Madeleine's Teff Pancakes
- Mix 2T chia seed with 6 TBS water and 1-2 tsp vanilla extract, set aside. Stir to break up clumps.
- Mix 1 cup teff flour with 2 TBS ground flax. Remove and set aside about 1/4 cup.
- Mix 1 tsp baking powder to the 1/4 cup teff/flax, set aside until the very end.
- Add 1 tsp lo han or sugar to the 3/4 cup teff/flax, mix in. Add 3/4 cup + 1 TBS water, and 1/4 cup canned coconut milk, stir well, let it sit a few minutes. Add the chia and the teff/baking powder, and stir well, scraping the bottom of the bowl. This will be much thicker than pancake batter, hence the name pan cakes.
- Heat a cast iron frying pan on high until drops of water sizzle. Turn down to medium.
- Spoon batter into the frying pan, spreading the batter slightly, to make 3" rounds. Flip over when the cakes firm up a bit and don't stick. You might need to turn the heat down after the first batch.
[Gratuitous Amazon Affiliate Links are mine, -Tim]
I made 14 cakes. The whole recipe has 26 grams of protein and 29 grams of fiber.
The tricks are: liquid sweeteners might stick, so don't sub with liquid, or cook in oil. A thick batter turns easily and doesn't tear apart. Adding baking powder in flour at the end should increase the rising power. Hot cast iron means I can cook without oil.
Well, I thought these were just delicious! Tweakable in a hundred directions. I have never cooked with teff flour before, and had to buy a bag to try them out. No need even to measure things closely, if it's too runny add more teff flour, too stiff, add more water. Now I need to make some other teff flour stuff.
They look exactly like hamburger patties while cooking in the pan, and on your plate. Teff is really a good meat substitute. These little teff pan cakes can be eaten plain, or with toppings of your choice.
Crackers
I love eating crackers, but can't stand Saltines. Ritz, etc... If you want a good pre-made cracker, try Mary's Gone Crackers. Many types, I prefer the original, ingredients being:
Organic whole grain brown rice, organic quinoa, organic flax seeds, organic brown sesame seeds, organic soy, vinegar, and sea salt.
Another option: Homemade plantain chips!
Farro and Kamut
When I was at the store, I also found some whole grain farro and kamut, ancient varieties of wheat. I'll be cooking these later today and writing about them for my next blog post!
Let us know if you try the pan cakes!
Later,
Tim
I make a similar pancake with flax and sesame seeds and fresh ground wheat and/or barley kernels. I use a small inexpensive electric coffee grinder for the wheat groats and it works great, very fast. Fresh grinding is supposedly the healthier route than flours that have degraded (oxidized?) since grinding for a varying amount of time. The whole wheat groats will keep much longer than flour and you can freeze them for even longer storage if desired.
ReplyDeleteThink about grains the same as nuts. To maximize nutrition grind them just prior to consumption.
DeleteOh yeah, I throw the TBS's of flax, sesame, and wheat into the grinder and grind together. As I said, it's very fast. The small grinder is sufficient to make a batch big enough or two large pancakes. Plenty for my breaky.
DeleteI ground my flax in a coffee grinder that still had a couple coffee beans in it, so my pancakes had a nice coffee flavor, lol. I rarely buy ready-ground seeds, if I do, I keep in the freezer.
DeleteI'll never think of Alaska as the "Boonies" again if you can get teff flour, farro, and kamut there! I live in a cosmo area in southeast MI and I had to search to find a source for these and other "exotics".
ReplyDeleteIf Sunshine Health Foods doesn't have what I need, there's always Amazon!
DeleteEven the commissary In Norfolk, VA is carrying Teff, PS and a few others that I thought I would never see! They have a couple of half shelves devoted to Bob's Red Mill. Your tax dollars at work!😉
ReplyDeleteI'm making sourdough whole wheat bread today with stone ground whole grain kamut flour and kamut berries I pre fermented and cracked in the food processor- can't wait to eat it!
ReplyDeleteYou can increase whole grain consumption by subbing 1/4 cup any alternative grain for 1/4 cup wheat flour when making bread.
ReplyDeleteI've got lots of food sensitivities, and I do best on a low-fat mostly-vegetarian diet, so I'm always experimenting with ways to get high nutrition in small packages. Amaranth is another nutritional powerhouse. It's naturally sweet, like teff, and makes a great breakfast cereal. It has half the fiber of teff, though, so you get hungry sooner.
Amaranth is next on my hit list, lol. Thanks for the teff pan cake recipe!
DeleteIve been experimenting with teff and love the flavor, but cannot find a way to cook it without the Teff sticking to the pan. Did your version stick horribly or was it manageable?
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't stick at all if you use very hot cast iron, turn the heat down so the cakes don't burn before cooking through, and are patient before turning. There's a point where I can easily scrape the cake from the pan - it's smooth like a pancake in oil, but the cake detaches without any mess.
DeleteI tried this in a non-stick pan, and it didn't work at all. It looks like Tim might have used ceramic?
These did not stick at all. Yes...ceramic pan. I love it. I am banned from using cast iron frying pan on the glass cook-top, lol.
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