Their name says it all. My dad (and sometimes mom) used to make my brother and me these pancakes practically every Saturday morning when we were younger.

At that point, we were allergic to eggs and milk, so these were a perfect Saturday morning breakfast – and they still are, even though we’ve outgrown the milk allergy. The recipe is from an allergy cookbook we got a long time ago, but we still love it! My favorite toppings when I was younger were margarine, syrup, and sprinkles. Now I like them spread with margarine and sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar. Sometimes I’ll add on some colorful sprinkles, too, just because. 🙂

Saturday Morning Pancakes (E, N, D)
makes 6-7 regular sized pancakes

Ingredients:
–  1 cup all-purpose flour
– 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 1 tbsp. granulated sugar

– 1 tbsp. canola oil
– 1 tbsp. applesauce
– 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

– 1 to 1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour through sugar).
2. In a small bowl, combine wet ingredients (but not the water).
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix. Add the water, starting with less than a cup, and gradually adding more until batter is just combined. Lumps in pancake batter is a good thing!
4. Heat a large, non-stick skillet or pan to medium heat. Pour pancake batter onto hot skillet, making each pancake about 4-inches in diameter.
5. When tiny bubbles appear in the center of each pancake (after 3-4 minutes), flip and cook the other side an addition 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown.
6. Serve hot, and enjoy!

Notes:
– I haven’t tried these using gluten-free flour, but because the recipe is so simple, it would probably work out quite well. Let me know if you do!
– At step 4, if you’d like to, you could melt some margarine on the skillet before pouring the batter on. It gives the pancakes a nice golden brown color, but it isn’t a necessary step!

Variation:
Blueberry Pancakes (E, N, D)

Simply follow the exact same recipe as above, but add 2/3 or 3/4 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries! These are just wonderful.

Variation:
Whole Wheat Flax Pancakes (E, N, D)

Follow the same recipe and directions as above, but just use 1/2 cup all-purpose flour + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour instead of what the original recipe calls for. Then, add 1 1/2 tsp. ground flax seed and 1 tsp. whole flax seed. You might need a bit more water, as these will be thicker than the regular kind. 🙂
– You could also use chia seeds instead of the flax!

Variation:
Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes (E, N, D) 

– Follow the above recipe up through step 3. When your batter is completely made, take out about 1/8th of it and pour into a small bowl. Add about 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon and mix thoroughly. Pour into a plastic zip-top bag, and snip the end to make a piping bag.
– Pour pancake batter onto preheated skillet as directed in step 4 above. Immediately after you pour the pancake, pipe a swirl of the cinnamon batter into it. Cook as directed above, and enjoy!

Happy eating, everyone! 🙂