Not Your Usual Pancakes

On the griddle

Ever have a craving, a feeling that you need a particular food? We'd been talking about having pancakes for several days but with the abundance of lovely carbs at Thanksgiving, and in anticipation of a wonderful assortment of Christmas cookies, we tried putting it off. I had  been planning on trying a recipe with more protein, so the use of almond flour in these pancakes surely lifted them from the realm of pure carbohydrates. Right? One can only put off this type of need for so long, and these wonderful pancakes did the trick. The finished product surprised me by it's lightness! The almond flour lent a bit of sweetness and just a hint of flavor, a very pleasing mix of ingredients. The texture was good, a bit crispy on the outside, probably due to the millet flour I added, and light and moist on the inside. Really, you can't go wrong with these!

(If you're truly in a rush, just use 1 1/4 cups of your favorite gluten-free flour mix. But, please, try these as written sometime soon. They're not much more hassle and the taste will be worth it!)

Preheat and grease your griddle or large, cast-iron skillet. (I use Spectrum shortening for this step.) If several of you are sitting down to breakfast at once, preheat your oven to 200 degrees and as the pancakes are done, slip them into the oven to keep warm. I put a wire cooling rack on a cookie sheet and transfer the cooked pancakes there to await serving.

Sift or whisk together:
2/3 cup sorghum flour or your preferred GF flour/mix
1/3 almond flour or meal
1/4 millet flour or your preferred GF flour/mix
1 TB baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp or pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB sugar
3/4 tsp xanthan or guar gum, or psyllium seed husk powder

Beat together:

Dig in!

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup whole milk yogurt combined with 1/2 cup whole milk
   or 1 cup buttermilk
2 TB vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly to combine. Mixture should be a bit lumpy; don't worry if it is or isn't.

When the griddle is hot (drops of water should sizzle when sprinkled), drop a big spoonful or two onto the hot griddle for each pancake. After two to three minutes, check for bubbles to appear in the pancakes or gently lift an edge to check for browning. Carefully turn the pancakes over taking being sure not to mash them down; you want them to stay light and fluffy! After a couple of minutes, push lightly on the middle. If it springs back, it's done. You may also check to see how brown they are on the bottom but the touch test is most accurate.

Since there were just two of us eating this particular morning, I made three for each of us then put the remainder of the batter in a glass jar, stored it in the fridge, and finished them off a few days later. At this point the batter will need just a bit of thinning with milk or water, but will be as delicious as the first day.

Serve with warm, pure maple syrup or fruit compote. I'm smiling at how much you'll enjoy the first bite!