Mini Souffle Pancakes with Cinnamon-Vanilla Maple Syrup

Last Sunday was awesome for two reasons.  First, it was Cinco De Mayo (and who doesn't love Cinco De Mayo?  No one, that's who.).  Second, it was my sweet boyfriend's 25th birthday!  Last year for his birthday I made him some Mexican Lasagna, but since we don't have an oven this year my options were a little more limited.  I eventually decided to just skip the Mexican theme, and started his day off with some of these delicious pancakes:

I found the recipe in Shape magazine.  The original recipe included a blood orange maple syrup, but blood oranges were the one ingredient I didn't have and I didn't feel like trying to locate one (is it even blood orange season right now?), so I decided to just wing it in the syrup department (read: I made something up).


Mini Souffle Pancakes
From Shape magazine
Makes 12 mini pancakes.  The original recipe says it serves 4, but Kevin and I had no problem eating half a batch each.

Ingredients
3/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 tbsp soy or almond milk (I used regular milk)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white


In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a larger bowl, whisk egg, then add in Greek yogurt, milk, vegetable oil, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Fold flour mixture into yogurt mixture until just combined and set aside.

In a deep bowl, whisk the egg white until it holds soft peaks (the original recipe says to use a balloon whisk, but I used an electric hand mixer).  Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the batter, making sure not to overmix.

Lightly oil a non-stick pan.  You can use a spray to do this, but I like to pour a little vegetable oil on a paper towel and use it to lightly rub the surface of the pan.  Then, spoon about 2 tbsp of batter per pancake into the pan and spread into 3-inch rounds.  Cook for about 2 minutes or until a few bubbles form on the pancake tops.  Flip and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.  Repeat with remaining batter to make 12 pancakes.

Kevin's pancakes got chocolate chips!  Also there are too many bubbles on top of those pancakes on the left, and I should have flipped them sooner.

The cinnamon-vanilla maple syrup sounds fancier than it actually is.  I poured an unspecified amount of maple syrup into a microwave-safe cup (maybe like a cup), added an unspecified amount of cinnamon and an equally unspecified amount of vanilla (if I had to guesstimate I'd say probably like a teaspoon of each), and stuck in in the microwave for about 45 seconds.  Then it went on my pancakes!

These pancakes were pretty good.  The one thing I will say is that they didn't have a ton of flavor by themselves, probably because they were designed to go with the blood orange syrup.  If I were to make them again I might add some cinnamon to the batter, and maybe a little more maple syrup as well.  Kevin's pancakes actually turned out a little better, partially because the chocolate chips gave extra flavor, and partially because they came out fluffier than mine did (probably because I waited too long to flip mine).  That was fine, though, it was his birthday so I was happy he had the extra-yummy pancakes!  :-)