IHop Pancake Recipe

I have seen those dessert-inspired pancake stacks, and they do look pretty amazing. But... they're calorie bombs. Each stack has 680 - 1,310 and calories and 16 - 43 grams of fat! Sure, they sound delicious, but those nutritional stats are a little ridiculous!

Blueberry Cannoli Pancakes

Entire recipe: 312 calories, 4g fat, 632mg sodium, 51g carbs, 7g fiber, 14.5g sugars, 18.5g protein -- PointsPlus® value 8*

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
Pancakes
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 no-calorie sweetener packet (like Splenda or Truvia)
Dash salt
1/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
2 tbsp. fat-free or low-fat buttermilk (or HG Alternative)
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Blueberry Topping
1/2 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries, thawed (drained, if needed)
1 tsp. brown sugar (not packed)
1/2 tsp. cornstarch

Cannoli Topping
1/4 cup light/low-fat ricotta cheese
1 no-calorie sweetener packet (like Splenda or Truvia)
1 drop vanilla extract

Directions:
To make the pancakes, in a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sweetener, and salt. Stir in egg substitute, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and 2 tbsp. water.

Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat. Add half of the batter to form a large pancake. Cook until it begins to bubble and is solid enough to flip, 2 - 3 minutes. Gently flip, and cook until both sides are lightly browned and inside is cooked through, 1 - 2 minutes.

Plate your pancake. Remove skillet from heat, re-spray, and return to medium heat. Repeat with remaining batter to make a second pancake. Plate pancake, and cover to keep warm.

To make the blueberry topping, place blueberries in a large microwave-safe mug sprayed with nonstick spray. Stir in 2 tsp. water. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cornstarch, and stir to coat. Microwave for 1 minute, or until hot. Stir, and spoon over pancakes.

In a small bowl, mix ingredients for cannoli topping. Spoon over blueberry topping, and enjoy!

MAKES 1 SERVING

Alternative: Instead of using buttermilk, double the amount of water in the pancake batter.

Wanna whip up the other two IHOP summer-pancake options? Try these tweaks to the above recipe...

Strawberry & Banana Cream Pie Pancakes: Just mash some very ripe banana into the cannoli topping, and spread between the pancakes. Then replace the blueberry topping with sliced strawberries gently coated with low-sugar strawberry preserves, plus banana slices.

Raspberry & Peach Pancakes: Skip both the blueberry and cannoli toppings. Top the pancakes with canned peach slices (packed in juice, and then drained), and drizzle with a sauce made from low-sugar raspberry preserves mixed with a little water.

Finish each of these variations with a squirt of Fat Free Reddi-wip!