Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes with maple yogurt are great for breakfast or kids’ lunch boxes! Top them with maple Greek yogurt and toasted pecans or serve with maple syrup. These easy carrot cake pancakes are free of refined sugars and freeze well for meal prep breakfasts.
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Are you trying to get your kids to eat more veggies? Serve them in pancake form! These Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes are packed with carrots and pineapple. So you’re getting both a fruit and a vegetable into your kids’ breakfast!
Instead of the cream cheese frosting that you find on most carrot cakes, here we’re using Greek yogurt mixed with pure maple syrup to top our carrot cake pancakes. It’s a delicious combination!
Even though these pancakes have lots of carrots in them, the carrot flavor is mild. The pineapple adds a little extra sweetness!
I’ll often make some of these pancakes a bit smaller to make them more appealing to my kids. The smaller pancakes are also great for packing in lunch boxes. I pack the maple Greek yogurt on the side for dipping, since it’s not easy to send syrup in a lunch box. There’s also Greek yogurt in the pancake batter. Between the pancakes and the maple yogurt your little ones will get a good amount of protein in their meal. Protein is good because it helps to keep their tummies full for longer.
These Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes have three components of a balanced meal: whole grains, protein and fruits/vegetables. Serve another fruit and veggie on the side for even more nutrition! Here’s a sample lunch box that I packed for one of my kids with these pancakes. This lunch was for my 5 year old, and he ate most of what’s in the box. He ate the hard boiled egg at a different time of day for a snack.
Get more lunch box ideas here and also be sure to follow me on Instagram. I’m always sharing my kids’ lunches in my Instagram stories!
Tips for making these Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes:
- I use canned crushed pineapple in this recipe. Drain the pineapple in a fine-mesh sieve. To get the extra moisture out, press on the pineapple with the back of a spoon.
- It’s best to use fresh carrots and grate them yourself. Store-bought shredded carrots tend to be dryer and thicker than the ones you grate yourself.
- Try not to over-mix the batter when combining the wet and dry ingredients.
- Check out these Healthy Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies for another kid-favorite breakfast or snack!
How do you grate carrots for carrot cake pancakes?
You can grate the carrots for these Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes with a box grater or with a food processor. I usually prefer to use my food processor because there’s less chance that I’ll grate my finger. 🙂 The food processor has more parts to wash, but it cleans up easily if you’re just using it to grate carrots (so long as you rinse it right away). Or, you can run the parts through the dishwasher.
You’ll want to peel and wash your carrots and trim off both ends. If you’re using a box grater, use the side with the largest grating holes and be very careful of your fingers. To grate the carrots with a food processor, attach the shredding disk to your processor. Use the feed tube and pusher to carefully feed the carrots into the processor.
After shredding the carrots, I like to put them on a cutting board and run my knife through them a few times to cut them even smaller. My kids prefer smaller pieces of carrot in their pancakes.
Recipe to try next: Healthy Carrot Cake Oat Muffins (one bowl recipe)
5 from 1 rating
Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes
Servings: 18 pancakes
Prep Time: 15 minutes mins
Cook Time: 5 minutes mins
Total Time: 20 minutes mins
Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes with maple yogurt are great for breakfast or kids' lunch boxes! Top them with maple Greek yogurt and toasted nuts or serve with maple syrup. These easy carrot cake pancakes are refined sugar free and freeze well for meal prep breakfasts.
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Ingredients
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon each of cloves, nutmeg, ginger
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 ¼ cups milk, I use whole milk
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-1 ½ cups shredded carrots, 2-3 medium carrots*
- 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained well**
For Serving: (Optional)
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- toasted pecans
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together the white whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.
In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, Greek yogurt, milk, maple syrup (or honey) and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the shredded carrots and crushed pineapple.
Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Scoop batter by scant ¼ cup onto the heated griddle. Cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form and the bottom sides of the pancakes are lightly brown, about 2-3 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until the second side is browned, about 2 minutes more.
Whisk together the 1 cup plain Greek yogurt and 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup. Serve pancakes with maple yogurt and toasted pecans.
Notes
*Place shredded carrots on a cutting board and run your knife through them a few times to chop the pieces smaller for kids.
**Drain the pineapple well in a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on it with the back of a spoon to get out excess moisture.
Serving: 2pancakes with 2 tablespoons maple yogurt, Calories: 110kcal, Carbohydrates: 33g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 48mg, Sodium: 365mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 11g
Nutrition information is an estimate.
Cuisine: American
Course: Breakfast
Tried this recipe?Mention @kristines_kitchen on Instagram or tag #kristineskitchenblog.
More Pancake Recipes:
- Best Buttermilk Pancakes
- Healthy Pancakes
- Gingerbread Pancakes
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