Low Carb, Gluten-free Almond Meal Banana Pancakes (Recipe)

Posted on : April 10th, 2018

Today’s recipe for Low Carb Almond Meal Banana Pancakes is one of my own. I’m on a low carb diet right now. But even though I almost never eat pancakes as soon as I went on the diet, my inner carb monster would not leave me alone! I’ve been craving pancakes every morning for breakfast. So I’ve been experimenting with various methods to keep the little monster at bay.

These pancakes are doing the trick. They’re not completely carb-free as I do use bananas in the batter most of the time (although you can happily substitute berries to make them more low carb) and I LOVE maple syrup on top. (I’m sorry, I’m not giving that up!) But the batter is extremely low carb compared to normal pancake batter and high in protein. It’s also VERY satisfying so it’s a great way to start my day. It’s also gluten-free!

In an earlier recipe I included a video that shows how to make your own almond flour. It’s easy! Use Maisie Jane’s Roasted Unsalted Almonds and process them in your food processor or blender until flour-like but not turning to butter. Your flour might be less fine than wheat flour, more like almond meal, but that’s perfectly alright. You can use almond flour or meal for up to half of the flour you use in most recipes but don’t use more because it tends to be too crumbly.

Low Carb Almond Meal Banana Pancakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes, Cook Time: 10 minutes, Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 1 large skillet-sized pancake or 4-6 small ones (see notes below)

Ingredients

1/8 cup (2Tbsp) unsalted butter melted

1/4 cup full fat yogurt or sour cream

2 large or jumbo eggs

1/8 cup  almond meal or flour

1/8 cup other gluten free flour of your choice (coconut, soy, etc.)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Optional: 1 – 3 Tbsp of sugar and  1/8 tsp salt

Fruit: a handful  of sliced bananas (or berries) for in the batter

Toppings: Maple syrup or Maisie Jane’s nut butter to drizzle on top, full fat yogurt, fruit, chopped or sliced almonds

Instructions

1.Whisk together melted butter and yogurt (to cool the butter down) and then add to the eggs and beat together well.

2. In another bowl, combine your flour and baking powder (and optional sugar and salt if desired). Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in bananas or fruit(s) of your choice. Let batter sit to thicken. If too thick, thin out batter by adding an additional egg or more liquid (water or heavy cream).

3. Lightly oil skillet and heat over medium heat. Spoon heaping tablespoons of batter onto skillet to make pancakes about 2-3 inches in diameter. Or just pour all the batter in at once and have one giant pancake!

4. Fry on one side until cooked most of the way through and bubbles are forming on the top. Then flip your pancakes and fry the other side til done to your idea of perfection.

5. Serve hot with toppings of your choice.

Notes

I’ve experimented with the ratio of ingredients in this recipe quite a bit. Too little flour (1/8 cup) makes for an eggy pancake (which I actually like). Too much low carb flour is a bit heavy but seems more like a pancake. A scant 1/4 cup of mixed flours is what I like best—your preference may differ.

I like crispy edges on my pancakes. In fact, fluffy bread-like restaurant pancakes without crispy edges are such a disappointment to me I never order them anymore. If you feel the same way, use a little melted butter or olive oil mixed with butter on your skillet to fry these in. I always do!

I am also in the mindset that a pancake without maple syrup or a sweetened nut butter on top is not worth it! But since I’m on a diet I save my carbs for the topping. No sugar or sweetener of any kind in the pancake batter for me! Especially if I add bananas instead of berries to the mix. However, if you like more flour than less, you might find that you miss the sugar so go ahead and add some. About 1-2 Tbsp should do the trick. Add a small amount of salt to intensify the sweetness if you do.

I grew up with small pancakes but I get a kick out of eating one skillet-sized pancake with toppings on top. This, however, creates a challenge: how to flip your mega-pancake. If you’re my friend Paul, you hold the frying pan firmly  and successfully throw the pancake into the air and catch it nicely flipped back into the pan again. However, if you are inept at this like me, and don’t like cleaning pancake batter off your cabinets or the floor, there are other solutions I recommend.

First, use a mixture of flours. Almond flour alone is too crumbly to hold together well enough for flipping pancakes. Second, be patient! Turn down the heat on your stove so the pancakes cook most of the way through on one side without burning. Use medium—not high —heat. You can then loosen the pancake all around with a spatula, slide it onto a plate and flip it back into the pan. Or, if you’re very careful, use two spatulas—one on each side— and quickly flip the pancake that way. Or third, have a sense of humor! If the mega pancake breaks into pieces, so what? If you’re putting a lot of toppings on top, it will look good and be fun to eat anyway!

Try one our new handcrafted nut butters on top for an extra special cheat day treat! Chocolate Hazelnut, Organic Sea-Salted Dark Chocolate Almond, or Organic Sea Salted Caramel Cashew Butter are amazingly delicious!

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Maisie Jane’s California Sunshine Products, Inc. was founded on strong beliefs and passion for offering unique, flavorful, top-quality, nut products. We strongly believe in earth-friendly practices that start on our family owned and operated orchards. We use Organic farming practices and continue in the process by using all-natural ingredients with no preservatives or GMOs. We believe in honest, friendly and helpful customer relations at all levels. We take pride in every task, every day, with every person.