These ube pancakes are great for brunch-lovers who enjoy fluffy pancakes and making the most of leftovers!
I discovered purple sweet potatoes, or ube (pronounced oo-bae), a few years ago through my weekly CSA. While at the time I was momentarily perplexed as to what to make with them, I’ve since been making purple pancakes and loving the colorful veg!
While the lack of color in my wardrobe might make people think I don’t love colors beyond black, brown and navy, I actually love all things colorful, especially with my food. If you’re entertaining friends or just want to treat yourself to a fancy brunch, these pancakes are the ideal recipe to make!
Alright, let’s talk about how to make your pancakes super fluffy. There’s nothing more disappointing than setting out to make pancakes and ending up with a bite of flat, dense pancake. Breakfast isn’t my favorite meal of the day to begin with so when I set out to make it, I want it to be delicious. My go-to fluffy pancake tip? Whip your egg whites! That’s right, separate the egg called for the the recipe and whip the egg white before adding it to the other ingredients. As you fold it in as a last step before baking, do so gently so as not to lose the airiness you’ve built through whipping. If you’ve got a stand mixer, go ahead and use that but you could just as easily whip the egg whites to stiff peaks using a whisk to achieve the fluffiest purple sweet potato pancakes.
If you don’t have leftover sweet potatoes and are making them for the sole purpose of making pancakes (bravo on your dedication to purple ube pancakes), bake them as you would a regular sweet potato just for a little longer – so 90-120 minutes depending on their size at 350 degrees.Once cooked and still a little warm, cut them in half and scoop out the fleshy middle to use in pancakes! Alternatively, you can also peel them, chop up the purple sweet potatoes and boil them until soft.
While I usually lean towards all things sweet, one of the reasons I love these pancakes is because they actually aren’t overly sweet. The ube’s starchy flavor shines through in each bite, leaving room for the delicious maple syrup to shine through. I guess that’s the advantage of living so close to the Canadian border once again, lots of great maple syrup.
Charlotte Lamontagne
Yields Makes 10 small pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg white
- 1 cups whole milk
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus 1 teaspoon solid for coating pan
- 1 cup +1 Ttablespoon flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup cooked purple sweet potato mash
- Maple syrup for topping
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine egg yolk, milk and 2 tablespoons of melted butter. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until combined. Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet, followed by the sweet potato mash.
- In a stand mixer, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter.
- Place a frying pan over medium heat and melt remaining 1 teaspoon of butter in it. Once pan is hot enough to melt the butter (but not so hot that it smokes), pour out a ¼ cup worth of pancake batter. Cook until bubbles begin to appear (about 1 1/2 minute).
- Flip pancake and bake another 1 1/2 minute.
- Serve immediately with maple syrup
These look so thick and fluffy and delicious! Yum! xo