I whipped up some almond flour pancakes last Friday night for the very first time when my husband and I got the late night munchies. I used a friend’s Ultimate Chopper for grinding the almonds. These dandy little machines are very reasonably priced and it did a superb job grinding the (previously soaked/low temp dried to improve digestibility) raw almonds into a fine flour. I was absolutely delighted at how fabulous they tasted! I was also surprised at how “wheat like” almond flour pancakes actually are!
I have recently started incorporating baked goods made with almond flour in my home to add variety and to encourage my family to consume foods made from flour other than wheat or spelt all the time. These almond flour pancakes make a great snack too, so make a bunch and have them in the fridge or freezer for a quick bite.
Almond flour pancakes are surprisingly filling. If you can eat a whole stack of regular pancakes made with wheat flour, I dare you to eat more than two of these almond flour pancakes and not come away pleasantly stuffed!
Almond flour pancakes even look like wheat pancakes as you can see from the picture below taken in my kitchen (although they are definitely smaller and don’t expand much when cooking).
2 cups finely ground almond flour
2 Tbl honey or 5 drops liquid stevia
4 Tbl expeller pressed coconut oil, softened
Splash of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt (I used Redmond Real Salt)
1/2 cup seltzer water (I use Syfo seltzer in small, clear glass bottles)
4 eggs
Mix all ingredients together and cook in a skillet on medium heat in a bit of butter or expeller coconut oil.
Makes 12 pancakes about 4 inches in diameter. Serve with Grade B maple syrup or raw honey and a BIG slab of butter.
It is best to buy truly raw almonds direct from the farm, soak/dry them in a warm oven, and then grind into fresh flour. The almond flour from the store is a dull grey color (no nutrition in there, folks), but the color of freshly ground almond flour is a beautiful, golden beige color. To maximize efficiency, grind large batches and freeze what you do not use in large ziplock freezer bags to lock in the nutrition until you are ready to use. Almond flour, like wheat flour, does not clump in the freezer and can be used immediately without any thawing! Click here to learn how to properly soak almonds to maximize digestibility and nutrient absorption.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
This recipe is shared at Real Food Wednesday, Two for Tuesdays and Tuesday Twister.
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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Ok, so you've got me all interested in making almond-flour pancakes. And I accept your warnings about the pre-made almond flour I might buy somewhere. But as a single dad who works full time and has other outside obligations, how am I supposed to source farm-fresh almonds (in central Indiana) and find the time to grind them?
Hi Jim, you definitely have a challenging situation. I would suggest contacting your WAPF Chapter Leader (westonaprice.org) and getting a list of buying clubs in your area. Many buying clubs order almonds straight from the farm in bulk. Once you get your almonds, before you go to bed one night, soak them per the instructions on the blog, the next morning while preparing breakfast, drain the almonds, place on cookie sheets and put in the oven at 150F. This is such a low temp that you can keep it on all day while you are out. Then after they are dried, put them in airtight containers in your pantry until you are ready to grind. Hope that helps.
Thanks Sarah. You're pancakes look delicious! I like to make some pancakes with pecan flour, coconut flakes and coconut milk. They are so tasty too.
Hey Jim – I am the chapter leader for Indianapolis. Go to http://www.indywapf.org and click on "contact me" if you would like to get more information for central indiana sources.
Leslie
Sarah, we've been on GAPS diet for over a year and been eating a lot of coconut flour and our own soaked/dehydrated nut flours, but I find they don't work well in most recipes as the store bought almond flour.
How do you grind your almonds? I tried Vitamix and use Cuisinart now. I think it needs to be much finer. Or our almonds from Organic Pastures are just too oily and go to butter too quickly.
I ground my almonds with the Ultimate Chopper. It worked so well and the flour came out quite fine, much better than my Cuisinart. Perhaps not as fine as the store almond flour (although I have never bought the store flour, only looked at it in the bags), but I think the lack of nutrition from the store flour and the fact that it is not presoaked/dried to maximize digestibility is a big problem. The flour I got from the Ultimate Chopper was fine enough where there were no texture issues to the pancakes or muffins (I posted a blog about almond flour muffins last month). The final product was nice and smooth.
question: is it possible to soak the almond flour to break down anti-nutrients or do they still need to be in whole form when soaked? thanks!!
Do you use the skins when you grind them or blanch the almonds and remove them?
I leave the skins on.
What if your oven temp does not go below 170? I don't want to damage the nutrients by drying them at too high a temp – any ideas? (Get a new oven, maybe??
)
Hi Kelsey, you can use a dehydrator instead. If your oven is digital, you can also adjust the temperature down if you check in the user manual.
I really want to try making my own almond flour…how intriguing!!! These pancakes sound amazing…thank you for telling us how to do it and for sharing it with us at Two for Tuesdays this week =)
I really like to use almond flour, too, so these pancakes look very familiar. But I've never tried using seltzer water! That's a great idea. Thanks for sharing with Two for Tuesday.
I've made almond flour pancakes before but they didn't look as good as yours. I made some Dutch Oven brownies today and couldn't find almond meal so I put sliced almonds in the blender. Worked great! Thanks for linking with Two for Tuesdays.
I've made almond flour pancakes before but they didn't look as good as yours. I made some Dutch Oven brownies today and couldn't find almond meal so I put sliced almonds in the blender. Worked great! Thanks for linking with Two for Tuesdays.
I've made almond flour pancakes before but they didn't look as good as yours. I made some Dutch Oven brownies today and couldn't find almond meal so I put sliced almonds in the blender. Worked great! Thanks for linking with Two for Tuesdays.
I've made almond flour pancakes before but they didn't look as good as yours. I made some Dutch Oven brownies today and couldn't find almond meal so I put sliced almonds in the blender. Worked great! Thanks for linking with Two for Tuesdays.
Hi Sarah! Yep, I went through a phase where I couldn't get enough nut pancakes! These look so spectacular and when you make the flour from sprouted nuts (aka soaked and dried!) the flour is less oily and much lighter and thus so are the pancakes! Thanks so much for sharing this with us on the two for tuesday recipe blog hop!
Alex@amoderatelife
I buy almond flour from Honeyville, and when frozen, it's as hard as a rock! I made the mistake of taking it out right when I was ready to bake with it. After chiseling off small clumps of it, I gave up and waited until it thawed. Perhaps finer flour clumps more then courser ground flour.
I made these but since we are going through a heat wave for a few days, I cannot make my own and run the oven. It is 104 today and by Tuesday will be 108! So when I went shopping I did what I could and bought almond meal at the store-not as fine as flour and used mineral water. Let's just say they were good even like that. I just used butter on mine but hubby used maple syrup and loved them. I bought the raw almonds and am just waiting till it cools down to make my flour. Can't wait to try these then!
Thanks!
huh? I buy my almond flour refrigerated at the health food store. And it is definitely a golden beige color, not grayish.
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Also, what is the purpose of the seltzer water in the recipe? Thank you!
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The seltzer water adds some air like sifting regular flour does. It lightens the pancakes up a bit.
Instead of using seltzer, could I use water kefir as it has some of the same effervescent zippiness to it? (and I wouldn’t have to buy seltzer?) Thanks!
Hi Sarah,
do you think grinding the almonds with a food processor would do the trick?
I now am really confused! I cannot buy really RAW almonds as I read you do have to buy them form the farm. I am outside LA and cannot find any place like that. What do I do? Someone online said it will not get rid of all the problems with the nuts when you soak them because they are not really raw. Is this true?
Sarah,
What do you suggest for those of us who don’t have a Weston A Price Chapter near us? Is there someplace to order them from online? Thanks for your help!
forgot to add that your “how to soak almonds” link isn’t working.
I’m trying to find the link to “how to soak almonds properly”
It doesn’t work from this page… can you give me a basic run down please.
Thanks
Had these pancakes for breakfast this morning. Made them with the soaked and dehydrated blanched almond flour I made yesterday (first time making that too). The pancakes came out so yummy, much better than coconut flour pancakes for sure and so easy. 2 per person is the limit here as well, very filling.
I really love your blog. I was a vegetarian for over 20 years and I started eating pastured meats after several months of reading your blog (and researching what you said online) and then getting the NT book which I also thank you for recommending. I even lost a few lbs and I have never felt better!
Hi Sarah,
Does cooking or baking with almond flour cause the natural oils to change for the worst? Is there a temp that we should not bake almond flour beyond? Just curious? I know we shouldn’t cook with almond oil but is almond flour different?
Thank you!
Is this the same ultimate chopper that was sold on tv? I had two and both died very quickly on me. Although while they work, they are awesome. Can you use a food processor?
Great website. Thanks for taking the time. I’ll definitely check to your site to find out more and inform my friends about your website.
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