Coconut Pancakes- Dish #3 in the Breakfast Series

My dad did most of the cooking when I was growing up. He didn't make pancakes very often, but when he did... boy howdy, you best believe I made it into an event. Piping hot, stacked high, covered in (gasp!) margarine and (double gasp!) Aunt Jemima, I dove into those things as though they would be made illegal the moment I finished them. One of the few things I do miss on the Primal diet (confession time!) is baked goods. Bread, pasta, cereal, I can do without these. But pancakes, muffins, quick breads (especially my nana's Nana Bread, which is just about the most AMAZING banana bread on the freakin' planet)... these things I truly do miss. So imagine how happy I was to find Primal-approved recipes for pancakes and muffins! [You can check out my recipe for Banana Muffins here.] I practically did a jig... 100 cool points if you can tell me what movie that's from. =)



There are a few things you'll want to know about these pancakes, so for this post I'm putting the tips before the recipe. Don't worry, they're still freakin' awesome-sauce, but if you follow my advice you can avoid a few of the mistakes I had to make to get this juuuuuuust right =)

- Thinning out the batter is necessary, but you don't want it TOO thin. Coconut flour is very fibrous and absorbs a lot of liquid, but it can become saturated. Too much water added during the thinning process will just make the cakes thin & rubbery. You want to get it to where the batter pours easily out of the scoop, but doesn't run out of it, if that makes sense. I advise adding water until it's not quite as thin as you'd like it, testing a pancake, and adding more if you need to when it's done.
- Pour the batter out with a measuring cup, preferably metal, with a flat bottom. The batter won't spread out on its own much, so you need to give it just a wee bit o' help. Pour the batter onto the griddle, then, starting from the middle of the pancake, press VERY lightly and gently "circle" the batter out with the bottom of the measuring cup until the pancake is about 3-4" across. Any thinner and the pancakes will break in half when you try to flip them, and they will be rubbery; any thicker and they'll be gooey in the middle but overdone on the outside.
- These take quite a bit longer to cook than traditional pancakes. Let them rest on the griddle until the tops are no longer "shiny" and the edges are just browned, about 4 minutes on the first side, 3 on the flip side.
- Use a thin metal spatula to flip them. If you use a thick plastic one or a wood one, you could catch the pancake in the middle and break it in half. No bueno.
- (Last one, I promise...) If you have a non-stick griddle like I do, and you're using butter to "grease" the griddle, do it ONLY before you make the first pancakes. It won't need any more after that first greasing. If you're NOT using a non-stick griddle or pan, you will have to re-grease between batches, but this will give the pancakes a 'cratered' look: instead of the uniform browning you're used to seeing, they will look bubbly (you can see this effect in the top left corner of the picture). There's nothing wrong with it; it just has to do with the way the butter gets hot and bubbles under the pancakes. This shouldn't be necessary if you're greasing with coconut oil, but I've never tried it on a not non-stick pan (if that makes sense). As always, if you try it, let me and everyone here know how it turns out! =)

Now, without further ado...

Coconut Pancakes
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
3 eggs
1/3 cup almond milk
3 T melted butter/ghee
2 T pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
~1/2 cup water

1) Sift the coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon if you're using it, in a small bowl. Set it aside for now.
2) Whisk the eggs, almond milk, melted butter/ghee, maple syrup, and vanilla extract in a larger bowl.
3) Preheat your griddle to 375, or turn the heat under your pan to medium-high. You can use the old water flick test to check when it's ready: get your fingertips wet and flick the water onto the griddle/pan, and when it 'dances' on the surface, it's ready. I still recommend making a test pancake; this way you'll get an idea for the heat of the pan AND the consistency of the batter as well as cook time. Good stuff all around. =)
4) Add the dry stuff to the wet stuff, whisking in a bit at a time (don't dump it in all at once; it'll be really hard to mix).
5) Add the water a bit at a time, whisking as you go. Remember what I said earlier about adding water? Now's the time to use that bit of wisdom. =)
6) Pour the batter in 1/8 cup measures (make that test pancake!), and do the "circling" thing I mentioned earlier. Flip them when they're ready, and keep the done ones warm in the oven until all the pancakes are finished. This'll make about 18 4" pancakes.

 

 

You can top these with just about anything, but my favorite is honey butter. Just melt some butter and honey together in the microwave, and pour it on. You can chop some apples and put those in with the honey butter; it'll get 'em nice & soft. Add some cinnamon... Om nom nom. As you can see, the ones I had today were topped with bananas. Last weekend I made blueberry syrup: just put some fresh or frozen blueberries in a warm skillet, add maple syrup, and heat it up until the blueberries are soft. You can do this with strawberries, raspberries, cherries, just about any kind of fruit, I'd imagine. Coconut, chopped & toasted nuts, chocolate chips, whatever you can think of to put on pancakes. Just don't try to spread peanut/almond/cashew butter or anything on them. They'll tear to pieces.

 

I've been wanting to try adding cocoa powder to the batter too, to make chocolate pancakes, but haven't had a chance to yet. If any of you do, PLEASE let me know how it goes! I'm dying to make chocolate-coffee pancakes with whipped cream... =)