This weekend, I finally achieved pancake perfection. Fluffy, heavenly, delightful, pancake perfection. But before I share the secret recipe with you, I will quickly detail the events leading up to this delicious discovery.
This past week was filled with work, job interviews, school preparation, workouts, and overall stress. But the one thing getting me through it all, was knowing that on Friday night, I could climb into bed and turn off my alarm. Finally, a morning where I could sleep past 8am – maybe even 9am if I was feeling adventurous. This sleep-in excitement must have gotten the best of me, though, because at 6:45 Saturday morning I found myself lying in bed, wide awake, going over my plans for the rest of the day in my head. So my hope of a sleep-filled morning was an ultimate fail — but I wasn’t going to allow the rest of the day to be! My early rise quickly led to a beautiful morning hike with my mom at Soldier’s Delight, and a chance to finally prepare the proper breakfast that I had been waiting all summer to make, pancakes.
I found a pancake recipe in a paleo cookbook that I had checked out from the library (surprise, right?), and decided to give it a try. Although I don’t follow a paleo diet, there are many aspects of the “caveman diet” that I agree with, and I thought that looking over the book would be a great way to find some simple, healthy recipes to cook while at school this semester. And naturally, the pancake recipe needed to be my first paleo experiment. Since I didn’t have all of the ingredients that the recipe called for, I decided to take a chance and add my own twist to these plain pancakes — and the result was definitely worth it. Also, despite the elaborate alliteration you will discover in the title, this recipe was very simple and only took a total of 15 total minutes in prep and cook-time.
Paleo-Pecan Pancake Perfection
- 1 cup of almond meal
- 1/4 cup of flax meal
- large handful of whole pecans
- 1 tsp Himalayan salt
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 5 eggs
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp agave nectar
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
And because my creative juices continued to flow, I added a sauce to drizzle over these awesome cakes…
Peach-Blueberry Sauce
- 1 peach
- 1/2 cup of blueberries
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions:
- Combine almond meal, flax meal, salt, baking soda, and pecans in food processor and pulse
- Add eggs, vinegar, agave, and coconut oil to mixture in food processor and blend until thoroughly combined
- Spread spoonful of coconut oil over griddle or stove-top pan on medium heat
- Use 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake
- Flip ’em
- Make Sauce (combine all ingredients in blender)
- Plate 2-4 pancakes and drizzle sauce over top!
I added some shredded coconut, extra blueberries, and peach slices to top off my pancake masterpiece, so feel free to be creative. The recipe makes about 12 good-size pancakes, depending on how big you prefer them. There is also plenty of sauce to save for later that you could drizzle over a parfait or cereal. Or you could just pour it in a glass and drink it like I did this morning.
I am already dubbing this pancake recipe as a staple in my college diet because, for some reason, I feel like pancake brunches on our lazy weekend mornings might be something that my roommates will approve of? Just a guess. I only have one more week until I go back to school, so I need to perfect my cooking skills before then… and I think this was a good start!
A Smaller Bite... 