Whole Foods Cooking Lesson #1  Serving & Trouble Shooting the Recipe  Page Seven

Blender Batter Waffles/Pancakes 
Trouble Shooting The Recipe

Complaint: I almost burned out my blender chopping up all the oatmeal. I wonder if this could be done in a food processor instead? One of the recipes called for uncooked brown rice instead of oatmeal. I'm sure that would have done my blender in. The mix came out super runny, so I had to add quite a bit more oatmeal. The pancakes were not fluffy at all, not even a little. Has anyone else had this luck or did I just goof somewhere? I'm hoping it's me and not the recipe.
Answer: 1) Did you place the oatmeal in a liquid or try to grind it dry? 
2) This batter will be thinner than the batters you are accustomed to. Keeping the vortex, the hole in the middle, is the measure for the thickness of the batter and for avoiding overworking your blender.
3) Is your baking powder or baking soda fresh? The batter should bubble up and expand immediately after mixing the leavening in it.

Problem: My waffles stick. Ugh!
Answer: That happens to all of us. It happened to my husband as he was assisting me in a TV studio once, too. The cameras zoomed in on him. How embarrassing!
   One sure way to get waffles to stick is to put a sweetener in the batter that caramelizes when heated. An experiment with strawberry juice was an awful mess! We don't don't put sweeteners  in our recipe, (You are going to pour on pure maple syrup or jam later, aren't you?) but we still get a sticky waffle occasionally.
   Teflon certainly helps, but a light spray with olive oil spray usually does the trick. If you put too much oil in the recipe  the waffles will blister, and you will get waffles that look like they've had the chicken pox. That's why we usually spray the iron for the first waffle (very lightly) but not for the ones which follow.
   Sometimes letting a waffle which seems to be sticking bake a bit longer helps. It will become more  crisp and pop out whole when pried with shish kabob sticks. Never use a fork or knife on a Teflon waffle iron. They scratch the finish. 

Concern: I'm curious. People who promote whole grains usually talk about wheat and baking yeast breads. Why do you  promote Blender Batter Baking?
Answer:1) You don't need expensive equipment. You can make a recipe now with the blender you already have in the kitchen. 
2) You can use all of the grains. That means maximum nutritional value from a variety of whole grains. Yeast breads are more limited. They require use of grains high in gluten--mostly wheat.
3) With a variety of grains to choose from you can work around troublesome allergies and food sensitivities.
4) Successful yeast bread making requires experience. It is best to learn with a more experienced baker to get the "feel" of the craft. Children who've been trained in blender safety can succeed with blender batter baking on the first try.

Question: I have a large family. Can I double the recipe?
Answer: Yes, if you have a good blender with power and a large bowl such as a Vita-Mix or a Bosch. We recommend that start you with a small recipe to assure success in a smaller blender. After you become familiar with the liquid/grain ratio and have a feel for how it should come out, you might be able to double the recipe in a newer Osterizer. The problem is that it is difficult to get a vortex churning in a brim full mixing bowl. You don't have to add an extra egg when you double the recipe. See also page 6.

Concern about the Two Stage Process:  Won't the batter spoil if left out overnight? Isn't this a dangerous practice?
Answer: No, cooks have been doing it for generations. Just leave the egg out.

You'll find more Blender Batter Recipes in the Breakfast cookbook.                           

Breakfasts, New 4th Edition $20  Preview Book .pdf  973k . . . Purchase

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