All-whole-wheat buttermilk pancakes (and bonus: Korean-style filled pancakes)

Evidently, we eat a lot of pancakes at our house because here I am again with another version.  I've been making these whole wheat pancakes since I found the recipe back in January.  I first spotted it on Inquiring Chef in a favorite-recipes roundup. These light and fluffy whole wheat buttermilk pancakes were the top pick with tons of endorsement.  I had to try it...and I became a big fan.

These light, fluffy, and flavorful pancakes are made entirely with white whole wheat flour

I wasn't planning on posting this since I somehow figured many people have seen the recipe but I'd really like to have it here in my archives since I consider these a part of our regular pancake rotation now. It doesn't hurt to spread the pancake love, right?

So if you're looking for an all-whole wheat pancake recipe that really tastes good, here it is!  These pancakes are made solely with whole wheat flour and that's what really attracted me to them, much like I was drawn to the cookies.  I really wondered if pancakes made solely with whole wheat flour could be as good as advertised.  Honestly, this recipe really does turn out fluffy and light pancakes even entirely using whole wheat flour (white whole wheat, as usual, for me)!

I really like the use of brown sugar, instead of granulated, in this recipe

A generous amount of baking powder deserves a lot of credit for the fluffiness, and I think buttermilk is always something of a magic ingredient.  Interestingly, I like using canola oil in these pancakes.  I usually prefer butter in pancakes for that bit of extra flavor.  Turns out, the oil works great with the brown sugar in these pancakes.  I think the brown sugar makes a huge difference - it gives these whole wheat pancakes a deeper, more caramel-like flavor so that I don't need/miss the butter at all. These are just good pancakes that my family and I really enjoy.  Did I mention they were whole wheat?  ; )

"Bonus" Time:  Filled Pancakes

I thought I'd add a little twist to this pancake post with a little "bonus" segment.  I took this pancake recipe, thinned it out a bit with a few extra splashes of buttermilk, and filled them with a sweet nutty filling.  It turns pancakes into an on-the-go breakfast or snack!

Whole wheat pancakes filled with a brown sugar-peanut filling - inspired by the Korean-style filled pancake, "hotteok", a popular street food item in South Korea

It's a funny thing about these Korean-inspired filled pancakes...I first saw the idea in the back page of the May 2014 issue of Cooking Light.  Then, wouldn't you know it, I saw them again, featured in a Korean cooking show I've been watching, about a week or so later!  They were memorable because the Korean filled or stuffed pancakes are called "hotteok", which sounds a lot like "hot dog" to an almost-9 year old (and his mom)!  So they stuck in our minds and I had an inkling to make an easy version of "hotteok" with this whole wheat pancake batter.  My son and I had fun walking around all day saying we made, and ate, hotteok!

Filled with a mixture of dark brown sugar and chopped roasted peanuts

Traditional Korean hotteok is a snack made with a yeasted dough, filled with a sweet mix of things like brown sugar, honey, chopped peanuts, and cinnamon.  This is a take on Cooking Light's version (they call it "inside-out pancakes"), which starts with pancake batter.  They used brown sugar, pine nuts and cinnamon for the filling but I choose to go with a mixture of dark brown sugar and chopped peanuts for mine.

And I have a tip:  For an even quicker, easier, and I even daresay, tastier, filled pancake...use chunky peanut butter for the filling!  I kept thinking that I wanted to try chunky peanut butter as a shortcut; I figured it would pack a ton of flavor in an easy way if it worked.  I was a little worried that PB might be too thick as a filling but I knew I wanted to give it a try.

A delicious short-cut: use chunky peanut butter to fill these pancakes!  It packs a ton of flavor and makes it even easier. 

Happily, my gut was right in this instance.  The pancakes filled with chunky peanut butter were so flavorful and it couldn't be easier with nothing to mix or chop!  My son, my husband, and I all preferred the one with peanut butter! 

Unfortunately, I was running low on pancake batter by the time I got to the peanut butter filling but I am so, so glad I managed to try it that way.  It'll be my go-to filling whenever we get a hankering for an easy version of hotteok!