The Story
You know you want to eat these. Also, please note the delicious bacon in the back. Mmmm, bacon.
The "easy" way to do gluten, soy, and dairy free is to eat very simple, healthy foods: fruit, vegetables, meats, and nut products that are simply prepared and not doused in sauces. However, that can get really, really boring, and I like cooking. And I wanted to eat something other than eggs for breakfast.
I am not very experienced with using "alternative" flours, and the idea of fake food grosses me out, so I sought help from the internet in finding an acceptable pancake recipe. This pancake recipe from Against All Grain looked delicious, and had awesome reviews, so I doubled it and made my first attempt at cooking with alternative flour.
The Food
STEP ONE: Make some bacon. Unless you have coconut oil or butter on hand, this is a crucial step. Well, crucial for me. Cook some bacon in a skillet. DO NOT throw away the residual fat. Pour all but a light coating of bacon fat into a bowl. You will re-use the skillet for the pancakes, and the bacon fat for frying subsequent batches of pancakes.
This skillet is ready to go.
STEP TWO: Prepare the batter. While the bacon is cooking, start on your batter. Beat together 6 large eggs, 1/2 cup of almond milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla, and 2 teaspoons honey (or more, if you like sweeter pancakes) until the liquids are totally combined. Combine 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) coconut flour, 2/3 cup almond meal (you could use almond flour for a finer, less gritty batter, but I could only find almond meal at Trader Joe's), 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix together, then incorporate into the wet ingredients. You might need to stir for a while to get the flour mixture totally combined with the liquids, but it will happen. Once the batter is completely mixed, let it sit for at least 5 minutes- apparently coconut flour needs a bit of time to work its magic and totally absorb liquid.
Batter: you can't tell, but the coconut flour is at work.
STEP THREE: Slice bananas and heat oil. While the coconut flour is incorporating, slice up two very ripe bananas. If you've removed your skillet from the heat after making the bacon, or if you're using a healthy oil like coconut oil or butter instead of bacon fat, heat the skillet and the oil you're going to use over medium heat. Don't over oil the pan- use just enough to create a thin coating.
It's bananas- B-A-N-A-N-A-S (sorry).
STEP FOUR: Flipping trial and error. First rule of cooking with "alternative" flours like almond and coconut is to cook over a medium or low heat. Apparently almond and other nut flours can burn easily, so you want to be cautious. The second rule is to prepare for failure, and be ok with it. After a couple of wonky batches, I realized I was making my pancakes too large and crowding the pan.
Silver dollar pancakes! Well, if silver dollars were about double their actual size.
The size pictured above is perfect. It's about 1/8th cup of batter- the pancakes will really fluff up and expand as they cook. After you pour the liquid into the pan, drop a couple of banana slices onto the pancake. These pancakes don't cook quite like regular pancakes, but you can tell they are ready to flip when the outer edges start to lift up and away from the pan, and bubbles form. For me, this was about 2-4 minutes of cooking on medium heat, but the time might very depending on your stove.
These pancakes were one of my "wonky" batches- they were a bit too large, but note the bubbling and slight pulling away- they are almost ready to flip.
Work through the batter in small batches, until you've cooked all of your pancakes- you'd be surprised how much this recipe will yield: about thirty or so smallish pancakes. Between batches, lightly re-oil the pan. Keep the already made pancakes warm in an oven set to a very low temperature (170 degrees). You could half this recipe to feed about 3 adults one breakfast, but I like leftovers, and wanted to allow myself enough batter for some failures.
STEP FIVE: Eating. Top your stack with some fresh banana slices and slivered almonds. Pour on your syrup of choice, be it honey or maple or fruit (we used my aunt and uncle's maple syrup from Vermont). Enjoy!
Pancakes! Pre-syrup shot.
These pancakes are a little bit grittier than the fluffy buttermilk and white-flour variety (texture is more similar to a whole grain pancake), and the taste is simultaneously a little sweeter, a little saltier, and a little eggier, but still delicious!
Eating shot: notice how delicious and fluffy these flour and dairy free pancakes are! The "gooey" part is a banana slice.
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