Super healthy.

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One simple rule of healthy eating is to avoid any product with ingredients whose names you struggle to pronounce. That pretty much includes all ultra processed foods and store bought pancake mix for waffles.

In my piece profiling the Presto waffle maker I mentioned that I used Aunt Jemima pancake mix. (In deference to modern times, the ‘Aunt Jemima’ black mammy branding has been retired in favor of ‘Pearl Milling Company’ but the product remains the same). Well, applying the above guideline I note that that mix contains a slew of nasty sounding chemicals, so in the garbage can it goes. Garbage to garbage.

And say ‘Hullo’ to Amaranth flour, a five pound bag costing $30. I had to buy from Amazon but if you can source it locally it will almost certainly be cheaper. That’s roughly twice the price of the Aunt Jemima poison but, hey, that’s the cost of healthy eating. Do you think all those superbly toned Hollywood stars subsist on Big Macs, America’s biggest killer?

The recipe I use is here with the following changes:

• There is no need for the 15 minute cure period for the batter. It can be used immediately.
• I add dark chocolate chips to the batter – a solid handful
• You should substitute Avocado oil (smoke point 515F, no saturated fat – good) for the vegetable oil (smoke point 400F, loaded with saturated fat – bad) or butter (way too low a smoke point) for a healthier mix. The high smoke point of the healthy avocado oil makes sure the pancakes do not get charred – avocado oil has the highest smoke point of any commonly used cooking oil, and is by far the healthiest choice
• You must use a touch of anti-stick spray or the waffle will stick to the waffle maker’s platens – not ideal but the Pam spray I use mostly contains oils, with a touch of anti-smoke and anti-sticking chemicals. The waffler run at 395F which is right up there with the smoke points of the three oils in the spray, hence the need for an anti-smoke agent.
• Ater a requisite 3 minute warm up period I heat the batter for 3 minutes, flip the waffler, then heat for 3 minutes more, for a total of 6 minutes.

The health benefits of amaranth are described here. It’s an ancient grain first used for food by the Aztecs! Perhaps most significant is the fact that amaranth flour is gluten free, a blessing for those who are wheat intolerant. The health benefits of avocado oil are described here.

For a fully formed waffle in the Presto waffle maker you require 1.1 cups of batter, meaning the following amounts should be used to make 2 waffles:

• Egg – 1 large
• Milk – 310 grams
• Avocado oil – 39 grams
• Amaranth flour – 170 grams
• Salt – 3/8 teaspoons (that’s 40% of the maximum recommended daily intake)
• Granulated sugar – 1 tablespoon or 3 teaspoons (That’s 25% of the maximum recommended daily intake)
• Baking powder – 1 teaspoon (a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid which releases carbon dioxide into the waffle to make it rise)
• A handful of dark chocolate chips (avoid the white variety which is loaded with saturated fat)
• A handful of walnuts on top
• Real maple syrup to taste

You can see that most of these measures are stated in weight rather than volume, which is the accurate way to go.

Here is the result using 1.1 cups of batter in the waffler:

One perfect waffle.

A single waffle topped with bananas, strawberries, blueberries and walnuts makes for a healthy sub-300 calorie meal and please, only use real maple syrup. Sure, it’s costly but your body does not need the many poisons and imitation sugars in the cheap stuff.

By the way, the beautiful country style plate shown above is proudly made in America by H F Coors, in Tucson, Arizona, and is highly recommended for its provenance, quality and toughness.