Fluffy Almond Flour and Nut Butter Pancakes

If I can be completely honest with everyone for a moment, I’d just like to say that I think science is pretty awesome.

Oh, what? You do too? Excellent. Now we can definitely be friends.

Know what else is awesome? Pancakes.  That’s right—science, and pancakes.

So what if I told you that the two can be married in a wonderful ceremony and make fluffy, delicious pancake babies without using dairy, flour or sugar? Yes, friends, it can be done! After a bit of research yesterday, I finally figured out how to do it.

You see, this may or may not as super exciting to the rest of you as it is for me. For the first 7 months of eating paleo, I tried time and time again to create an original recipe for pancakes that would come out as fluffy and delightful to eat as the bleached-flour, corn-syrup-soaked alternative.  Up until this point, I failed (sometimes quite miserably) and was almost convinced that flour alternatives would never be as good as the real thing.

For a well-seasoned baker, the solution to the flat, floppy, dense pancake may seem obvious. But like I said, I like science, and I like knowing why science works, so when I set out yesterday to figure this thing out, I was so pleased to find that the solution was, in fact, quite simple.

What was it? Baking soda! Duh! 

When baking soda interacts with something acidic (like the buttermilk in buttermilk pancakes) it creates carbon dioxide, which gives pancakes their wonderful little air bubbles. As an alternative, many bakers use baking powder, which is a mixture of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and cream of tartar—it gives breads and other baked goods their fully qualities without the use of yeast.

Another interesting thing about baking soda is that it changes the browning properties of a food as it cooks. Without any, a pancake will fall flat, dense, and very light in color. Too much, and you’ll get a deep brown pancake with the taste of unconverted baking soda.

Keeping all of this in mind, I did a bit of mixing and matching until I came up with a recipe I think really knocked it out of the park. Ladies and gentlemen:

Paleo Almond Flour and Nut Butter Pancakes

Prep time: 5 minutes; Cook time: 20 minutes; Servings: 4-8

Ingredients:

• 1 C. Almond flour
• 1/2 tsp.baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 C. almond butter, softened
• 3 Eggs
• 1/3 C. Coconut milk + 2 Tbsp extra
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp. honey softened, or pure stevia equivalent
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted

Directions (super simple!)

• Mix all of the dry ingredients (Almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, stevia) together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Make sure they’re all thoroughly mixed together.
• Add the wet ingredients (almond butter, eggs, coconut milk, softened honey and melted coconut oil) and stir well. I used a hand blender to make sure everything was mixed appropriately and no nut butter or coconut oil chunks were left behind.
• Heat a well-greased pan (grass fed butter or coconut oil) over medium heat. Using a 1/4 C. measure, dollop out the batter onto the pan and cook for about 1 minute on each side, or until bubbles start to form and pop on the top of the wet batter. I made my pancakes quite a bit larger, so those took 1.5-2 minutes on each side.
• Serve drizzled in honey and cinnamon, or if you’re feeling adventurous, whip up a batch of homemade whipped cream and serve with berries on top!