RV Cooking – Granola Pancake Recipes

Unusual Granola Recipe Makes Pancakes for in Camp or at Home

Apr 3, 2009
Thomas Alan Gray

Traditional Pancakes - Kanko, Wikimedia Commons

These pancake recipes were created in camp with what was available at the time (including the granola!) but have remained family favorites throughout the years.

The Ballarat Granola Pancake Recipe was born of necessity.

The author and his wife, honeymooning in Australia, were camped near Mt. Helen, outside Ballarat, South Australia, autumn, 1973. The larder was, like Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard, distressingly bare.

All that remained to feed two healthy, hungry young adults was an egg, a handful of granola in the bottom of the sack, and a little sugar.

Granola Pancakes, Ballarat Style

Something a little different to do with breakfast granola!

Ingredients for Granola Pancakes:

One egg
About 1/2 to 1 cup of regular or low-calorie granola
A little sugar, jam, honey, maple syrup or other sweetener
Cooking oil/margarine/butter

Directions for Granola Pancakes:

Lightly beat the egg
Stir in enough granola (all of it, in the original recipe!) to make a paste thick enough to stick to the spoon
Scrape into a heated, greased frying pan and mash into a patty.
Fry at low heat until lightly browned on both sides and egg is set.
Pile on the sweetener, to taste.

Serves two. Surprisingly filling.

The decades that followed saw many variations, made with oatmeal, various kinds of granola, and even cornmeal (not a success). Some experiments came out better than others... Garnished with honey, jam, pancake syrup or even peanut butter, they were always an interesting camp breakfast. They're not bad cold, either.

The kids preferred granola pancakes made with milk and pancake mix (such as Bisquick®) which makes a lighter pancake. These proportions better suited growing family appetites as well as the kids' taste:

2 cups (500 mL) pancake mix
1 cup (250 mL) milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup (80 mL) granola

Bullseye Pancakes

Another odd pancake recipe invented when the kids were small and liked to stab their forks into the "bullseye", a circle of meat in the center of the pancake.

Ingredients for Bullseye Pancakes:

1 cup (250 mL) pancake mix (the just-add-water kind)
1/3 cup (80 mL) powdered milk
1 cup (250 mL) cold water
Ham sausage, about 1" (2.5 cm) in diameter
(or tinned luncheon meat, or smokies, or even wieners)

Directions for Bullseye Pancakes:

Cut the meat into slices about 1/4" (0.6 cm) thick. If using luncheon meat, cut the rectangular slices in half to make squares.
In a large fry pan or griddle on medium heat (drops of water flicked onto the pan should dance for a few second before evaporating), cook meat slices on one side.
Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients and water.
When meat slices are browned, flip them over.
Pour pancake batter over and around each meat slice. When pancakes are cooked (dry on edges and bubbles further in burst and don't refill), flip and cook other side.

Serves two to four, depending on age and appetite. Recipe can be doubled.

These pancake recipes were first published in The Canadian Leader magazine, June/July, 1976.