Grain Free Pancakes

It’s a cloudy day here in Austin, which always makes me want to curl up in bed and eat pancakes. Does anyone else feel this way? If anything, pancakes are always a little treat for me every Sunday. I resist the urge for chocolate chip pancakes and settle for some of the blueberry variety. Raspberry pancakes aren’t too shabby either.

I also wanted to post a recipe utilizing the homemade almond flour. Enjoy with a side of bacon and a generous amount of REAL maple syrup (don’t use that fake, corn syrup stuff) and grass-fed butter. Or coconut oil – that would be tasty.

*The recipe I’m posting will make 6 pancakes. Depending on how hungry you are, that can be split between you and someone else. Or just enjoy all 6 on your own. That’s what I did, no shame. But, you can easily double this recipe.

Grain Free Pancakes
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Ingredients
– 3/4 c almond flour
– 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
– 1 tsp of coconut flour
– pinch of salt
– 1/4 tsp baking soda
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 c almond milk or your favorite non-dairy milk
– 1 tbsp Grade B maple syrup or honey
– 1/4 tsp vanilla
– 1 tbsp melted butter, ghee, or coconut oil + more for greasing the pan
* For a more savory pancake, omit the maple syrup
* If you’re into cinnamon, that would be a great addition to this recipe
* If using fruit or chocolate chips, fold them into the batter once it’s all mixed

Method
– In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (almond flour, arrowroot powder, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda)
– In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients (eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, melted butter/ghee/coconut oil)
– Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
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– If you feel like the batter is too thick, add just a splash more of almond milk. Too thin? Add just a little more almond flour.
– Using a 1/4 measuring cup, dip that into the batter and pour onto a heated, greased pan. Use the back of the measuring cup to spread out the batter.
– Flip pancakes once the batter bubbles.
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– Keep cooked pancakes in a warmed oven until all are ready (I usually heat mine to 200 degrees). Serve with butter/coconut oil/ ghee, maple syrup, and bacon.

Enjoy! These pancakes are super delicious and I like sweetening with maple syrup to add a bit of a maple flavor already, so you require less maple syrup.

Let me know how it goes!
xoxo,
Paige

Almond Flour from Almond Pulp

It’s only been a recent thing, but I now make my own nut milks. I never really believed anyone when I read that making your own nut milk was “so much better”, but it really is. It is so much better than you could imagine. I don’t actually like store bought almond milk to drink plain, but I’ll drink the unsweetened almond milk I make alone. Yeah – that good.

With that being stated, there’s a reason I typically prefer cashew milk over almond milk – there’s nothing left over. When you make almond milk, you have to strain it and you’re left with a lot of pulp. The first time I made almond milk I felt so wasteful just throwing it away (which is incredibly reasonable considering nuts aren’t cheap).

Anyway, from my last batch of almond milk, I turned the pulp into almond flour/meal. If you bake with almond flour, you know that stuff isn’t very cheap either. Well now you can get almond milk AND almond flour using your bulk almonds! I think for me, raw almonds were $7.99/pound when I last bought them. I spent around $11 on almonds, which I was able to put into mason jars to store (the ones that go up to 1 1/2 cups in measure).

So let’s make some almond flour!

*Use this for all your nut flour needs, adjusting drying time as needed. No need to spend all that money on nut flours when you can make your own as a result of nut milk.
*This is going to take awhile. Be sure you have 4-6 hours to just kinda, hang out. For any college students out there, this is great to do on Sundays when you’re kind of just watching a Law and Order: SVU marathon. Just 4-6 episodes and not only have you watched your favorite show ever, you now get some almond flour out of the deal! Or, you know, you could do it while you’re doing homework/studying (but I suggest the SVU option).

Almond Four
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Ingredients
– Almond pulp from almond milk (use my Cashew Milk method, but strain. You can find the nut milk bag I like there)

Method
– Preheat your oven to its lowest setting. For me, this was 170 degrees.
– Empty the contents of your nut milk bag onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
– Spread out the contents like so.
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– Put into your preheated oven and set a timer for 4 hours.
– Let dehydrate. I you want, you can keep your oven cracked. However, I think it made the process a bit longer for me.
– Be sure you’re checking your flour every few hours. Feel it, see if it’s still moist or not. I’m a huge fan of testing as you cook. If you find it has been 4 hours and it’s still a bit moist, keep it in for an extra hour or so. Mine took closer to 6 since my oven is always a bit cooler than the preheated temp.
– Once your flour is dehydrated, place in a blender or food processor and blend. You want to break-up the big chunks. I used my Vitamix.
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– Boom, now you have almond flour! Store in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for good measure.

Enjoy your almond flour! I’m working on a breakfast sandwich recipe using mine, so stay tuned! Let me know how this worked for you, as well as the yummy stuff you made. Obviously, how much flour this will yield will depend on the amount of almonds you used. I got about 2 cups of almond flour from my batch. This is a great way to start building your own stock of almond flour. I find I don’t bake very much, so this will last me awhile!

xoxo,
Paige