It was another busy week in the Hayes lab. I spent most of the week working on two presentations. One for my first guest lecture. Squee! I spoke about sensory science, and my absolute love for it to more than 120 students! I thought it went pretty well. Shout out to Ryan McArdle and Dr. Sarah Milillo who made the whole thing so much easier.

I am also working on a presentation for the Society of Sensory Professionals conference that my boss will present- a snapshot of the current state of the academic training pipeline. I’m a little behind on that one, so hoping for some magical time to appear.

I got to interact a lot more with the students in the lab this week, which was so fulfilling. They are so bright and motivated.

But I promised you pancakes. These are adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/04/edna-maes-sour-cream-pancakes/

Did you know that she and I are close personal friends? 🙂 I kid, but I did have the pleasure of sharing my love of sensory science with her on one of her visits to Land O’Lakes. She is a super taster, has an amazing palate, and is also just really, really nice.

One morning I wanted to make her pancakes, and I didn’t have sour cream, but I had nonfat greek yogurt. I also didn’t have white flour, but I did have whole wheat. I thought of this article that has been going around Facebook.

All The Comments on Every Recipe Blog

And I thought… I guess I am not making Edna Mae’s Sour Cream pancakes. I am adapting them.

So after that long introduction here is the recipe: (Oh for those keeping track I doubled it)

• 2 cups nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla

Notes on other changes I made besides the major ingredient swaps: I upped the flour a little since whole wheat provides a little less structure than than white flour. Also added the standard resting time (at least 15 minutes for whole grain recipes). Last week, I said I always add extra moisture when using whole wheat flour. Well since nonfat yogurt has a much higher moisture content than sour cream that was already taken care of. I swapped brown sugar for white sugar just like in my muffins for additional flavor depth, and I added a bit more vanilla than the recipe called for. This is another standard change I make to most recipes. I actually made these pancakes last weekend. On that occasion, I happened to have blueberries which were a wonderful addition. They also decreased the energy density (calories per gram) of the pancakes making them even healthier.

This week I simplified the instructions for mixing:

I dumped all ingredients together. Mix with a whisk. I didn’t think you really had to worry about overmixing, since these pancakes are so light and whole wheat flour really doesn’t form a great structure anyway.

But there was a change this week that I wasn’t expecting. They had a distinctly more eggy flavor which John liked, and I didn’t. I will have to investigate next week to see if the mixing step really was the cause. I will report back, and then you can follow according to your taste preference. Interestingly, cooking seemed to have an effect. The more cooked the pancake got, the more the eggy flavor came through. This makes sense, as cooking breaks bonds exposing sulfur groups responsible for that eggy flavor.

The pancakes also got tougher, if you overcooked them. Again this makes sense, as the proteins in eggs form tight networks as they heat. This is called coagulation. If you get too tight of a network, you have overcoagulated your proteins. If you’re lazy (i.e. like the just dump instructions) and want a less eggy flavor, just may be able to take one egg out of the recipe. I’ll try to test that for you readers, though, as the structure of these pancakes is based on that protein network, so it may not work.

I doubt Edna Mae knew the science behind why she lightly beat those eggs in a separate bowl, but she was on to something! This is often the case. I like to call it the wisdom of cooks. They may not know why they do things are certain way, but there is a scientific principle behind it.

Now here is where cooking whole wheat pancakes becomes cumbersome. Especially when you have a higher sugar batter, which I like. You need to cook theses pancakes on a fairly low heat, make them smaller, and really baby them. I did find that using a lot of butter (I actually used LOL Spreadable Butter) like Ree recommended made it easier. And I am all about balancing choices, so I say go for it. But if you really want to, you can cook them in a nonstick pan with just cooking spray or even nothing if you a super diligent.

Happy eating!