I debated whether or not this “recipe” actually deserved its own post, but I thought it was too fun not to share with you all.  I had this idea of a huge, layered stack of pink pancakes for Valentine’s Day.  I visualized everyone digging into it and enjoying a different flavor with each bite, bananas commingling with raspberry chia jam with a hint of shaved chocolate.  I thought about other fillings like almond butter or date caramel sauce or yogurt, too.  How much fun would this be even if it’s not Valentine’s Day?  I am definitely going to make this for a family breakfast/brunch when my daughters come home for spring break.

When I set out to make pink pancakes, I immediately thought of pureeing a cooked beet into the batter or using beet juice.  But I’ve tried that in muffins and cupcakes before and the cake tastes like beets.  I love beets, but not like that.  Then a packet of frozen pitaya caught my eye one morning in my freezer — which has never looked better, by the way!  I am obsessed with this pantry/freezer purge!  Anyhow, pitaya is also known as dragon fruit and can sometimes be found fresh in the produce section, but you can also find frozen packets of puree, much like açaí.  It is uper high in antioxidants and vitamins and a GORGEOUS pink color.  I thawed 1 packet and measured it – 6 Tablespoons.  Then I took my standard pancake recipe and took out 6 Tablespoons of buttermilk and subbed in the pitaya puree. Worked like a charm!  The batter was a stunning pink color and the pancakes tasted like normal pancakes.

These images of the batter have not been enhanced in any way.  The batter was really this amazing color.  BUT, the problem came when I cooked the pancakes.  The resulting color was tan with a light pink undertone.  I was definitely disappointed that they didn’t retain that pure pink color.  But my son still noticed that they were pink and LOVED the dramatic stack of 7 pancakes with loads of fruit.  So all was not lost.  I even dusted a little powdered sugar on top which he thought was the greatest thing ever and made me seem like a cool mom for 5 minutes.  We won’t tell him that it was the equivalent of maybe 1/2 teaspoon of powdered sugar LOL.

So even though these didn’t turn out quite as I would have hoped, they were still fun and a delicious alternative to standard pancakes.  If you’ve struggled getting your family to eat whole grain pancakes, toss some pitaya in there and they won’t even notice that they might have a little fiber in there!  And even if you don’t use pitaya, a giant stack for everyone to share is a a lot fun.  Like I tried to show with my Valentine’s snack board from the other day, we can use healthy foods in an unexpected and visually appealing way that can have as much wow factor as some artificial junk.  I’m going to try to show on Instagram this weekend some other simple ideas to woo the loves of your life without throwing in the towel, so to speak!

You can do this stack lots of different ways and you can use your favorite pancake recipe if you prefer.  Recipe for raspberry chia jam is HERE.  Recipe for raspberry sauce is within this recipe for flourless chocolate cakes.

Here’s what I did, but I would LOVE to see your creations!  If you make this stack, please tag me @pamelasalzman #pamelasalzman.  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!