I have 2 things on my mind today….these mixed berry and chocolate crunch cakes and how badly I could use a spa day!
Our friends at Nature’s Path have a fun little contest, featuring their Love Crunch granola, running from now through March 14th and all you have to do is click here to enter! Everyone who clicks through and enters will automatically receive a surprise from Nature’s Path! I like guaranteed prizes…don’t you?! On top of that, they are drawing one lucky winner every Tuesday from now through 3/14 to receive a $200 spa gift certificate and a month’s worth of Love Crunch! Seriously, pampering and Love Crunch? Count me in! Be sure to follow along on Nature’s Path’s Instagram for all of the latest contest news! Also, it should be said that if you win the spa package I’m going to publicly live vicariously through you ok?
I am over the moon excited about these Mixed Berry and Chocolate Crunch Cakes! Why? Well, because they transport me to one of my favorite restaurants in my all-time favorite southern city and they are loaded with my go-to breakfast treat, certified organic Nature’s Path Love Crunch granola!
When I was pregnant with Kash, Todd took Eliza and me on a babymoon to Savannah, GA. On our first day there, we happened upon J. Christopher’s, a super cute little breakfast joint nestled down on East Liberty Street. The restaurant immediately caught our eye from the street with its glass roll-up garage doors and walls chock-full of local artisan paintings and prints. Every single day we were there my pregnant self would drag Todd and Eliza down to that restaurant bright and early to feast on a breakfast fit for royalty which for me always included a short stack of their incredible granola laced crunch cakes!
I tried and tried to recreate those light and fluffy crunch cakes over the years without much luck, but a few weeks ago as I was eating my morning bowl of Nature’s Path Love Crunch granola (that I had inadvertently left sitting in a bowl of milk while trying to get my kids off to school) – it occurred to me that maybe I had been going about this pancake batter all wrong and that I needed to let the granola soak up a bit of the milk and tenderize before it hit the griddle. It was worth a shot, right?
The outcome of that unfortunate bowl of oversoaked granola turned out to be the best ‘crunch cakes’ idea I’ve had and it cooked up the most beautiful stack of pancakes that I’ve made in quite some time. Nature’s Path Love Crunch granola is the perfect marriage of delicious and healthy, with premium, certified organic, Non-GMO ingredients like Fair Trade dark chocolate and berries along with whole grain rolled oats and flax seeds! I love that I can feel good feeding my family Love Crunch because they help spread the love through their Bite4Bite initiative. For every single bag of Love Crunch sold, Nature’s Path donates the equivalent in cereal or cash to food banks! You can’t beat that for a philanthropic, feel-good bag of granola now, can you?
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These pancakes are great for breakfast and pack well in lunchboxes too!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup Love Crunch Dark Chocolate & Red Berries Granola
- 1 1/3 cups 2% milk
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3/4 cup gluten free flour, we used Cup 4 Cup multipurpose flour blend
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
To garnish
- Love Crunch Dark Chocolate & Red Berries Granola
- macerated berries
- warm maple syrup
Instructions
- Combine the Love Crunch Dark Chocolate & Red Berries Granola and the milk in a mixing bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Heat a large nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Stir the tablespoon of maple syrup, vanilla, and egg into the granola mixture then add the flour mixture, stirring with a whisk until combined and no large lumps of flour remain. Spoon a scant 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the hot griddle.
- Cook until the tops are starting to bubble around the edges and look a bit dry, about 2-3 minutes; flip and cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes until cooked through.
- Serve garnished with macerated berries, a hearty sprinkle of Love Crunch Dark Chocolate & Red Berries Granola and a warm maple syrup drizzle.
Notes
When measuring the flour it is important to spoon the flour into the measuring cups then level them with a knife. This will help to make sure that you have the appropriate amount needed for the recipe.
This post was made in partnership with Nature’s Path. We were compensated and supplied with product to create our recipe. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
