Cinnamon Toast Cloudcakes

I've been eating vanilla Greek yogurt with strawberries and homemade granola for breakfast every day for months. It's one of the few things I've found that keeps me full until lunch. With most other options I'm starving an hour or two later, and I either wind up snacking, or eating my lunch way too early. For a while I was using plain Greek yogurt, but then I discovered vanilla, and oh my word, it's like 1000x better! Never going back :)

For the most part, I'm fine eating the same thing for breakfast every day because there's a lot of variety in my other meals. Every so often, though, I like to mix things up, and pancakes are always at the forefront of my mind. I invest the effort once to make a huge batch and then freeze them in individual portions to pull out for a quick breakfast (or dinner!) another time. Pancakes are good any time of day!



There's no shortage of pancake recipes on this site, but I can't help myself, I keep finding new ones I want to try. And with a name like "cloudcakes," how could I not make this one?? They lived up to their name - the texture was super light and fluffy, a result achieved by whipping egg whites to soft peaks and folding them into the batter. I made the cinnamon toast variation and the batter smelled exactly like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal (which I loved as a kid), yum! If you'd rather leave them plain just skip the cinnamon and cut the sugar in half. I thought these pancakes were best shortly after they came out of the pan, so they probably wouldn't be my first choice for freezing, but it's all relative. The leftovers definitely didn't go to waste!

Cinnamon Toast Cloudcakes
from The Cook's Country Cookbook

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
2 extra egg whites, at room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
vegetable oil, for cooking

{If you aren't going to serve the pancakes until you've cooked all of them, preheat oven to 200 F. Spray a wire rack with cooking spray and set it inside a baking sheet then place the baking sheet in the oven.}

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Add the buttermilk and sour cream to a large measuring cup and whisk to combine. Whisk the egg yolks and melted butter into the buttermilk mixture until well combined.

Add the egg whites to a medium bowl. Use a hand mixer to beat them to soft peaks. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the dry ingredients. Whisk until just barely combined - the batter should be lumpy. Use a rubber spatula to fold the egg whites into the batter, again until just barely combined. It's fine if a few streaks of egg white remain.

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet set over medium heat (or spray with nonstick cooking spray). Once the oil starts shimmering, use paper towels to wipe the pan so only a thin, even coating of oil covers the bottom and sides. Use a 1/8 cup measure (2 tablespoons) to portion the batter into the pan. Cook on the first side until the edges are set and bubbles form on the surface, about 2 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the pancakes and cook for an additional 2 minutes on the second side, or until golden brown and cooked through. {If not serving immediately, transfer the pancakes to the wire rack in the oven.} Repeat with remaining batter, adding more oil to the pan if necessary.

Makes about 25 small pancakes