Flourless Pancakes

I love pancakes. My mom makes the best, they are a standard whole wheat pancake with the perfect amount of fluffiness. My dad also makes a great pancake, sourdough. He makes his own sourdough bread and has starter that he keeps in his fridge and feeds. I have been spoiled by having parents with exceptional pancake making skills so I am picky about my pancakes. 


When I lived in Asia, one of my favorite things to do was to go for pancakes at  a Western-run cafe. There were only a few places that made good ones. The one that stands out the most is the Garden Center Cafe in Phnom Penh. Most pancakes you get in Asia are either of the thin crepe-ish variety or the ultra thick fluffy doughy variety. The first is okay but it's not really a pancake, it's a crepe. The latter, however,  needs to be avoided at all cost. The Garden Center had perfect pancakes that were served with honey (or for an extra $3, real maple syrup).

The problem with most pancakes is that they tend to be served enough syrup, sugar sauce or honey (in Asia) to cause a diabetic coma and are made with enough flour to scare off anyone with even the mildest wheat intolerance.

So I've been working on my own pancakes for a while now - trying to come up with something that is yummy but also healthy. My first attempts turned out rubbery, doughy or very heavy. Different flours make very different pancakes. Buckwheat is great in small amounts. It's gluten free, but it has a strong flavor so it needs to be combined with other kinds of flour.  Oat flour is okay, but makes for a heavy pancake. Barley flour is one my favorites, but it has gluten.


There are also many different things that can be added to pancakes to make them more interesting or increase certain nutrients - sweet potato, banana, blueberry, apple, peach, (I even attempted kale cakes),  ground flax, ground pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. And of course don’t forget the sauce.

I love the simplicity of the flourless pancakes below. They were adapted from a recipe in Cynthia Lair’s Feeding the Whole Family, which was adapted from Rebecca Wood’s The Splendid Grain (I think I need to get that cookbook, it sounds like a good one). As I’ve been writing these posts, I’ve started wondering at what point does a recipe become your own? Many of my recipes are inspired by other recipes, but stray so far that I wouldn’t even say they were adapted. This recipe is close enough that I will still say it’s adapted, but each time I make it, it seems to get further from the original and becomes more mine.

So here it is:

Flourless Pancakes

1 cups steel cut oats (Bob's red mill has gluten free steel cut oats), You can also use a 1/2 cup oats and 1/2 cup buckwheat.

1  ½ milk or milk alternative (I like almond milk) 

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 very ripe bananas

¼ cup ground flax

¼ cup ground pumpkin seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

Put the steel cut oats and milk in a blender jar, cover and soak overnight. The milk can also be replaced with a water/yogurt mix to sour your pancakes a bit. Add the rest of the ingredient and blend until smooth.

Preheat an oiled skillet. Pour about ¼ cup into the pan. Cook 2 – 3 minutes on each side. This makes about 8 pancakes.

Berry Sauce

2 cups frozen or fresh berries (blueberry and raspberry work well)

4 - 6 pitted dates

½ cup water

Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook until everything is soft. Transfer to blender or use an immersion blender and blend until smooth. Slather over pancakes.


Summer likes to dip her pancakes in yogurt and apple sauce.

Avocado soup

The first time I had cold soup I was about fifteen. Gazpacho. I had never heard of it and thought the idea was really weird. Soup was something you ate on cold, snowy or rainy days. Something you ate when you were sick or after having your wisdom teeth out and couldn't eat anything solid. Not something you ate cold and for no particular reason.

The first gazpacho I had was of the traditional tomato based style with raw veggies. I was in Vancouver and going to a Metallica concert (yes it's true, I have to admit it) with the older sister of my best friend. I'm not sure why, but for some reason my best friend couldn't go. The soup was very garlicky, not something a teenager wants when she plans to be squashed into a moshing crowd. We came out of the concert deaf, exhilarated and hungry enough for another bowl of cold soup.

Fortunately long gone are my Metallica days and fear of strange food. This avocado soup is of the non-traditional gazpacho kind but very yummy. I can't remember where the original recipe came from but I loved it from the start. It is creamy, yet light and refreshing. Perfect for a hot summer day.

3 small avocados
2 tomatoes
1 long english cucumber
Juice from 1-2 limes (I like it limey so I used two)
2 sprigs of mint
2 cups of water
salt to taste

optional ingredients might include garlic and a chili pepper to spice it up.

Put it all in a blender, blend on high. Chill.

When serving this soup last night my husband comments, "It's one of my favorite soups." However, Summer scrunched up her nose.