Name: CocoNutty Almond Pancakes
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: ¼ cup oat flour; ¼ cup flax seed meal; ¼ cup coconut flour; ¼ cup almond flour; 2 tsp. baking powder; ¼ tsp. salt (I use pink Himalayan, but you can use whatever you like); 1½ TBSP coconut oil (just a rounded spoonful, melted for about 30 seconds in the microwave); 2 eggs; 1 cup milk (may need more if batter is too thick or if you prefer thinner batter); 1 tsp. vanilla extract; Optional: berries or other add ins of choice

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CocoNutty Almond Pancake Goodness!

Hi everyone! So, here is the story of how my favorite pancakes came to be. Michael was going low-carb for a while, but little Ella loves pancakes. And when I say loves I mean LOVES! She would choose pancakes every morning if she could have them. Her particular favorite is of the blueberry variety. Now, Michael does not ask me to make breakfast for him, but since he works from home I like to make something for breakfast that we all can eat together. So, I was trying to both be nice to hubby by creating a pancake that wouldn’t mess with his goals, and also one that we could eat as frequently as every other day, to please the Ella–all while still having a nutritious, energizing breakfast.

Gluten-free

I will say that I do not eat gluten-free as a rule but it just so happened to work out as being sans gluten since I was avoiding high carb ingredients like wheat-flour and sugar. So, all my friends who need to avoid gluten for one reason or another can still enjoy these pancakes! I do use oats in my recipe, and as I understand it, some oats do have traces of gluten which would still cause problems for people with celiac disease. But you can find oats that are gluten free if that is a concern.

One thing that I love about these pancakes is that they do not sit heavy in my stomach like typical pancakes tend to do. They are light and fluffy, filling, but not heavy. To me they are the ideal pancake, and I have gotten the stamp of approval from family and friends who also love them (including a gluten intolerant friend who was so happy to be able to enjoy pancakes again!).

Low-carb

I am not a nutritionist, but I did some math based on the nutrition fact labels, and discovered that from one batch–divided into 10 medium sized pancakes–there are about 5.7g of carbohydrates and 4.2g of protein in each pancake. For the mini pancakes that we like to make, the batter is divided into about 24 pancakes, and each mini contains about 2.4g carbs with 1.75g protein. So, if I eat my typical 5 mini pancakes for breakfast I’m consuming less than 12g of carbs with almost 9g of protein! Well, that is if I don’t add any maple syrup, but let’s be realistic here. But I still consider these pancakes to be low-carb because a serving has fewer carbs than a slice of bread, and it is much more filling!

The four flours I use

There are 4 types of flour or meal that I put into my pancakes, and there is a reason for each. Though to be honest, the initial reason was that they were what I had on hand when I was experimenting. But there are health benefits from all of them, and each one lends an element of texture and flavor to the finished product.

I like to use oats in my pancakes because, even though they are higher in carbs, they are also high in fiber and are very good for you. They also help to bind the pancakes together and give them good flavor. I like to grind my own oats in my little coffee grinder. It is really easy and works well. This is the grinder that I use. I’m sure it’s not the best on the market, but it does a good job and it was not too expensive.

I also use flax seed meal, because it is high in protein and dietary fiber, while containing calcium, iron, and good fats. Flax seed meal adds a heartiness to these pancakes without being gritty. Flax seeds need to be ground for your body to absorb the nutrients from them, but once they are ground they tend to go rancid more quickly. So, what I do is, buy the ground flax seeds–because I can find them easily and inexpensively–and I just keep the meal in the refrigerator to prolong its shelf life.

Almond flour is something that is easy to find in most grocery stores, but I have found it to be cheaper and more convenient to buy it here from Amazon.com. I like to use almond flour because it is rich in vitamins and minerals and healthy fats. It also acts similarly to wheat flour and can be substituted in a lot of recipes in a 1 for 1 ratio. It also gives these pancakes great flavor.

Coconut flour is the last pillar of these pancakes and is the one flour that I had to go online to buy. Specialty stores probably carry it but I’m not really interested in making a special trip, and like I said, Amazon is easy and often cheaper. So that is where I bought my coconut flour. Coconut flour is a great flour for gluten-free baking, and it helps to thicken the batter of the pancakes, making them flip-able. It is also high in fiber and good fats, and lowers the glycemic index of food that it is added to. And one more benefit…it tastes amazing! The almond coconut flavor combo of these pancakes is just sooooo good.

After some experimentation, I decided that I like the pancakes best when they have equal parts of each of the four flours. For a batch that will feed our little family of four (with left overs for the fridge), I use a ¼ cup measure for each of my flours so that I end up with 1 cup of dry ingredients. I then add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to make it light and fluffy and I grind about ¼ of a teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt into the pancake mixture to enhance the flavor.

Ok, before I go any further, let’s pause for a reality check. Do I really measure everything and have the kitchen to myself?

Here’s what a typical morning actually looks like:

The morning pancake saga

In the morning I ask Ella what she would like for breakfast, knowing full well what she will say. If we haven’t just had pancakes the day before I will usually grant her request and she will come traipsing into the kitchen after me and ask me to set up the stool for her to stand on, next to the kitchen counter. But before I do so, I know I need to grab a mixing bowl and teaspoon from the cupboard and drawer that will soon be blocked by a girl on a stool.

I scoop the flours into the ¼ cup measure and then hand it to her, which she dumps mostly into the bowl. I measure out the baking powder and she dumps that into the bowl too, tapping the measuring spoon vigorously on the edge of the bowl to make sure that every, last speck is gone. Then I grind in the salt and hand her a whisk to mix it all up. If we are lucky, only a tiny bit will find its way out of the bowl—sometimes her whisking is a bit too enthusiastic.

Then I scoop out the coconut oil into the big glass measuring cup and pop it into the microwave to melt. After I clean up the counter (and sometimes the floor) under the whisking girl, I crack 2 eggs into the measuring cup with the melted oil. We set aside the dry mix and EL turns her attention–and her whisk–to the oil and eggs. I often need to help at this stage to prevent oil and egg from splattering everywhere. Once we have attained a fairly homogenized mixture we add in the milk and vanilla. I don’t really measure these but “eyeball” them, and so get a somewhat unpredictable consistency that may need to be adjusted before cooking. Then my helper carefully spoons the dry mixture into the wet, while I tip the bowl up for her.

If we want extra special pancakes–and have them on hand–we’ll add in a couple handfuls of blueberries to the pancake batter. At this point Ella will inevitably ask for some “eating blueberries”, so I give her a “These are for my helper” pile, to eat while the pancakes are cooking.

The girls like the mini sized pancakes best so I oblige them and fit 7 or 8 on the skillet. When the batter has puffed up and the bottoms are browned, I flip them over and we wait for the other side to brown–about two minutes on each side.

At this point EL has finished her pile of blueberries and will ask for more. She particularly likes the sour ones and if there is a purple-ish-red blueberry that I can find, I give it to her, if for nothing else than to watch her twitchy eyes.

Once all the pancakes are cooked we plate them up. Two for Esther, four for Ella, five for Mommy, and how many do you want Daddy? Three? And do you want syrup? How about yogurt? The girls and I like a big dollop of full-fat plain Greek yogurt to eat with our pancakes.

Esther devours her first pancake–plucking out each blueberry with pincer fingers to eat them all first–but when that pancake is gone, she realizes that there is yogurt to be had, and doesn’t want to eat pancake when there is yogurt. The yogurt then becomes a bargaining tool and she finishes both her second pancake and the yogurt.

EL gets to work “cutting” up her pancakes, and, after eating the pieces that have fallen onto the table, she asks for 2 more pancakes. Daddy finishes his pancakes and coffee and goes back to work in his corner of the living room, while we carry on with the pancake decimation. . . .

Now, I realize that the above saga may have been a little hard to follow, so here is the concise recipe: