Amazing Almond Flour Pancakes (and A Great Phone App)

I have been making these almond flour pancakes for awhile for my family.  I was eating them so made them without egg but I am in a research trial right now and am pretty limited on what I can eat so I made them with the egg for my family this last weekend.  They were wonderful (or so they tell me!)  I found them through a cool iphone application called Cook it Allergy Free  They also have a web site but  I have not explored it.  With the application you can take one of their recipes which do start out gluten free for the most part and substitute the other common allergen ingredients such as dairy, egg, nuts etc.  They give you several options for each ingredient.  Once you get the recipe to how you like it you can save it to your recipe box. 

The name of these in the app is Almond Chocolate Chip Pancakes.  I do not put the chocolate chips in mine so they are just:

Almond Flour Pancakes
makes about 10 good sized pancakes

1 1/4 cups almond flour
2 Tbsp coconut flour
3 Tbsp sugar (I use palm sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
4 eggs,  separated  (when I eat them I use the flax gel substitute)***
1/2 cup milk (we use almond milk)
4 Tbsp butter, melted (we use coconut oil, measured in liquid form)
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup chocolate chips (we omit)

Combine almond flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

In another bowl whisk together egg yolks, milk, butter, and vanilla.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

In smaller bowl, beat egg whites until just beginning to get peaks, using electric hand mixer.

Gently fold into pancake batter until whites are incorporated.

Ladle onto preheated and greased pancake griddle,

Sprinkle a few chocolate chips onto the top of each pancake before flipping.  (you could also put blueberries or some other topping on them)

Cook about 3-4 minutes per side, depending on griddle, or until edges bubble.  I do leave mine for 3 minutes on each side or they are not cooked through.  I put my griddle on 350 degrees.

We love to eat ours with peanut butter and real maple syrup or jam.  To me, they are good enough to eat plain! 

Be sure and check out the post below this one as it is new as well!

*** Flax gel - for each egg combine 1 Tbsp flax meal and 3 Tbsp HOT water.  Let it stand for about ten minutes until it forms a gel.  The pancakes will not be as light and fluffy obviously but still yummy!

Almond Bars

One of my favorite gluten free blogs is Elana's Pantry.  She uses almond flour as her base for most of her recipes.  (see the link on our sidebar for our source for almond flour) My sister made this recipe for Almond Power Bars a couple weeks ago and they are soooo yummy.  I made them this week for our family and our small group.  They are a big hit and really good for you as well.  You can eat them without to much guilt.  Her recipe calls for agave and stevia but I did not use the stevia in mine and they were really good.  I made a double batch (1 at a time in the food processor) and put them in a 9x13 pan.  They were a little thick so probably would not do it that way again. 

Recipe Review

 A few months ago Amy at Simply Sugar Gluten Free was looking for people to help her test recipes for her new cookbook.  I volunteered and she sent me a recipe to test.  This morning when I got my email from Daily Bites (listed on the sidebar) the name of the post caught my eye.  Sure enough she was doing a review of Amy's book and had permission to reprint a recipe from it - it is the Banana Oat Bar that I tested for Amy.  Just thought that was kind of cool.  I like her recipes because they are sugar free as well as gluten free.  You can find a link to her blog in our sidebar as well and see more information about her book.

GF Roll Out Pizza Dough and Other Stuff...

This recipe for pizza crust comes pretty highly rated by the people who have tried it...definitely on the list to try. 


Also, I'm reading about how sorghum flour is hard to digest - maybe that's why I've had a stomach ache after eating some bread made with it?  


For my all purpose flour I'm using this recipe: 6 cups finely ground brown rice flour (King Arthur Flour has a stabilized brown rice flour that won't go rancid quickly), 2 cups potato starch (not flour) and 1 cup tapioca flour/starch.  This is the recipe used in the cookbook mentioned below as well as KAF's recipe.  You can substitute some garbanzo or garfava flour for part of the brown rice flour as well for more protein.  


I made the recipe for the GF bread in 5 minutes a day and it was very tasty.  It does have sorghum flour in it but not in a great quantity.  I would definitely recommend the recipe - it was easy to pull out of the refrigerator, wet my hands, shape a loaf and bake in a 7x5 pan.  I baked it for 40 minutes at 425.  It does have to rise for 90 minutes - so I ran errands.  

Yummy GF pasta...

The other day Ruthie called me and excitedly told me about their dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  They had ordered GF pasta - but when they tasted it they questioned whether the waiter had gotten their order right - the pasta tasted so good.  Sure enough...it was GF pasta!! As they left the restaurant, Ruth asked to talk to the manager about the pasta to ask what the brand was.  He told her it was Heartland and they were quite sure their search for a good GF pasta was over.  (Ruth, you can correct me if I'm wrong here).  Anyway - she told me that the brand was Heartland and they loved it! Naturally we needed to try it, so I went to Amazon and purchased the 5 pack of spaghetti.  They're less expensive than the 8 oz. packages of corn/quinoa pasta which tends to fall apart if handled very much (as in Spaghetti Carbonara where it is tossed with olive oil, bacon, eggs and cheese).  


Tonight we enjoyed a package of this pasta along with Trader Joe's Bruschetta and Parmesan cheese.  I also fixed some Aidells sausages and sauteed red onion and kale from my CSA basket today.  Simple and delicious. I'll be purchasing more of the Heartland pasta...fortunately they have different shapes along with the spaghetti. 


So I wanted to recommend this pasta.  I talked to someone at Henry's in Laguna Niguel today about them carrying it in the stores.  Hopefully they will add it to their supply.  Definitely a thumbs up!! 

Coconut Pancakes...Coconut Pizzas...

Yum...something to try out..

http://www.foodrenegade.com/coconut-flour-mini-pizzas/

Free E-book from Westin A Price Foundation

Here's the link: http://www.westonaprice.org/images/pdfs/healthy4life2011.pdf

Book Recommendation

I am very excited about a book I have found.  The name of the book is The Allergen Free Baker's Handbook and can be found on Amazon.  She also has a blog for which you can find a link in our sidebar.  I have made 4 of the recipes from this book and all have been successful.  She warns not to change recipes but I have substituted the non-dairy items for dairy and the sweeteners for sweeteners I use and all have been successful.  One thing I really like about this book is that she basically uses two flour combinations.  One for quick breads and one for yeast breads.  I have mixed both in bags and keep them in the refrigerator and then can just pull out one bag and bake an item.  I have made two of the scone recipes, the pizza crust and another bread.  One of the scone recipes is on my recipe blog The Way to His Heart . 
Having said all of this I am having to be careful as I am also trying to watch my carb intake.  One of the dilemas of eating gluten free that I have found is what do I just do without and what do I try and find a substitute for.  There is a substitute for almost everything but whether it is good for you or not is another question.  It is nice to have the options and be able to make pizza when I crave it and a nice scone and cup of tea occasionally!
If you are new to eating gluten free, remember that the tastes will be different but your palate will adjust over time and you will forget what the other tastes like :-)

Quinoa

Over the past 2 years our family has discovered and enjoyed eating quinoa - a tiny, power-packed little seed.  If you google quinoa you will find a lot of great information, websites and recipes to use this complete protein.  One of our favorite recipes is here .  Another recipe originally used cous-cous which of course has gluten in it, but quinoa is a great substitute for it.  Here is another recipe that looks really good.  We use it as a substitute for rice as well.  


I found a 10 lb bag of quinoa at Costco recently.  Trader Joe's, for those lucky enough to have one, and  Nutsonline.com  are also good resources for quinoa if you can't find it locally and there are also recipes available at the Nutsonline website.  We don't care for quinoa flakes - they have a bitter smell and taste...so if a recipe calls for quinoa flakes - use gf rolled oats instead. 


Last night for dinner I cooked up 1 cup of quinoa and while it was cooking we cut up baby bok choy, grated carrots, chopped up persian cucumbers and fresh basil. When the quinoa was cooked, we stirred it all together and threw in some baby tomatoes.  We drizzled EVOO over the top and squeezed in some fresh lime juice and a few sprinkles of SPIKE garlic seasoning.  Everyone loved it....it was really delicious.  You can use any combination of fresh cut up veggies you like, use a balsamic vinaigrette in place of the EVOO as well.  


Speaking of EVOO - I buy mine from this wonderful organic farm up in the Oroville CA area.  My dad was born on an olive ranch in Oroville...wonder how far this ranch is from his birthplace?  Their website is here .  Their olive oil is buttery and mild - so delicious!! If you're lucky they will still have some left from this year's harvest.