I have a “helper” in the kitchen when I am whipping up most of my culinary masterpieces. He is about 2 feet tall, has blue eyes, blond hair, a killer smile and he’s been known to throw a measuring cup full of almond milk across the kitchen in a fit of rage. No I am not talking about a mini-Gordon Ramsey – it’s my feisty and adorable 2 year old son.
Most of the time I enjoy his “help” and the way he loves to stir every batter, pour every ingredient and lick every spoon (not so keen to try my muffins now are you?) but sometimes he truly drives me nuts. Like the time he dumped an entire bowl of flour all over the floor. Or the time he spilled beet juice on my marble island. Or the aforementioned “almond milk incident”.
But I know all too soon he will be skipping off to school with his brother and sister and I will be alone in my kitchen missing his company and longing for the days when he was so eager to pull up his chair and assist me in any foodie endeavor.
My little helper definitely has some strong opinions about my cooking and baking (beet salad = “that tastes terrible mommy”) but his very favourite thing of all to make has gotta be pancakes. Since I am on Day 19 of my Kathy Freston cleanse, I decided to enlist the help of my assistant in whipping up a batch of pancakes that would be tasty and still adhere to my requirements of no gluten, sugar or animal products.
I started by making a fruit puree to use as a topping on my pancakes (the kids and my hubby just stuck to maple syrup). Then my helper and I ground up our own GF oats to make the flour, stirred in some milk and coconut oil and in no time at all we had whipped up a delicious meal. These pancakes are yummy but they are actually more like a big oatmeal cookie when you cook them – crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.
These giant cookie/pancakes make a delicious breakfast and a fun dinner that the whole family will love. And if you are interested giving them a try and you’d like to enlist the help of an eager toddler smack dab in the middle of his terrible twos- give me a call ; )
Oat Flour Pancakes with Fruit Puree
1 1/2 cups oat flour (I ground my own GF oats in a food processor but you could simply buy oat flour)
1/2 cup barley flour
2 flax eggs (2 tbsp. of flax meal mixed with 1/2 cup of water – let stand to get goopy)
2 cups of almond milk
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir. Heat a frying pan over medium high heat and grease with earth balance or organic butter. Pour 1/2 cup circles of batter on the frying pan and cook until bubbles form. Flip cakes and press down with the spatula to flatten slightly. Cook until golden brown on both sides. Serve with fruit puree and/or syrup, fresh fruit and chopped pecans.
Fruit Puree
2 cups pitted medjool dates
2 apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
Put all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on low heat for 25-30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. When cool, place in a high-powered blender or food processor and puree.
Enjoy!
Lori Leigh Wilson 
I have two helpers like yours 🙂 the pancakes look great! I’ll make mine without barley flour since my daughter has celiac. I’m curious why you use gluten free oats?
-Dana
Hey Dana! Thanks for stopping by! Gotta love those helpers ; ) I used GF oats because I’m currently on a cleanse and I’m avoiding gluten for 21 days.
I’m loving your blog!
Lori
Great helper! The pictures are so sweet.
I’ll have to try the pancakes. I made a batch of Meagan’s granola this morning. It smelled delicious in the oven, tomorrow will be the taste test when we try it for breakfast
Are you getting all this crazy wind we are? Last night I thought we might lose our sunroom.
Hope all is well. Love, Mom
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YumM! Im tryin these tomorrow!
Hey you! Im making these tomorrow as i have yet to find a tasty gf pancake recipe…. Question though, Sarah cant have the barley flour as it contains gluten… Can i use almond or coconut flour instead? Do they have enough umph to keep them fluffy and not dense and heavy? Thank you baker extraordinaire.
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Hmmm…give them a try and let me know. I’m thinking just additional oat flour might work as well. Lori
hi you! Nope, the oaty panckes weren’t a hit..delicious for sure, but!!!…… I think the problem is we are all looking for that fluffy pancake we love so much, but alas, without gluten and bakers flour, they just don’t fluff up! Perhaps we need to adjust our thinking and expectations……
Now, that said, they were gobbled up cold, hours later as a snack. Tasted like cookies!!
So true – fluffy is hard without eggs and ap flour. I have a white chia seed one that is yummy…I’ll send you the recipe. Might be a bigger hit.
Hi Lori. Thank you for checking out my blog and leading back to yours. What a delight! I adore the pic and comments about your two-year old and I also live a plant-based life. I’m already looking forward to more of your posts! Take care and blessings to you and those you love. xojulia
Thanks for stopping by Julia! Nice to meet you : )
Awww… your son is so lovely. Well, maybe not during the ‘kitchen nightmare’ incidents (haha, I love the Gordon comparison!) but at other times! These pancakes sound great. I’ve never made oat flour pancakes (and I didn’t know you could get GF oats! Great!) but I love the sound of them. Yay for giant healthy oatmeal cookies!
Thank you for stopping by! Yes my mini Ramsey is pretty darn cute ; )
Hi, thanks so much for liking my post. I look forward to reading your blog 🙂
Hope you enjoy! Thanks for stopping by : )
You are so right, as I know all too well, once they are grown and gone, they are greatly missed. I loved the flax egg idea. Do they really work in, say, muffins? Thanks for stopping by my blog.
It does work quite well but muffins don’t get as puffy without the eggs. They come out a little smaller and denser.
Thanks, I wondered about that.