You could call pancakes, like pizza, the food equivalent of a sirens’ song — when your defenses are down through stress, or you know, for us women, it being that time of the month, with lowered willpower that goes along with it, those tasty stacks of goodness are incredibly hard to resist.
In this edition of “Higher Culture,” as you’ll see, there’s no need to give up pancakes either, since there are keto, low carb/high fat (LCHF), or some version of low-carb recipes to get your fix in a healthy way.
Previously, I covered how to handle making dinner (well, pizza) and dessert, namely, some out-of-this-world brownies on the keto or low-carb spectrum. But I haven’t delved into the quandary of breakfast–a major challenge, especially if you’re like me and have a sweet tooth.
There are two different ways of going about having pancakes in the keto or low-carb way of eating: with non-wheat flour and without it.
Non-flour pancakes
“Gnom-Gnom” blog has this easy recipe using nut butter and eggs for the heft you usually have from flour, along with some baking powder. Meanwhile, “Around My Family Table” shares a different protein source — protein powder– along with the usual eggs and, get this, luscious heavy whipping cream, in their “Easy Keto Pancakes (with no flour).”
In my opinion, for most of these, there’s nothing to it, with just two ingredients — three, if you want a little sweetness (natural sweetener) in the batter itself. Cinnamon is also optional, but you can always add that after cooking.
This one from the site Diet Doctor has a few more ingredients, including the complicated sounding “psyllium husk,” but it’s still basically cottage cheese and eggs in the batter.
On the plus side, they suggest topping your ‘cakes here with homemade, non-sugar whipped cream and a handful of berries (despite what you might have heard, people on LCHF diets do eat fruit; berries are all great, low-carb options).
The traditional way to serve pancakes is with maple syrup (just ask “Rainman”). I don’t keep keto-compliant syrup in my home, but my mom and sister, who are also trying to eat healthier, suggest non-sugar syrup that they get at Walmart: “Maple Grove Farms sugar-free.”
This recipe from “Low-Carb Foodie,” is low-carb, not keto, but this wasn’t the reason I put it last in this area. It looks like it would be tasty as anything, based around cream cheese and eggs, but has a bunch of fancy ingredients. Fewer ingredients, at least to me, means quicker and easier — including easier on the budget.
Nut-flour pancakes
The other way to make keto pancakes is with one of the non-wheat/low-carb flours, usually made either from almonds or coconut; some recipes call for some of each.
This recipe from “Simple. Fun. Keto!” via Nick Martinez, The Keto Dad, depends on almond flour, eggs, baking powder, and almond milk.
One thing that stands out here is that he includes Keto Dad tips, like changing things up by using a mini waffle maker instead of a griddle–which is so very cool, I think. So many guys are secretly great cooks, if given the proper motivation.
This site claims their pancakes are the closest you’ll get to “the real thing.” But as one alternative source of added fats, they suggest “mix[ing] half an avocado into the batter.” That might work for some people but not for others, for sure.
KetoFocus blogger Annie goes with a sort of hybrid of the two versions, including in her coconut flour pancakes some cream cheese as a component. Why does she pick coconut flour?
I prefer coconut flour when making keto pancakes because almond flour can burn easily making the pancake a dark brown color instead of the golden brown pancake you traditionally see.
One other point to consider: you could use this opportunity while making healthy pancakes to treat yourself (and your body) to some splurges on the ingredient front. How do I mean? Consider using butter from grass-fed cows. I will sometimes get a small tub of salted Irish butter. (Remember, If you use any salted butter/peanut butter, omit any salt listed in the recipe.) Another idea is to get organic or free-range eggs. But just standard ingredients will do the trick, of course.
It would be wrong to write an article about pancakes without a mention of one of the funniest skits of all time involving them: the late Charlie Murphy‘s story on “Chappelle’s Show” about what happened after Prince’s crew beat him and his friends in a pick-up basketball game at Paisley Park. Via Comedy Central:
