Pancakes....

Grain-Free Lemony Almond Pancakes...
They sounded like a great idea, didn't they? I'm so sorry if y'all had misadventures, I know I did.

No pics by the way--can't find the camera-downloader cable...but my process looked mostly like mishka's. Actually, the whole process was a lot like mishka's -- we must be pancake twins!

I followed the recipe closely, except instead of grinding whole almonds, I used about 1/2 C+ of almond meal left over from making raw almond milk--this was the whole reason for me wanting to try this recipe, actually. I ground up the flax seeds in my spice grinder and learned to my surprise that 1/4 C whole flax seeds makes more than 1/4 C of ground flax seeds, which is counterintuitive to me, but oh well. I was a little surprised at how little batter the recipe made, so after I ladled out the first two pancakes I thinned out the batter (just like mishka did!). The first two pancakes turned out really thick, like the picture from Jacki's blog, but maybe a little uncooked in the center--the batter was so thick that I wasn't able to see any bubbling. The last six pancakes were variable -- I had a couple that didn't want to flip at all and wound up all crinkly on my spatula, even though they were dry around the edges and bubbly. I hate when that happens!

I had decided to use my non-stick electric griddle because it lets me set a fixed temperature -- I set it at 350F, so I don't think the variability is due to pan temperature. The electric griddle works great for regular flour pancakes.

But all these trials and tribulations could be forgiven if the end product were fabulous, but we found them to be gummy and though we enjoyed the first bite and enjoyed the lemoni-ness, we couldn't really taste the nuttiness very much. We ate two each and didn't feel like eating any more. We wound up composting the rest.

I think that there was way too much flax meal for the recipe. In my experience, flax is used as an egg replacer in a lot of vegan baking, so using 1/4 C in this recipe is like using 6 eggs (or something) for 8 pancakes!

Long live the cook-a-long! On to the next one!

Labels: chickpea flour, gluten-free, Grain Free Lemony Almond Pancakes, lemon

posted by Jeannie @ 11:05 PM 3 comments

Grain-Free Lemony Almond Pancakes

OK everyone, I thought these looked really good when I saw them on Ricki's blog, Diet, Dessert and Dogs. I make my own almond milk and my first thought was that this would be a great way to use up the almond meal that is left over afterwards, so that is what I'm going to try. Also, I have a good friend who is gluten-free, so I kind of want to learn to make some good things so I can spoil her when she comes to visit.

Pancakes are usually breakfast food, but I know at least one person who eats 'em for dinner, so don't feel temporally constrained by the recipe type. Also, don't feel constrained by traditional cooking utensils, either -- I myself can't decide whether these merit breaking out the electric guaranteed non-stick griddle or whether I should go with the wonderful Le Creuset 'Cruiser' skillet. Another decision to make: big, medium, or small??

The recipe is here: Grain Free Lemony Almond Pancakes

I plan on making these babies over the weekend and will post an update!

Labels: breakfast, breakfast for dinner, chickpea flour, gluten-free, vegan

posted by Jeannie @ 5:32 PM 8 comments

Besan (Chick Pea Flour) Omelette

I'm going to jump right in with a suggestion for a recipe I found last week: Besan Omelette.

I used to enjoy omelettes and this one sounds so interesting. When the Cook-a-long recipe was pakoras, it was my first time using chickpea flour and I can really see how it would work as an omelette!

Interested?

Labels: Besan Omelette, chickpea flour

posted by mishka @ 2:07 PM 3 comments