cup beat puree
1 tsp vanilla

* To make date paste, take as many dates as you can manage and pack them tightly into a large measuring cup.  Add water just to fill in the spaces to let them soak and soften (if they are soft enough already, I believe you can skip this step).  Soak for 1-4 hours, depending (some say 1hr, some say overnight... I just do whatever until they feel soft enough to process alright).  Drain and reserve liquid, and put the dates into the food processor.  Process until smooth.  If very thick, add some of the reserved liquid.  Put in the fridge for up to 3 months.  It probably won't last that long though, if you are like me.  :)  Use as a substitute for sugar in recipes!

**Basic roasted beets:  Preheat oven to 375F.  Wrap the beets in tinfoil and bake 45-60 minutes, until fork tender.  Remove from the foil and set aside until cool to touch.  Wear disposable plastic food gloves (or use Ziploc baggies over your hands) to avoid staining your skin, and rub the skins off the beets.  Puree in food processor until smooth.