It’s almost the end of apple season and I still have Michigan blueberries left over in the freezer. So I decide to cook up some blueberry pancakes with applesauce topping. I’m psyched!
Dilemma: after reading Wheat Belly (see Resources page), I decided to eliminate wheat flour from my diet. So where I am supposed to get substitutes for things like bread, pasta, muffins, and pancakes – the things I like to splurge on?
I’m not a baker. I don’t want to become one. It requires exact measurements and patience that I don’t have and, frankly, don’t care to acquire. But if I want to be reunited with my beloved carbs again, I better figure something out.
I visited the bakery aisle of Whole Foods for the first time. Guess what I found? A huge selection of alternatives to all-purpose white flour – flours made from almonds, coconut, black beans, fava beans, flaxseed and garbanzo beans, to name a few. This is awesome!
Despite the discovery of these incredible products, my inner baker has not yet been awakened. Luckily, my mother in law has taken on the challenge of creating a bread recipe using garbanzo bean flour, and I’m anxiously awaiting the results. There are plenty of recipes out there for non-wheat sweet breads, like zucchini and banana bread. But I haven’t found anything that would be a suitable replacement for sandwich bread – something I desperately miss.
In the meantime, I can handle something far less complicated – like pancakes!
Or can I?
Logic would dictate that my perfectionist nature would be drawn to the precision baking requires. But it’s just not happening. And this is where my “I don’t measure ingredients or use recipes” mantra can get me into trouble.
I’ve made these pancakes a hundred times, but I never had to measure the ingredients until I wanted to make this blog post. In the past, if the batter didn’t look right, I’d just throw in a little more almond flour or soy milk or whatever, repeatedly, until it looked right. And if I ended up with an extra huge batch of pancake mix, no problem! Just refrigerate what I don’t use and eat pancakes every morning for the rest of the week. There are worse things that could happen.
It took me 3 tries to get this recipe into translatable form, but I finally did it! And these little golden delights taste nearly identical to pancakes made with traditional flour. The main difference is that the texture is very light. If you let the batter sit for a few minutes so the baking powder can do its job, it helps make them even fluffier, which is what I love so much about them.
If you have access to blueberries in season, that’s a bonus. But if you don’t, frozen will work just fine. Beware: adding frozen berries directly into the batter while mixing will turn it blue. It’s best to pour the batter into the pan and drop as many berries on each pancake as you like.
This recipe makes 2 servings. You can make a double batch, cook everything, and store the leftovers in the fridge. Warm them up the next morning for a repeat of a tasty and satisfying breakfast.
Ingredients
¼ cup almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
blueberries (as many as you like)
1 large egg
¼ cup almond, soy, or coconut milk, plus 1-2 tbsp. extra
1 tbsp. canola oil
sea salt
2 packets Stevia (or 2 tbsp. agave nectar, maple syrup or honey)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 batch of Fast Applesauce
Directions
- If you don’t have a batch of Fast Applesauce ready, start it now and it will be done by the time the pancakes are ready.
- Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, except the 1-2 tbsp. of extra milk.
- Batter should be on the thicker side or it will spread out too much in the pan and be difficult to flip. If batter is too thick, add 1 or 2 extra tablespoons of milk.
- Place ¼ of the batter in a pre-heated frying pan or griddle that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking oil (I use canola).
- Place as many blueberries as you like on top.
- Cook on medium-low heat for about 5-6 minutes until golden brown. If heat is too high, the outside will burn while the inside is uncooked. If heat is too low, it takes too long to cook and the pancakes will tend to dry out and crumble.
- Flip and cook another 4-5 minutes to desired doneness.
- I recommend cooking these 1 or 2 at a time, unless you have a large surface griddle.
Garnish with blueberries and serve hot.
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