Almond Flour Pancakes

 

A couple of years ago when Roi first made the jump to a completely starch free diet, we both thought that pancakes would be something he'd have to give up forever. But last year while I was trolling the web, I came across some Paleo recipes that used almond flour and eggs to make pancakes that have the same taste and consistency we were used to in traditional pancakes. I made a few tweaks because the Paleo diet isn't synonymous with a starch free diet and here we are! In delicious pancake land.

Almond Flour Pancakes

serves 2 ~ about 3 medium pancakes each

1/2 cup almond meal/almond flour (it's the same thing, I buy mine from Trader Joe's)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

butter for frying

Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together. Whisk in the cream and vanilla, then the eggs. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add a little butter to the pan. These pancakes will spread, so I usually like to use a small egg-frying pan and only 1/4-1/3 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until the pancake seems set and you can see little bubbles all over the top, then flip. Make sure both sides are golden brown and the pancake is cooked through. Mix the batter in between pancakes because it will separate slightly.

Having pancakes with sliced strawberries and whipped cream is my favorite way, but you can serve these however you'd serve regular pancakes. In the past, I have made these with blueberries, but the pancakes never stay together as well when the berries are mixed into the batter, so I usually serve the fruit on top after the pancakes are cooked. Roi likes them with with butter in between each layer and with a lot of maple syrup (Real maple syrup is starch free! Hooray! I don't know about the fake stuff though.) 

To make 2-3 servings of whipped cream, put 1/3 cup cold heavy whipping cream into a bowl and mix (I use an electric hand mixer) until thick. Then add a teaspoon of sugar and whip until stiff peaks form and it looks like whipped cream should. Then just dollop as much as you want on top of your pancakes. (I used a piping bag because I like to get fancy.)

Celebrating Pi(e) Day with Key Lime Mousse Pie

This pie is so good! It's sort of a cheesecake, key lime pie, ice cream pie and white chocolate cream pie wrapped into one. When we were in Miami a few weeks ago visiting family, I had the t.v. turned on to The Food Network a lot while we were lounging (we don't have t.v. at home besides the internet and netflix, so it was kind of a treat) and saw a lot of Paula Deen's shows. Later when I was looking up a recipe that I saw on her show for home-made lollipops (I'll show you how to make those later, promise!) I came across this recipe and knew I had to try it, because the filling was totally starch free and looked delicious. I decided to make it for Pi(e) Day and was not disappointed.

To make it starch free, I made a pie shell out of almond meal instead of her graham cracker crust. I also halved Paula's recipe because hers looked enormous, and I didn't need to feed a million people. And really, I just wanted it too look like a pie and not a cheesecake. (Even with halving the recipe, I still had a little extra filling. I just put it in a little container in the freezer to have separately.) If you live near a Trader Joe's, their almond meal works perfectly for this (and a lot of other recipes) and is much less expensive than other brands of almond flour that I've seen.

Ingredients:
makes 1 standard pie (8-10 inches)
for the pie shell:
3 cups almond meal/almond flour
4 ounces unsalted butter
(a little less than) 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (not baking powder-that's starchy)
1/8-1/4 cup cold water as needed
for the pie filling:
3 tablespoons fresh key lime juice
1/2 envelope of unflavored gelatin (a little more than 1/2 ounce)
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
5 ounces white chocolate, chopped or as chips
12 ounces (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tablespoon lime zest

To make the crust:
1. Combine the almond meal with the baking soda, salt and sugar. Add the butter and some water, but don't add too much water! You just need enough to moisten the dough so that you can mix it.

2. Knead to combine, and don't worry if some of the butter still shows through the dough. Form the dough into a flat disk, cover completely with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Remove from the fridge and place between 2 sheets of baking paper. Roll the dough out to a round disk a little larger than the pie dish. Remove the top sheet and invert the shell onto the pie dish. With your hands, mold the dough to fit the pie dish, making the edges a little thicker than the bottom. Put into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crust has browned and is firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

{rolling out the dough}

{baked crust, cooling}

To make the filling:
1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the lime juice. Whisk in the gelatin and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the white chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool.

2. Using an electric mixer, blend together the softened cream cheese, sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl, until smooth. Slowly beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture into cream cheese mixture.

3. Using clean, dry beaters, beat the remaining 3/4 cup heavy cream in a small bowl, until it forms soft peaks. Fold it into the white chocolate mixture and pour into the pie crust. Cover and freeze overnight.

4. Remove from the freezer and cut into wedges with a knife that has been dipped into hot water. Serve immediately and store the extras in the freezer.

{juicing the limes}

{cream cheese and white chocolate mixture}

{whipped cream, soft peaks}

{folding cream cheese mixture and whipped cream}

{filled pie, before freezer}

{yum!}