fluffy pancakes

Yesterday morning I made up a recipe for some fluffy pancakes.  Jesse really enjoyed them.  I love that they aren't heavy like whole wheat pancakes usually are, yet they are filling and flavorful.

3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup white flour
2 t. aluminum free baking powder
5 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup milk

1.  In a medium sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.
2. In a separate bowl (glass or metal, NOT plastic), beat the eggs whites on medium speed until fluffy and firm peaks form.
3. Beat the yolks with the milk, add to the dry ingredients and mix.
4. Gently fold in the egg whites into the flour/milk mixture, being careful not to over mix.
5. Use 1/2 c. measuring cup, pour batter into a heated frying pan.  Cook over medium-low heat on a nonstick pan (if you have a good quality pan, you won't need to oil the pan), flipping when the edges begin to look dry and firm and bubbles begin to form.

(optional) Healthier add in ideas. After pouring the batter into the pan, sprinkle in some chopped nuts, berries (chopped strawberries or whole blueberries are good), or chopped apple.  You could also put the fruits on after they've been cooked. Another option is some pure maple syrup or sugar-free jam spread over the cooked pancakes. Be creative!

Almond Milk

I think I've been inspired!  Making almond milk was fun!  Now I want to try making cashew milk/rice milk/sunflower seed milk.  It would be nice if the sunflower seed milk turned out, because that would be the cheapest to make.  Someday soon I'll try it.

 

 Step one: soak 1 cup of almonds in water overnight (I soaked mine for about 12 hours)

Step two: strain and rinse the almonds.

Step three: put almonds in blender

Step four: add two cups of water to the almonds.

Step five: blend for about a minute.

Step six: strain (ideally, using a cheesecloth, but I don't have one so I made do with what I had)

Step seven: place almond pulp back in blender, add two more cups of water, and repeat steps five and six.

Step eight: consume almond milk!

- - - - - - - - - - 

I like the taste of the almond milk with cereal and to cook with, but I don't like it plain.  Maybe I would like it more if I diluted it.  However, I also think dairy milk is gross to drink on its lonesome (unless it's chocolate milk!).

Also, some people suggested adding some vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to enhance it.

- - - - - - - - - -

I dried out the leftover almond pulp in the oven, ground into a fine powder with my awesome new "spice" mill (coffee grinder), and turned it into an almond flour, of sorts.  Then I made biscuits with it, using equal parts white flour, whole wheat flour, and almond flour.  Next time I'll try without white flour, but I just wanted to get a feel for what would happen.  Instead of dairy milk, I used leftover coconut cream (from when I made curry) and almond milk.

The end result?  The biscuits were amazing!  They were not huge and poofy like canned biscuits, but they were very light and practically disintegrated/melted in my mouth.  Scrumptious.  Next time I think I'll try experimenting with replacing the fats with something else, maybe applesauce.