Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I’m 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we’ve assumed to be true about health and wellness...
As you might recall from our pie and cracker recipes, and Son of Grok’s pizza recipe we like to use almond flour or almond meal as a foundation for Primal baking. It has a similar consistency to traditional flours (albeit denser and heavier), forms good batter with eggs and other fats, and it gives whatever you’re making a nice nutty quality. Almond meal is also fairly taste-neutral; it has a distinct nutty taste that coincidentally works well with many food combinations. So just what is almond meal (or almond flour, for that matter)?
Almond meal is just ground up almonds, usually with the skin still on. Almond flour is ground up blanched (skin off) almonds. The two can basically be used interchangeably. I can’t really notice a difference, but try both to see which works best for you. Personally, I like to use the meal, but not because of any qualitative deductions on my part: my local Trader Joe’s sells almond meal at a great price.
Because it’s just almonds, almond meal has the same nutritional profile as its nutty forebear: high in protein, manganese, potassium, copper, and vitamin E, as well as healthy monounsaturated fats. Going by volume, though, a quarter cup of almond meal contains 15g fat (1g saturated), 5g carbs (3g fiber, 1g sugar), and 7g protein. Hearty stuff indeed.
Most high end or specialty grocery stores (like the aforementioned Trader Joe’s, or Whole Foods, or any similar establishment) should carry almond meal. Trader Joe’s should sell it for $3.29 a pound, or something close to that. You can expect to pay way more at Whole Foods, of course.
If you can’t find the stuff prepared, you can always make your own. Just toss a bunch of almonds in your food processor and use the pulse function to turn them into meal. Be careful you don’t process them too much (unless you want fresh almond butter). Store your homemade almond meal (and really, even store bought meal) in an airtight container in the fridge, for the short term; if you’re going to keep it longer than a few weeks, move it into the freezer. Otherwise, it may turn rancid.
Okay – now what?
Well, with the holiday season in full tilt and baked goods changing hands like herpes, I thought it might help to provide some alternative holiday recipes prominently featuring almond meal. You know, so when your office mates are gorging themselves on brownies and sugar cookies at the Christmas party, you can join in too (or even surreptitiously sneak in some Primal treats to see if they notice, or care about, any difference – report back to us if you do!).
Primal Pancakes
If there’s one thing almost every neo-Primalist misses, it’s a heaping stack of pancakes on a cold winter weekend morning. This recipe will sate those deep-seated cravings and make you forget about your extended tryst with Mrs. Buttersworth (as sweet and sinful as it may have been).
Ingredients:
1 cup almond meal
3 large eggs
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Mix it all together until a batter forms. Pour the batter onto a buttered or greased skillet. Cook over medium heat until both sides are golden brown. Drizzle raw honey or just eat it plain. For kicks, add some blueberries or bananas to the batter.
One word of caution on this recipe: I would suggest keeping the size of these almond pancakes on the small side. Larger pancakes have a tough time sticking together.
FitDay breaks the whole batch down thusly (without any honey or added berries);
Calories: 798
Fat: 65.4 g
Carbs: 20.1 g (11.2 g fiber)
Protein: 42.1 g
Not bad!
Almond Cookies
Dense, delicate, and delicious, these almond cookies come highly recommended.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup almond meal
1 cup maple flakes
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir together almond meal, baking soda and maple flakes, then blend in the butter, egg, and vanilla. Refrigerate dough for half an hour. Spoon out one-inch balls onto a greased or non-stick cookie sheet and flatten with a fork. Bake for eight minutes or until set. Be careful not to let your cookies brown, because that means they’re too well done. Allow them to cool for 2 minutes on the sheet before moving them.
FitDay says:
Calories: 1,563
Fat: 112.6 g
Carbs: 123.9 g (14 g fiber)
Protein: 33 g
Depending on how many cookies you get out of this batch, some simple division will net you the per-cookie facts.
Almond meal can also be used in pretty much any recipe as a substitute for traditional grain flours. You can thicken sauces or make tempura batter with it. The possibilities are myriad. Of course, you’ll have to experiment, as pound-for-pound almond meal is a lot denser than traditional flours, and it has different textural properties and flavors. Just as we’ve all grown to love the Primal way, not just for the health benefits, but also for the delicious and satisfying food on the menu, almond flour shouldn’t be seen as a replacement or a stopgap or a cheap imitation; we should regard almond flour as a unique and useful ally in the kitchen.
Let us know if you come up with any great recipes – holiday or otherwise – using almond meal!
Anyone know where you can get almond meal in the UK? Seems to be a lot trickier than in the US – the obvious places such as ‘Health’ stores don’t appear to stock it…
Can I Make My Own Almond Flour?:
Yes, you can make it in a blender or food processor, though care must be taken not to go too far, or you will have almond butter! Use fairly small amounts, and pulse until it’s meal.
Where Can I Get Almond Flour/Meal?:
Most health food stores sell it.
Tescos or Asda (bigger branches) should stock it. check the baking sections. Asda has the cheapest if i recall right. I’ve also bought largeish packs from my local asian food store – Natco is the company brand.
You can make it yourself. Just add 1 cup of almonds and 1 tablespoon of sugar to a blender(mine is a vita-mix) and blend till it is a powder/dough mixture.
Almond meal is a byproduct of the almond milk industry. You can easily make your own.
Soak 1 cup RAW almonds in water overnight,
Drain. Blend in blender with 4 cups water on highest setting about 3 or 4 minutes.
Strain through fine mesh sieve. The liquid is almond milk, flavor w/ honey and vanilla. the solids need to be dried in oven on lowest heat (175 – 200 f)for a few hours. Viola, almond meal.
I love almond meal. I use it in so many things (see SoG Primal Pizza). It can be pretty expensive in the store so I order it by the 5 pound bag off the internet (from a company called honeyville grains ironically) and it is pretty reasonable.
What a nifty and nutritious alternative to your standard pancakes. The great thing about these is that they don’t require soaking the whole wheat flour in buttermilk overnight in order to help your body digest the grain. That’s really convenient.
I have a slight variation to the pancakes. I typically throw in about 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce and about 1/4 cup of sparkling water. It makes the batter a little thinner and the pancakes a little more moist and fluffier.
I tried it with the variations – thank you – I was worried about passing these off on my kids. They liked them! I added a small amount of dark chocolate chips, too! Thanks!
Hi Heather,
Almond butter and cashew butter is great on fried eggs for breakfast, i have that often, it’s very good, give it a try, you’ll love it!
I agree, almond butter would be great on those pancakes, i’ve got to try it.
I really like cooking with Almond meal, but a word of caution about how caloric it is is in order.
I was following a pancake recipe with coconut milk, olive oil, almond flour and eggs. They taste great, and I would typically eat two or three of them.
Then I did the math and realized each pancake was 4-500cKal.
I run into the same thing with breads. There’s a great recipe for banana bread floating around out there. But at 200cKal for a 2″x4″ slice, it’s really easy to eat WAY too much of it.
I must be in the minority here. I tried the SOG primal pizza and it was just terrible. Tasted like an unsweetened heavy eggy almond cookie with cheese on it. Just give me a steak instead.
I’m not a big fan of substitutions to make “bad” foods more healthful. Just make the “bad” foods a very occasional indulgence, and eat well 95% of the time.
I don’t beat myself up about wanting to eat junk foods, but I do have a principle I follow: whatever junk food I want to eat, I make it myself from absolute scratch. That way, it is inconvenient and takes effort. Additionally, I know exactly what goes into it, so it will be free of unnecessary additives, preservatives, and pseudo-foods.
I tend to think that making a typically carb-like meal (ie pizza, pancakes) out of substituted paleo/primal foods is cheating – at least to me. I mean if per almond cookie you are getting over 1000 calories and over 100g of carbs then whats the difference between that and a normal home baked cookie with plain flour or whole wheat flour? I just feel that this is trying to process food and is what got us in trouble in the first place.
Keath and Dan, you have good points. I personally don’t try to find ways to primalize foods I might not otherwise eat. But a significant portion of MDA readers are trying to make the transition “kicking and screaming”. You’d be surprised (or not) at the emails I get saying they can’t possibly give up their dessert or their pizza. If we can find ways to make the transition palatable, we might win over a few more converts. And I have found in general that once people get rolling on low carb, it’s easier to eliminate some of those old food attachments.
I learned from some readers who tried the 30-day experiment this summer not to be quite so rigid off the bat.
You are so right – I am trying to win over kids ages 5, 10, and 12. I was stunned this morning when my 12 year old daughter yelled at me, “Wheat is my life!!” when I told her I wanted her to try to eliminate it from her diet. But then she happily ate three almond pancakes…
I have been sneakily cutting back on wheat and other grains and refined and natural sugar. And she is wearing a dress today that she was too chubby for two years ago. That may be all the proof I need.
Dr. Dan I do think that you make a good point. Eating primal/paleo is as much a mind-set as anything else and the pancakes and muffins break that mind-set. But as an occasional indulgence I think that it is a fine way to go.
My wife and I usually split the above recipe and I have actually asked myself “what is the difference between these pancakes and a breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, an apple and 1/2 cup of almonds (which I have on occasion)?”
On a side-note, if it is true that we are what we eat and “King Corn” is correct that most Americans are made out of corn, then I am pretty sure that I am based out of almonds at this point.
While I agree with Dr Dan, this kind of thing is great for those of us with kids who only will eat “kid food” (like pancakes) for breakfast. I’ll try to sneak these in and see if they notice…
im one of those people that love my sweets and pizza, ive been doing really well not reaching for these comfort foods but sometimes its a treat that i let myself have. so these recipes are really great to me because it just gets me through those rough patches where my body just craves. and being a woman, thats atleast once a month. LOL. thanks for the post! ill definitely give these a try… esp the pizza! and btw, my christmas present to myself this year is the 50lbs i shed being primal!!
For people who have issues with finding almond meal. I use a coffee grinder to make a flour and it works really well. My kids didnt know the difference other than the color and nuttier taste. it also allows for a fresher taste than almond meal. Dont recommend walnut or cashews though they become more like peanut butter.
Hey thanks for explaining. I’ve heard you mention almond meal multiple times but I’ve always wondered what it was. Sounds like it will be pretty tastier than normal flour too. Almonds have a noticeable flavour whereas flour is quite bland.
Keath,
I am sorry that you did not likte the pizza! I guess its one of those differen people different tastes bits. We actually prefer the pizza to regular pizza.
I made this clementine-almond cake for Christmas (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/clementine-cake-recipe/index.html) and it was a big hit. The cake was deliciously moist and it was fun to use the whole orange! I did cut the sugar back a bit and it was still plenty sweet. This is an especially good recipe for right now as most stores are selling boxes of mandarins/clementines.
My 14-yr-old nephew felt just as you do about the pizza, Keath, and then he suggested I get cooking lessons. Me, I loved it. Of couse, nephew has never been seen without a french fry in hand, and he’s never been known to eat a vegetable. Lives on round table pizza and sugar pops. I don’t know how he lives.
I made the meal out of almonds in the food processor.
Where is that recipe for Chicken a la King hiding?
I tried the pancakes this morning. They were pretty good, but I don’t think I got the almonds grinded fine enough. Whole Foods wants $14 for a pound of almond meal. Outrageous! I bought blanched almond slivers at $7.00 per pound (slightly outrageous) and used my cheapo food processor.
They were pretty filling. I threw in some blueberries and did pour some Agave Nectar over them (along with butter). Probably a higher calorie breakfast than I’m used to having but I think they will keep me feeling full for quite a while.
I’m going to try the Son of Grok pizza recipe this weekend.
Almonds can be had for under $4 a pound, shop around! Get ’em raw, soak them overnight in water, rinse and drain, then pop in a dehydrator (or an oven on warm/150) until fully dried out. May take experimentation. Then you can grab a handful and grind ’em to make meal/flour (no need to blanch them, remove the skins), and run that through a sifter to get the finest fluffiest meal/flour. Re-grind the bigger chunks you sift out.
Almond meal/flour is good stuff, and exceedingly useful.
I was wondering if you know about soaking the almond meal before cooking. I see one entry that mentions not soaking, like they would a grain flour, but I thought it was best to soak nuts before eating, as well. This frees up the enzymes for digestibility.
I was wondering if you found anything out about soaking almond flour before baking with it to aid in digestion? Do you know if this is even necessary once you have almond flour? Thanks very much for any information you may know!
I know that soaking WHOLE almonds in a pinch of salt overnight neutralizes those enzymes. Make almond milk out of it, strain & put pulp on jelly roll pan in the oven on low(150-170) to dry. Then run through the food processor or grinder to make it powdery instead of clumpy little rocks! Use as directed! Making some pancakes with it today actually! I use it as is in all of my almond recipes without fail!
When making my own almond meal/flour (only difference is the flour uses almonds that are blanched, skins removed) from raw almonds, I found the flour is lighter, fluffier and more like grain flour if the raw almonds are soaked, then dried first. Don’t know the change in digestibility.
Absolutely delicious! I tweeked the vanilla and cinnamon a bit to my own personal taste, but I couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying breakfast treat. Thanks!
OK. So I tried the pancakes…terrible. Dense, grainy and not very flavorful. I even tried to improve the recipe by adding extra egg, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and some coconut flour. Still blah. 🙁 My husband took one bite, and was done. I might try again, but I’m not too hopeful.
To end on a positive note, I made a quiche with the pie crust recipe…the texture was super crumbly, but the flavor was really good, and the crackers are fantastic!
I made two different recipes of almond meal based pancakes this morning. We had this one second, and it was much worse than the other. These ended up much too dense, and without much flavor.
The other recipe that worked can be found by a google search for “almond meal” pancakes, only used 2 eggs, and had a tablespoon of sugar and a touch of salt. It tasted pretty much like normal pancakes, but with a cornmealish texture.
I love your recipe for almond cookies. I add a few raisins, chopped pecans and Cinnamon to the basic recipe. I also add an extra egg which flattens the cookie out a bit as it bakes.
For an ultimate (occasional) dessert treat check this out. A friend introduced me to an ice cream made from coconut milk called Coconut Bliss. It comes in many flavors, see http://www.coconutbliss.com/index.html.
Here are the ingredients used in the flavor, Cherry Amaretto:
Organic Coconut Milk (Organic Coconut, Water, Guar Gum), Organic Agave Syrup, Organic Cherries, Organic Fair Trade Vanilla Extract, Organic Almond Extract
I take two Almond Cookies and use this ice cream to make an ice cream sandwich that is better than any ice cream sandwich I have ever had pre-primal! This ice cream comes in a Dark Chocolate flavor too!
oh, and a great syrup topping for both coconut & almond meal pancakes comes from Heidi@101cookbooks: chop up an orange (peeled) and 1/2 a lemon, add to 1/2 c agave nectar & simmer. Amazing!
I believe the Maple flakes would be the same, as granulated Maple sugar. It SHOULD be equal in amount as well. Just a thought, I haven’t tried it. Kitty
I just made these for my skeptical husband and 4 children. My children (all under 10 and fairly picky) LOVED these. They completely clear their plates of these pancakes, raspberries and turkey sausage! My hubby even liked them! He’s the pancake fanatic in the family…I’m shocked!
For those of you who are struggling to buy almond meal;
Buy almonds, whole or blanched whole, soak overnight and blend them with water 1:4 parts.
Add a little maple syrup or a few dates to sweeten, thus making almond milk, an alternative to milk…
The left over almond pulp/meal can be used for baking.
There are better recipes for nut milk online, a quick google search will sort you out.
Just made these pancakes for my husband and myself. Loved them- better than the old gummy flour pancakes I used to make. I did add banana and a few blueberries, and I’m having a paleo version of a sugar high. I think my system is starting to get more sensitive.
I had to throw away my almond butter, almond meal and almond cookies cuz I was eating waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. like 1/4 of a jar a day.. sigh.. i will buy them back after I lose some weight 🙂
lale, have you considered the notion that calories does not equal calories out, i.e. that eating more just makes your body respond by using more energy. therefore you can still lose weight by eating 1/4 almond butter per day.
if you are still gaining weight (as fat), its probably because you are still eating too many carbs.
I recommend you read good calories bad calories by gary taubes.
[I just posted this to the wrong page (drat) – that on coconut flour, so reposted here.]
A bit late in the day, but a variation on these that I’ve been making comes from Barry Groves – Almond and Parmesan Pancakes.
This is a sort of thick pancake that is useful as it can be used for many things and is easy and quick to make. Parmesan is expensive, but supermarkets sell similar, but much cheaper cheeses.
1 large egg
1 tbsp ground almonds (almond flour)
1 tbsp grated Italian cheese (Parmesan type)
I realize that I’m too late to actually join in the discussion about whether or not using this type of recipe is “cheating.” However, I did want to make a comment about it.
I’m currently exploring Primal/Paleo concepts and making some changes to our family’s diet. By eliminating most sugar and grains from my own diet, I dropped 18 pounds in three months. Then my husband brought home a box of Ho-Hos, and I allowed myself a “one-time treat.” In the following weeks, I re-gained three pounds due to giving in to the cravings I was having.
Because of the insulin response we have to sugar and grains, they are literally physically addictive, and some aspects of eating are as psychological as they are physical. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally wanting a bit of comfort food, and being able to have it without setting the body up for cravings afterwards is a good thing. Implying that this is “cheating” is absurd and elitist–“My primal is more pure than your primal.” If primal is supposed to be about the foods that we eat, then having the right foods in a slightly different form shouldn’t matter.
Amen! Seriously, what’s the difference between eating this and eating a handful of almonds with your eggs?
The “elitist” types remind me of vegans. They NEED to feel superior. It’s like religion. But there are a few people, definitely a minority in that camp, that need strict guidelines. For these people, the standard American diet screwed them up so much that to even eat an almond flour pancake can cause a backward slide.
Besides, if you really want to eat exactly like our ancestors, you’d be eating nothing but raw organ meats and handfuls of dirt and drinking from streams that wild animals urinate in. And living in a cave. And not driving a car or using a computer or having access to modern medicine. Now THAT’s living the dream!
You mention you can make almond meal tempura, but does anyone have a recipe? I love vegetable tempura and it would be awesome to have a more primal, healthier alternative.
In the US Trader Joe’s has Almond Flour for under $4/lb. usually.
I made a variation of the pancakes to make them a little fluffier and because I couldn’t quickly find cinnamon or vanilla:
1 cp almond flour
3 lg eggs beaten with a little water
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 snack cup no sugar added applesauce (mine doesn’t add sweetner of any kind)
This adds 6g carbs total to the batch (1g fiber, 4g sugar).
The baking soda helps with making the pancakes a little more fluffier. I might try 1/2 tsp baking soda next time.
If processing almonds gets us almond flour, but processing too far gets us almond butter, could a person use almond butter instead of flour in recipes?
I know for a fact that you can get a lovely flour out of pistachios. Primal Matriarch had a recipe for salmon cakes which she made by grinding up pine nuts for a binder. I hate pine nuts, so I used pistachio. Really kind of awesome. If they weren’t so darned expensive I’d do it a lot more often!
I’d guess that cashew, walnut, and pecan are a little too moist/fatty to grind up well, but I haven’t tried it, so don’t take my word for it.
You can definitely bake with other nut flours like pecan, walnut, and hazelnut. I can’t recall if I’ve seen recipes using cashew flour or just cashew butter…
Search the internet for recipes for the “Specific Carbohydrate Diet” (SCD) – it’s a grain free, soy free, refined sugar free diet for those of us with digestive issues. There are loads of great nut flour / butter recipes out there. And since so many of us with digestive issues can’t handle dairy, many of the SCD recipes are dairy-free too.
See if your library has a book called Everyday Grain Free Gourmet and make the cashew butter brownies. Heavenly!
Cindy, I’ve made quite a few raw, vegan dessert recipes using nut flours and nut butters. A few extra seconds in a processor can mean the difference between a flour and a butter, and it can change the texture of a food dramatically.
For example, I’ve made halvah (which is a middle eastern sweet) using finely ground sesame seeds. I’ve also made it with tahini, which is merely sesame seed butter. Once it’s ground to butter and the oils are released, the proportions of a recipe need to be changed. Using the same recipe, I use either 1 C of ground sesame seeds, or 3/4 C of tahini, and then I also need to add a little more of the dry ingredients.
Ground cashews are dynamite in homemade Lara bars. Mix it in equal amounts with ground dates, and you’ve got a great Lara bar base. Then you can add other ingredients and flavors: Chopped nuts or fruits, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla extract, etc.
I personally think there is nothing with having “comfort foods” as long as they are healthy and nutritious. When we made the decision to cut back on and eventually eliminate grains from my older son’s diet (due to digestive problems and autism), his comfort foods were pancakes like these. They were yummy, familiar, and helped him gain a bit of weight.
If your “comfort foods” are unhealthy, try to find healthier versions of them and make them when you want. There is never any need to seriously deprive yourself on any type of diet.
Thank you, Mark! I am feeling much better with less grain in my life (except for tortilla chips on the weekend 🙂 but these are wonderful. I eat them with fresh raspberries. So good. I haven’t had pancakes in forever and these are awesome, nutty, great texture, even my picky 14 yr old loved hers. THANKS!!!
Made these just now as waffles and they turned out great. Added a little unsweetened applesauce and a pinch of baking soda. They stuck together very well and came out perfectly formed. A little almond butter on top and Voila!!
Someone please help me!! i have to do a How-to and i really want to make some kind of food. But i cant think if anything!! Can anyone give me ideas, something to make in 15 minutes or less in a classroom..i will really appreciate it.
My email is converse440@yahoo.com 🙂 ty
I modified it slightly. I add 1/4 cup flaxseed with berries, this is sold at Safeway and is made my Spectrum.
Also I add 2 or 3 TBLS of walnut oil, it helps to bind the ingredients and keep them from falling apart so easily.
These recipes are cool. I did a bit of experimenting and made a pretty cool dark chocolate chip almond cookie recipe. I tossed it on youtube if you want to take a look. The only sugar would be in the chocolate so choose the chips carefully.
Thanks for the recipes Joe.
I’d been using almond meal as a thinkener in all sorts of things. Sweet and savoury.
Mash potato
stews
gravies
stewed fruit
Made the cookies this week and my husband and I both loved them. Just made the pancakes in a jiffy, they’re hearty for sure..but lacking in flavor a bit- a little bland? I like the texture, they look beautiful..I added blueberries..but I want to make these our household pancake recipe..just gotta tweak something to add a little taste..don’t know what though.
I made almond meal pancakes this morning, and they were fantastic. I modified the recipe slightly. I omitted the egg (already made scrambled eggs for breakfast) and added 1/2 mashed banana & splash of almond milk to 1/3 cup almond flour, cinnamon, and vanilla. I topped with sugar-free syrup, remaining 1/2 banana, blueberries, and 4 crushed pecans. I was in heaven eating this breakfast. My batter made 2 pancakes. My batter seemed to need to cook for quite some time in order to cook fully (maybe because of the missing egg). Next time, I will try to add an egg white, beaten to stiff peaks to try to make them more fluffy. Thanks for this recipe alternative! My nephews are visiting for the summer, and I can’t wait to give these a try for them.
My daughter is gluten free/dairy free, any suggestions on substituting the butter? Typically when I bake for her I use oils/shortening… I would love to hear a more healthful suggestion.
Charissa – In theory, you could use canola oil, but part of the Primal approach to food is to stay away from these “frankenstein” oils. Oils like canola are concoctions that bare little similarity to anything natural and have an extreme inflammatory effect on the body.
I LOVE pastured butter, so I haven’t looked at alternative oils. I’d assume there are some nut based oils that might work well. You should run a search on this site for information on various oils. If it’s out there, chances are Mark has written about it.
I just made the pancakes with the following substitutions…mashed one whole banana to the batter and then omitted one egg.
Not a success. They came out too dry. Perhaps I should have kept that third egg in, but I think the real culprit may be the almond meal. It’s just sooo gritty. I think coconut flour or a real almond flour (not meal or fresh ground up almonds) will do. But I shall keep trying to find the perfect paleo pancake recipe. I do miss pancakes!
Bit of USA to UK conversion help needed here. If I’ve got some measuring spoons that measure 1, 1/2 and 1/4 cups and they’ve also got a ml conversion – can I use them to measure out dry things like almond meal – or is it a completely different measurement??
Googling it just confused me more – the cup to gram conversion seemed to be different for every ingredient!
Almonds sold in the US are all pasturized even though legally they can be called raw – if they are grown outside of the US and resold here OR if they are sold by the farm directly or through a coop, you can get truly raw. Azure Standard sells it and on their iwn website http://organicpastures.com/raw-almond-expose.html
Where can I buy RAW ORGANIC almonds in bulk (around 25 pounds) online for a decent price? They are $8 per pound here in NYC so I’m hoping shave that per pound price by buying larger quanties. I would love some recommendations. But they must be raw AND organic.
I was wondering if anyone out there had some input on an idea I had today. I was wondering if you could fry foods with almond flour. If possible, and primal, you could potentially fry a variety of foods to have something different once in a while (fruits, veggies, bacon, eggs). If anyone has an answer to this I would really appreciate a reply or an email. Thanks!
Great ideas! I made a huge batch of almond milk this week and I have been trying to figure out what to do with the almond meal before it goes off… these pancakes look great! Especially since I’m off sugar and gluten. Thanks for posting!
I found the almond pancakes too dry and having no taste. So I added to the recipe 2 cooked apples, chop the apples small, stick in a pan with 2 tablespoons of water or 1 water 1 lemon juice, put the lid on and cook until soft and mashable. Cool the apples, mash them and add HALF to the rest of the ingredients. Only add half and save the other half as a topping for the pancakes. If you add all the apple purée to the batter the pancakes won’t hold their shape when cooked. I also added about a quarter cup more almond meal to the batter.and some honey
If any of you use the Visalus shake mix, you can mix in a cup of shake mix along with the almond meal, and proceed with the rest of the recipe as normal. Oh, except I used two eggs instead of three. The pancakes were amazing! The carbs in the visalus shake mix is 7g for two scoops. It takes about four scoops to make a cup.
Made the primal pancakes today and spread a little almond butter. The recipes as is makes a thick batter to thin it out I added a little unsweetened almond milk.
Any thoughts on the points made here? http://www.theprimalist.com/paleo-baking-oxymoron/
Omega 6, heating, amount… ? I’m trying to go more primal, am wanting a few cakes, cookies, etc here and there, but this got me concerned. Obviously I wouldn’t be indulging very often, but still got me curious.
I made these pancakes with 2 eggs (instead of 3) and added 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce ,and 1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened) and 1/4 cup more almond flour. Silver dollar size..cooked in coconut oil.Cooked nicely and golden and thus cut back a little on the cholesterol….and had nice texture and taste!
1. How many nuts make 1 oz of Almond nuts? 2. Can 1 oz of Almond be comsumed by one person instantly? 3.what quantity of Almond one can use in a pot of beak?
I do not have raw almonds on hand. But I do have almond meal and almond ‘butter’. How much of either almond meal or almond butter would I use instead of 1/4 cup of raw almonds? The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of raw almonds done in a food processor for a cookie recipe.
Thank-you for anyone who replies!
I tried googeling it and did not find the answer:)
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As you might recall from our 
Anyone know where you can get almond meal in the UK? Seems to be a lot trickier than in the US – the obvious places such as ‘Health’ stores don’t appear to stock it…
Julian Graves – chain of stores in the UK. i think its described as ‘ground almonds’ but its the same thing.
Can I Make My Own Almond Flour?:
Yes, you can make it in a blender or food processor, though care must be taken not to go too far, or you will have almond butter! Use fairly small amounts, and pulse until it’s meal.
Where Can I Get Almond Flour/Meal?:
Most health food stores sell it.
Answer from http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/products/p/almondmeal.htm
Tescos or Asda (bigger branches) should stock it. check the baking sections. Asda has the cheapest if i recall right. I’ve also bought largeish packs from my local asian food store – Natco is the company brand.
found a better place – if you have acces to central Lndon!
Indian spice shop at the end of drummond street near Euston station. about £7 for 1kg
You can make it yourself. Just add 1 cup of almonds and 1 tablespoon of sugar to a blender(mine is a vita-mix) and blend till it is a powder/dough mixture.
No need for sugar 🙂
better yet, make almond milk and then keep the meal for later use.
and correct: no sugar needed
Almond meal is simply called ground almonds in UK and Canada
You can make your own with raw almonds and a coffee grinder
Trader Joe’s
Almond meal is a byproduct of the almond milk industry. You can easily make your own.
Soak 1 cup RAW almonds in water overnight,
Drain. Blend in blender with 4 cups water on highest setting about 3 or 4 minutes.
Strain through fine mesh sieve. The liquid is almond milk, flavor w/ honey and vanilla. the solids need to be dried in oven on lowest heat (175 – 200 f)for a few hours. Viola, almond meal.
I love almond meal. I use it in so many things (see SoG Primal Pizza). It can be pretty expensive in the store so I order it by the 5 pound bag off the internet (from a company called honeyville grains ironically) and it is pretty reasonable.
The SoG
What a nifty and nutritious alternative to your standard pancakes. The great thing about these is that they don’t require soaking the whole wheat flour in buttermilk overnight in order to help your body digest the grain. That’s really convenient.
I have a slight variation to the pancakes. I typically throw in about 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce and about 1/4 cup of sparkling water. It makes the batter a little thinner and the pancakes a little more moist and fluffier.
I tried it with the variations – thank you – I was worried about passing these off on my kids. They liked them! I added a small amount of dark chocolate chips, too! Thanks!
Almond is my very favorite nut. This is a fantastic post, i love it! I could just take a bite of that almond pancake, Yum!
Oh my gosh. Those pancakes would be heavenly with a drizzle of almond butter, no? I definitely need to make those. Thanks for the recipe Mark!
PS – Love love love Trader Joe’s!
These pancakes were so YUMMY you have got to try them!!!
“useful ally in the kitchen” – love it!
yum yum yum. gosh do i love your recipes, and so does my family since i’m constantly changing up the menu! thank you!!!
Hi Heather,
Almond butter and cashew butter is great on fried eggs for breakfast, i have that often, it’s very good, give it a try, you’ll love it!
I agree, almond butter would be great on those pancakes, i’ve got to try it.
I really like cooking with Almond meal, but a word of caution about how caloric it is is in order.
I was following a pancake recipe with coconut milk, olive oil, almond flour and eggs. They taste great, and I would typically eat two or three of them.
Then I did the math and realized each pancake was 4-500cKal.
I run into the same thing with breads. There’s a great recipe for banana bread floating around out there. But at 200cKal for a 2″x4″ slice, it’s really easy to eat WAY too much of it.
I must be in the minority here. I tried the SOG primal pizza and it was just terrible. Tasted like an unsweetened heavy eggy almond cookie with cheese on it. Just give me a steak instead.
I’m not a big fan of substitutions to make “bad” foods more healthful. Just make the “bad” foods a very occasional indulgence, and eat well 95% of the time.
I don’t beat myself up about wanting to eat junk foods, but I do have a principle I follow: whatever junk food I want to eat, I make it myself from absolute scratch. That way, it is inconvenient and takes effort. Additionally, I know exactly what goes into it, so it will be free of unnecessary additives, preservatives, and pseudo-foods.
I tend to think that making a typically carb-like meal (ie pizza, pancakes) out of substituted paleo/primal foods is cheating – at least to me. I mean if per almond cookie you are getting over 1000 calories and over 100g of carbs then whats the difference between that and a normal home baked cookie with plain flour or whole wheat flour? I just feel that this is trying to process food and is what got us in trouble in the first place.
The whole batch was 1000 calories, not each cookie
Keath and Dan, you have good points. I personally don’t try to find ways to primalize foods I might not otherwise eat. But a significant portion of MDA readers are trying to make the transition “kicking and screaming”. You’d be surprised (or not) at the emails I get saying they can’t possibly give up their dessert or their pizza. If we can find ways to make the transition palatable, we might win over a few more converts. And I have found in general that once people get rolling on low carb, it’s easier to eliminate some of those old food attachments.
I learned from some readers who tried the 30-day experiment this summer not to be quite so rigid off the bat.
You are so right – I am trying to win over kids ages 5, 10, and 12. I was stunned this morning when my 12 year old daughter yelled at me, “Wheat is my life!!” when I told her I wanted her to try to eliminate it from her diet. But then she happily ate three almond pancakes…
I have been sneakily cutting back on wheat and other grains and refined and natural sugar. And she is wearing a dress today that she was too chubby for two years ago. That may be all the proof I need.
Thanks so much for this recipe!
Dr. Dan,
The stats on those cookies are for the whole batch – not a single cookie.
“Depending on how many cookies you get out of this batch, some simple division will net you the per-cookie facts.”
Dr. Dan I do think that you make a good point. Eating primal/paleo is as much a mind-set as anything else and the pancakes and muffins break that mind-set. But as an occasional indulgence I think that it is a fine way to go.
My wife and I usually split the above recipe and I have actually asked myself “what is the difference between these pancakes and a breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, an apple and 1/2 cup of almonds (which I have on occasion)?”
On a side-note, if it is true that we are what we eat and “King Corn” is correct that most Americans are made out of corn, then I am pretty sure that I am based out of almonds at this point.
primalmondman?
While I agree with Dr Dan, this kind of thing is great for those of us with kids who only will eat “kid food” (like pancakes) for breakfast. I’ll try to sneak these in and see if they notice…
im one of those people that love my sweets and pizza, ive been doing really well not reaching for these comfort foods but sometimes its a treat that i let myself have. so these recipes are really great to me because it just gets me through those rough patches where my body just craves. and being a woman, thats atleast once a month. LOL. thanks for the post! ill definitely give these a try… esp the pizza! and btw, my christmas present to myself this year is the 50lbs i shed being primal!!
merry xmas everyone!
I make a banana bread pancake with almond meal, always a hit.
Yeah almond meal pancakes!!! Hahahaha!
Thanks for the post
All the Best,
Andrew R
Here’s an idea with those pancakes: coconut cream and oil with dark cacao sprinkled on top.( drools like Homer Simpson)
For people who have issues with finding almond meal. I use a coffee grinder to make a flour and it works really well. My kids didnt know the difference other than the color and nuttier taste. it also allows for a fresher taste than almond meal. Dont recommend walnut or cashews though they become more like peanut butter.
Hey thanks for explaining. I’ve heard you mention almond meal multiple times but I’ve always wondered what it was. Sounds like it will be pretty tastier than normal flour too. Almonds have a noticeable flavour whereas flour is quite bland.
I used almond meal to “bread” some turkey tenderloin strips, and they were a big hit.
It did make a huge mess; be sure to clean up without delay, because almond meal/egg mixture turns into cement after drying!
Keath,
I am sorry that you did not likte the pizza! I guess its one of those differen people different tastes bits. We actually prefer the pizza to regular pizza.
The SoG
Hi –
For the cookies, what are maple flakes? Sorry if I missed the explanation.
Thanks!
I made this clementine-almond cake for Christmas (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/clementine-cake-recipe/index.html) and it was a big hit. The cake was deliciously moist and it was fun to use the whole orange! I did cut the sugar back a bit and it was still plenty sweet. This is an especially good recipe for right now as most stores are selling boxes of mandarins/clementines.
I made this one too a few years ago! Fab recipe! 🙂
My 14-yr-old nephew felt just as you do about the pizza, Keath, and then he suggested I get cooking lessons. Me, I loved it. Of couse, nephew has never been seen without a french fry in hand, and he’s never been known to eat a vegetable. Lives on round table pizza and sugar pops. I don’t know how he lives.
I made the meal out of almonds in the food processor.
Where is that recipe for Chicken a la King hiding?
I tried the pancakes this morning. They were pretty good, but I don’t think I got the almonds grinded fine enough. Whole Foods wants $14 for a pound of almond meal. Outrageous! I bought blanched almond slivers at $7.00 per pound (slightly outrageous) and used my cheapo food processor.
They were pretty filling. I threw in some blueberries and did pour some Agave Nectar over them (along with butter). Probably a higher calorie breakfast than I’m used to having but I think they will keep me feeling full for quite a while.
I’m going to try the Son of Grok pizza recipe this weekend.
the best prices on almond meal is gold almonds.com $1.99 per pound
Almonds can be had for under $4 a pound, shop around! Get ’em raw, soak them overnight in water, rinse and drain, then pop in a dehydrator (or an oven on warm/150) until fully dried out. May take experimentation. Then you can grab a handful and grind ’em to make meal/flour (no need to blanch them, remove the skins), and run that through a sifter to get the finest fluffiest meal/flour. Re-grind the bigger chunks you sift out.
Almond meal/flour is good stuff, and exceedingly useful.
Mark,
I was wondering if you know about soaking the almond meal before cooking. I see one entry that mentions not soaking, like they would a grain flour, but I thought it was best to soak nuts before eating, as well. This frees up the enzymes for digestibility.
Any info would be appreciated
Hi Deb,
I was wondering if you found anything out about soaking almond flour before baking with it to aid in digestion? Do you know if this is even necessary once you have almond flour? Thanks very much for any information you may know!
I know that soaking WHOLE almonds in a pinch of salt overnight neutralizes those enzymes. Make almond milk out of it, strain & put pulp on jelly roll pan in the oven on low(150-170) to dry. Then run through the food processor or grinder to make it powdery instead of clumpy little rocks! Use as directed! Making some pancakes with it today actually! I use it as is in all of my almond recipes without fail!
When making my own almond meal/flour (only difference is the flour uses almonds that are blanched, skins removed) from raw almonds, I found the flour is lighter, fluffier and more like grain flour if the raw almonds are soaked, then dried first. Don’t know the change in digestibility.
Absolutely delicious! I tweeked the vanilla and cinnamon a bit to my own personal taste, but I couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying breakfast treat. Thanks!
OK. So I tried the pancakes…terrible. Dense, grainy and not very flavorful. I even tried to improve the recipe by adding extra egg, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and some coconut flour. Still blah. 🙁 My husband took one bite, and was done. I might try again, but I’m not too hopeful.
To end on a positive note, I made a quiche with the pie crust recipe…the texture was super crumbly, but the flavor was really good, and the crackers are fantastic!
I made two different recipes of almond meal based pancakes this morning. We had this one second, and it was much worse than the other. These ended up much too dense, and without much flavor.
The other recipe that worked can be found by a google search for “almond meal” pancakes, only used 2 eggs, and had a tablespoon of sugar and a touch of salt. It tasted pretty much like normal pancakes, but with a cornmealish texture.
Hi Mark,
I love your recipe for almond cookies. I add a few raisins, chopped pecans and Cinnamon to the basic recipe. I also add an extra egg which flattens the cookie out a bit as it bakes.
For an ultimate (occasional) dessert treat check this out. A friend introduced me to an ice cream made from coconut milk called Coconut Bliss. It comes in many flavors, see http://www.coconutbliss.com/index.html.
Here are the ingredients used in the flavor, Cherry Amaretto:
Organic Coconut Milk (Organic Coconut, Water, Guar Gum), Organic Agave Syrup, Organic Cherries, Organic Fair Trade Vanilla Extract, Organic Almond Extract
I take two Almond Cookies and use this ice cream to make an ice cream sandwich that is better than any ice cream sandwich I have ever had pre-primal! This ice cream comes in a Dark Chocolate flavor too!
For the UK heads you can get Almond meal in Sainsburys or Julian graves but its called “Ground Almonds” – http://www.juliangraves.com/ground-almonds-400g.html
from the good folks at We Like It Raw- a great source for unexpected Primal treats!
http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/2008/01/raw-girl-scout.html
oh, and a great syrup topping for both coconut & almond meal pancakes comes from Heidi@101cookbooks: chop up an orange (peeled) and 1/2 a lemon, add to 1/2 c agave nectar & simmer. Amazing!
the recipes look great! i wondering … approximately how many pancakes the pancake recipe yields (because i don’t want to make too much for myself)
What could be substituted for the maple flakes in the cookies and how much?
I believe the Maple flakes would be the same, as granulated Maple sugar. It SHOULD be equal in amount as well. Just a thought, I haven’t tried it. Kitty
I just made these for my skeptical husband and 4 children. My children (all under 10 and fairly picky) LOVED these. They completely clear their plates of these pancakes, raspberries and turkey sausage! My hubby even liked them! He’s the pancake fanatic in the family…I’m shocked!
I use Honeyville blanched almond flour and it works the best for baked goods. It’s 27.00 for a 5lb bag.
http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/blanchedalmondflour5lb.aspx
For those of you who are struggling to buy almond meal;
Buy almonds, whole or blanched whole, soak overnight and blend them with water 1:4 parts.
Add a little maple syrup or a few dates to sweeten, thus making almond milk, an alternative to milk…
The left over almond pulp/meal can be used for baking.
There are better recipes for nut milk online, a quick google search will sort you out.
You can find ground almonds usually in the baking section of most supermarkets. I used to buy them to add to my shakes.
Just made these pancakes for my husband and myself. Loved them- better than the old gummy flour pancakes I used to make. I did add banana and a few blueberries, and I’m having a paleo version of a sugar high. I think my system is starting to get more sensitive.
I had to throw away my almond butter, almond meal and almond cookies cuz I was eating waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. like 1/4 of a jar a day.. sigh.. i will buy them back after I lose some weight 🙂
lale, have you considered the notion that calories does not equal calories out, i.e. that eating more just makes your body respond by using more energy. therefore you can still lose weight by eating 1/4 almond butter per day.
if you are still gaining weight (as fat), its probably because you are still eating too many carbs.
I recommend you read good calories bad calories by gary taubes.
[I just posted this to the wrong page (drat) – that on coconut flour, so reposted here.]
A bit late in the day, but a variation on these that I’ve been making comes from Barry Groves – Almond and Parmesan Pancakes.
This is a sort of thick pancake that is useful as it can be used for many things and is easy and quick to make. Parmesan is expensive, but supermarkets sell similar, but much cheaper cheeses.
1 large egg
1 tbsp ground almonds (almond flour)
1 tbsp grated Italian cheese (Parmesan type)
Mix all together and fry in lard or butter.
Each pancake serves 1
More details on his page:
http://www.diabetes-diet.org.uk/basic-recipes.html.
I also tried a varient using egg whites and double cream, it works but is not as good. (I had whites left over from making ice-cream).
I am going to have to try those almond cookies soon! I have not made cookies since I went primal 3 months ago but would not mind primal ones.
I realize that I’m too late to actually join in the discussion about whether or not using this type of recipe is “cheating.” However, I did want to make a comment about it.
I’m currently exploring Primal/Paleo concepts and making some changes to our family’s diet. By eliminating most sugar and grains from my own diet, I dropped 18 pounds in three months. Then my husband brought home a box of Ho-Hos, and I allowed myself a “one-time treat.” In the following weeks, I re-gained three pounds due to giving in to the cravings I was having.
Because of the insulin response we have to sugar and grains, they are literally physically addictive, and some aspects of eating are as psychological as they are physical. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally wanting a bit of comfort food, and being able to have it without setting the body up for cravings afterwards is a good thing. Implying that this is “cheating” is absurd and elitist–“My primal is more pure than your primal.” If primal is supposed to be about the foods that we eat, then having the right foods in a slightly different form shouldn’t matter.
amen, sister.
Hear, hear!
Amen! Seriously, what’s the difference between eating this and eating a handful of almonds with your eggs?
The “elitist” types remind me of vegans. They NEED to feel superior. It’s like religion. But there are a few people, definitely a minority in that camp, that need strict guidelines. For these people, the standard American diet screwed them up so much that to even eat an almond flour pancake can cause a backward slide.
Besides, if you really want to eat exactly like our ancestors, you’d be eating nothing but raw organ meats and handfuls of dirt and drinking from streams that wild animals urinate in. And living in a cave. And not driving a car or using a computer or having access to modern medicine. Now THAT’s living the dream!
Just made a batch of these tonight, wow! REALLY GOOD!
Thanks for the recipe.
You mention you can make almond meal tempura, but does anyone have a recipe? I love vegetable tempura and it would be awesome to have a more primal, healthier alternative.
In the US Trader Joe’s has Almond Flour for under $4/lb. usually.
I made a variation of the pancakes to make them a little fluffier and because I couldn’t quickly find cinnamon or vanilla:
1 cp almond flour
3 lg eggs beaten with a little water
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 snack cup no sugar added applesauce (mine doesn’t add sweetner of any kind)
This adds 6g carbs total to the batch (1g fiber, 4g sugar).
The baking soda helps with making the pancakes a little more fluffier. I might try 1/2 tsp baking soda next time.
If processing almonds gets us almond flour, but processing too far gets us almond butter, could a person use almond butter instead of flour in recipes?
Are almonds the only nut that makes a good flour? What happens with cashew, walnut, pecan, etc?
I know for a fact that you can get a lovely flour out of pistachios. Primal Matriarch had a recipe for salmon cakes which she made by grinding up pine nuts for a binder. I hate pine nuts, so I used pistachio. Really kind of awesome. If they weren’t so darned expensive I’d do it a lot more often!
I’d guess that cashew, walnut, and pecan are a little too moist/fatty to grind up well, but I haven’t tried it, so don’t take my word for it.
You can definitely bake with other nut flours like pecan, walnut, and hazelnut. I can’t recall if I’ve seen recipes using cashew flour or just cashew butter…
Search the internet for recipes for the “Specific Carbohydrate Diet” (SCD) – it’s a grain free, soy free, refined sugar free diet for those of us with digestive issues. There are loads of great nut flour / butter recipes out there. And since so many of us with digestive issues can’t handle dairy, many of the SCD recipes are dairy-free too.
See if your library has a book called Everyday Grain Free Gourmet and make the cashew butter brownies. Heavenly!
Cindy, I’ve made quite a few raw, vegan dessert recipes using nut flours and nut butters. A few extra seconds in a processor can mean the difference between a flour and a butter, and it can change the texture of a food dramatically.
For example, I’ve made halvah (which is a middle eastern sweet) using finely ground sesame seeds. I’ve also made it with tahini, which is merely sesame seed butter. Once it’s ground to butter and the oils are released, the proportions of a recipe need to be changed. Using the same recipe, I use either 1 C of ground sesame seeds, or 3/4 C of tahini, and then I also need to add a little more of the dry ingredients.
Ground cashews are dynamite in homemade Lara bars. Mix it in equal amounts with ground dates, and you’ve got a great Lara bar base. Then you can add other ingredients and flavors: Chopped nuts or fruits, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla extract, etc.
I personally think there is nothing with having “comfort foods” as long as they are healthy and nutritious. When we made the decision to cut back on and eventually eliminate grains from my older son’s diet (due to digestive problems and autism), his comfort foods were pancakes like these. They were yummy, familiar, and helped him gain a bit of weight.
If your “comfort foods” are unhealthy, try to find healthier versions of them and make them when you want. There is never any need to seriously deprive yourself on any type of diet.
Thank you, Mark! I am feeling much better with less grain in my life (except for tortilla chips on the weekend 🙂 but these are wonderful. I eat them with fresh raspberries. So good. I haven’t had pancakes in forever and these are awesome, nutty, great texture, even my picky 14 yr old loved hers. THANKS!!!
Made these just now as waffles and they turned out great. Added a little unsweetened applesauce and a pinch of baking soda. They stuck together very well and came out perfectly formed. A little almond butter on top and Voila!!
Someone please help me!! i have to do a How-to and i really want to make some kind of food. But i cant think if anything!! Can anyone give me ideas, something to make in 15 minutes or less in a classroom..i will really appreciate it.
My email is converse440@yahoo.com 🙂 ty
Pancakes SO YUMMY!!
My recipe:
2 1/2 cups almond flour
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1/4 tapioca flour
Great recipe.
I modified it slightly. I add 1/4 cup flaxseed with berries, this is sold at Safeway and is made my Spectrum.
Also I add 2 or 3 TBLS of walnut oil, it helps to bind the ingredients and keep them from falling apart so easily.
These recipes are cool. I did a bit of experimenting and made a pretty cool dark chocolate chip almond cookie recipe. I tossed it on youtube if you want to take a look. The only sugar would be in the chocolate so choose the chips carefully.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptf1o67kZqQ
Thanks for the recipes Joe.
I’d been using almond meal as a thinkener in all sorts of things. Sweet and savoury.
Mash potato
stews
gravies
stewed fruit
Made the cookies this week and my husband and I both loved them. Just made the pancakes in a jiffy, they’re hearty for sure..but lacking in flavor a bit- a little bland? I like the texture, they look beautiful..I added blueberries..but I want to make these our household pancake recipe..just gotta tweak something to add a little taste..don’t know what though.
I made almond meal pancakes this morning, and they were fantastic. I modified the recipe slightly. I omitted the egg (already made scrambled eggs for breakfast) and added 1/2 mashed banana & splash of almond milk to 1/3 cup almond flour, cinnamon, and vanilla. I topped with sugar-free syrup, remaining 1/2 banana, blueberries, and 4 crushed pecans. I was in heaven eating this breakfast. My batter made 2 pancakes. My batter seemed to need to cook for quite some time in order to cook fully (maybe because of the missing egg). Next time, I will try to add an egg white, beaten to stiff peaks to try to make them more fluffy. Thanks for this recipe alternative! My nephews are visiting for the summer, and I can’t wait to give these a try for them.
2 questions-
Will raw almond flour be raw when heated?
Also, what is wrong with consuming pasteurized nuts if the anti nutrients are killed?
almond flour at californiagoldalmonds $2.25 per pound
Thanks for a great post. Can you put a limit on the amount of baked goods i.e. almond flour muffins, cookies per day that we should consume.
My daughter is gluten free/dairy free, any suggestions on substituting the butter? Typically when I bake for her I use oils/shortening… I would love to hear a more healthful suggestion.
Charissa – In theory, you could use canola oil, but part of the Primal approach to food is to stay away from these “frankenstein” oils. Oils like canola are concoctions that bare little similarity to anything natural and have an extreme inflammatory effect on the body.
I LOVE pastured butter, so I haven’t looked at alternative oils. I’d assume there are some nut based oils that might work well. You should run a search on this site for information on various oils. If it’s out there, chances are Mark has written about it.
I just made the pancakes with the following substitutions…mashed one whole banana to the batter and then omitted one egg.
Not a success. They came out too dry. Perhaps I should have kept that third egg in, but I think the real culprit may be the almond meal. It’s just sooo gritty. I think coconut flour or a real almond flour (not meal or fresh ground up almonds) will do. But I shall keep trying to find the perfect paleo pancake recipe. I do miss pancakes!
Bit of USA to UK conversion help needed here. If I’ve got some measuring spoons that measure 1, 1/2 and 1/4 cups and they’ve also got a ml conversion – can I use them to measure out dry things like almond meal – or is it a completely different measurement??
Googling it just confused me more – the cup to gram conversion seemed to be different for every ingredient!
Yes those can be used for liquid or dry measurements.
Almonds sold in the US are all pasturized even though legally they can be called raw – if they are grown outside of the US and resold here OR if they are sold by the farm directly or through a coop, you can get truly raw. Azure Standard sells it and on their iwn website http://organicpastures.com/raw-almond-expose.html
Where can I buy RAW ORGANIC almonds in bulk (around 25 pounds) online for a decent price? They are $8 per pound here in NYC so I’m hoping shave that per pound price by buying larger quanties. I would love some recommendations. But they must be raw AND organic.
Can I store those pancakes for 24 hrs and microwave them after?
I was wondering if anyone out there had some input on an idea I had today. I was wondering if you could fry foods with almond flour. If possible, and primal, you could potentially fry a variety of foods to have something different once in a while (fruits, veggies, bacon, eggs). If anyone has an answer to this I would really appreciate a reply or an email. Thanks!
Great ideas! I made a huge batch of almond milk this week and I have been trying to figure out what to do with the almond meal before it goes off… these pancakes look great! Especially since I’m off sugar and gluten. Thanks for posting!
the pancakes are amazing. the whole batch makes a great breakfast before training!
What is Maple Flakes and where can I find them?
What are “maple flakes”?
I found the almond pancakes too dry and having no taste. So I added to the recipe 2 cooked apples, chop the apples small, stick in a pan with 2 tablespoons of water or 1 water 1 lemon juice, put the lid on and cook until soft and mashable. Cool the apples, mash them and add HALF to the rest of the ingredients. Only add half and save the other half as a topping for the pancakes. If you add all the apple purée to the batter the pancakes won’t hold their shape when cooked. I also added about a quarter cup more almond meal to the batter.and some honey
If any of you use the Visalus shake mix, you can mix in a cup of shake mix along with the almond meal, and proceed with the rest of the recipe as normal. Oh, except I used two eggs instead of three. The pancakes were amazing! The carbs in the visalus shake mix is 7g for two scoops. It takes about four scoops to make a cup.
Oops! I forgot to mention that I also used a cup of coconut milk! YUM!
Made the primal pancakes today and spread a little almond butter. The recipes as is makes a thick batter to thin it out I added a little unsweetened almond milk.
Any thoughts on the points made here?
http://www.theprimalist.com/paleo-baking-oxymoron/
Omega 6, heating, amount… ? I’m trying to go more primal, am wanting a few cakes, cookies, etc here and there, but this got me concerned. Obviously I wouldn’t be indulging very often, but still got me curious.
I made these pancakes with 2 eggs (instead of 3) and added 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce ,and 1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened) and 1/4 cup more almond flour. Silver dollar size..cooked in coconut oil.Cooked nicely and golden and thus cut back a little on the cholesterol….and had nice texture and taste!
1. How many nuts make 1 oz of Almond nuts? 2. Can 1 oz of Almond be comsumed by one person instantly? 3.what quantity of Almond one can use in a pot of beak?
I do not have raw almonds on hand. But I do have almond meal and almond ‘butter’. How much of either almond meal or almond butter would I use instead of 1/4 cup of raw almonds? The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of raw almonds done in a food processor for a cookie recipe.
Thank-you for anyone who replies!
I tried googeling it and did not find the answer:)
Wow these cookies are stunning! This is such a beautiful treat to serve for the
holidays!