Crazy Good Low Carb Pancake Recipe - Gluten free, Sugar Free & FLUFFY!

We nailed it! We now offer you the recipe for the best wheat-free pancakes on the planet. I kid you not my pretties.

Amazing 'healthified" light & fluffy Low-Carb Pancakes!

My mom and I had a lot of fun working together on this one. We are very synergistic when we collaborate together. We mind meld and stuff, it's great.

She teaches me, and she tells me I teach her too. But personally, I think I only teach her stuff that's a variation of the stuff she first taught me. She may disagree on that point, however, I ask you this:

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

I can answer that one, "The Chicken".   Not that my mom is a chicken.

My point is, I am very grateful for how my mother has raised me and for what she has taught me. I feel she is woven into my very fabric. She still teaches me the most amazing things (like what makes the best flour substitutes, or how to make a heart-calming herbal tincture, or insights on the power of personal prayer). Happy Mother's Day again mom!

Anyway, the chicken came first. Because of my mom, you can now make the best healthy pancakes ever.

The ingredient list is a very creative one. We use several types of "flours" to get the flavor and texture of these pancakes right. Remember, we are professional food formulating maniacs, along with being gluten-free specialists and sugar-free specialists. I say this because I want you to know that we have done more than our fair share of formulating this kind of thing. You get to benefit from our years of trials, and years of learning about the properties of the newest healthy raw materials. Cool, huh?

For you, we wanted to create variations that use ingredients that are readily available to the consumer. This narrows our list of cool (and healthy) ingredients substantially. We have tried many variations and proportions with several different ingredients, and this is where we arrived.

We are excited to share this recipe with you because the recipes we found "out there" were not what we were hoping for. (See my Pancake Bedtime Story post) They were rubbery, way too eggy, soggy, spongy, slimy, gritty, heavy, mushy, bitter, fell apart, contained sugar, Were starch-laden, tasted like yucky protein powder, or otherwise weird tasting and weird textured. I'll skip breakfast, thanks!

But now, we can all enjoy light and fluffy guilt-free pancakes, and our family won't pull faces and run away hungry.

It is worth the effort to acquire all the ingredients we list here. If you have already been cooking with gluten-free, low-carb, paleo, or sugar-free recipes, you will already have most, if not all the ingredients for this recipe. You can even make this mix in bulk. We will post a bulk pancake mix recipe later, so please check back soon.

Benefits of this pancake recipe:

Tastes amazing!
Low carb
High fiber
Sugar free
Gluten free
High protein
Curbs cravings
Aids in weight loss
Helps blood sugar levels stay even
Good for athletic training
Can make dry pancake mix in advance
Can make pancakes in advance and freeze them


First get out all your ingredients first and pre-weigh them (weighing is best for consistency), or you can just measure them until you get yourself some good kitchen scales.

Again, putting together this dry pancake mix is SO worth the effort. When you are ready to make some pancakes, all you do is add some water and egg. They are easy to mix up, easier to cook, and the easiest to e-a-t.

Your kitchen will smell wonderful as these cook. You and your family will feel satisfied for a long time after you eat these pancakes. They are high in fiber and high in protein too. These are also helpful for those who are aiming to slim down. They even taste great with just butter and no syrup. Most fake pancakes have to be drowned in syrup to be at all palatable.

See the next version of pancakes we created, Buttermilk Pancakes, HERE. 

We hope you enjoy this recipe for years to come!



Low Carb Pancake Recipe:

Makes 4 medium sized pancakes (serves 2).

Dry Mix Ingredients:

13.0 grams (2 T.)  stirred coconut flour
11.0 grams (2 T.)  oat bran flour (finely ground)
11.0 grams (2 T.)  white almond flour (lightly packed)
8.0 grams (1 T.)  Hi-Maize brand resistant starch from National Starch **
4.0 grams (1 T.)  whey protein isolate
3.0 grams (1 T.)  psyllium husks (flakes, not powdered) ***
3.5 grams (1 t.)  gelatin powder (like Knoxx brand plain gelatin)
4.0 grams (1 t.)  Table Top Sugar Blend (or 1 1/2 t. of a 50:50 mix of erythritol and xylitol) ****
1.2 grams (1/4 t.)  BioSalt or sea salt
2.8 grams (1/2 t.)  baking powder
0.9 grams (1/4 t.)  konjac powder
0.9 grams (1/4 t.)  Wheat Bread Flavor Powder, optional (a proprietary flavoring for GF breads *)


Wet Ingredients:

1 medium egg
1/2 c. cool purified water


Method:

In a small mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together very well and set aside.

Preheat a 12-inch or larger non-stick skillet to 350 degrees (medium heat). Oil pan with coconut oil.

Whisk the egg until emulsified.

Add the water to the egg and mix together.

Add the egg mixture to the dry mix in the mixing bowl and blend together until there are no lumps.

Immediately pour all 4 pancakes into the prepared skillet. Let them cook without shaking the pan.

The pancake batter quickly becomes thick, so they will not bubble like thinner pancakes do to indicate when to flip them over. You'll need to peek at the bottoms, and flip them when they turn nicely brown.

Cook the other side until they are golden brown and spring back in the center when lightly touched.

If you did not cook all the pancakes at once, do not stir the batter down. Just portion it with a food portioning scoop (an ice cream scoop)

onto the oiled skillet. You may gently pat down the batter a bit with wet fingers. Again, do not shake the pan to settle the pancakes or they will be misshapen.

Enjoy with butter and a good sugar-free syrup or preserves.



Notes: 

*  "Wheat Bread Flavor Powder" is a proprietary flavor my mother created for all gluten free bread-type products. It is not available to the public (unless we get a large amount of requests for it...).

** Honeyville grain carries the HiMaize Resistant starch. This ingredient is not absorbed like regular starch and is a wonderful ingredient for low carb, gluten free baking. You can use up to 25% HiMaize in your flour blends to cut carbs.

*** If you do not have the 1 T. psyllium husk flakes, substitute with 1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder. The texture will not be quite as bread-like, but it is still good.

**** You may substitute Lakanto white sugar substitute for the tabletop sugar blend called for.

Looking for bubbles in these cooking pancakes is not an indicator of pancakes being ready to flip. Check the bottoms for doneness.

Lower heat is needed for cooking these pancakes, compared to regular starch-filled pancakes. Too high a temperature will burn the outsides before the insides are cooked through.

Grind the oat bran until very fine, unless you want more texture to your pancakes.

Making these pancake with just liquid egg whites is not a good idea. They won't act like, look like, or taste like pancakes at all.

Mixing in an additional t. dry egg white protein powder resulted in rubbery, eggy pancakes. Don't do it.

Using less oat bran flour results in a pancake with compromised texture. We do not recommend less than 2 T. oat bran flour for this recipe.

The added gelatin makes a nice, flexible pancake, nearer to a wheat-like texture.

Whey protein isolate is higher in protein and has mush less lactose in it than whey protein concentrate, and usually the lactose-intolerant can eat it in this recipe.

Shaking the pancake batter in the skillet will result in flattened pancakes that may also run together. Just pour them, or portion them with a food portioning scoop (ice cream scoop). If the batter has thickened a lot, gently pat the pancake batter down a tiny bit with wet fingers.


Tip: 

I doubled the recipe because all I had were extra-large eggs. I used 1 extra-large egg.  It worked fine, although the 2nd batch of pancakes were more ragged looking because the batter had thickened up and I did not pat the batter down with wet fingers. Not the end of the world, they still turned out great!


Photos of the process:

Mix the dry ingredients together first.

Whisk the egg then add in the water.

Add the egg mixture to the dry pancake mix.

Mix until no lumps remain.

Using a food portioning scoop to measure out each pancake, without deflating the batter.

I flipped the pancakes with an unusual amount of grace... Not.

A nice fluffy stack of pancakes.

That was so good! :)

Enjoy!

Leila & Nancy.

New Ingredient Arrivals for Gluten-Free Baking!

My mom sent me an early birthday present and it arrived yesterday...

Organic Coconut Flour, Ultra Gel, and Hi-Maize Resistant Starch for my birthday.

What does a foodie hope to receive for their birthday? Probably exotic dark chocolate made from Hawaiian cocoa beans.

What does a nerdy food-formulating foodie dream of receiving for their birthday? Stay tuned and I'll tell you.

If you have been following our blog, Kitchen Cheetahs, you know that we have been happily working on creating delicious and healthy low-carb pancakes. I have needed some additional ingredients to create the high level of success we are seeking. My mom and I exchange ideas continually, and share our experiments and progress. We think this is fun. Being the observant person that she is, she soon announced that my early birthday present was on it's way. Cool beans! She gives the best gifts.

Soon to my door, what should appear? A big bag of coconut flour, clear Gel, and more! 

I love her gift because my whole family will benefit from it. I will be able to make great tasting bakery and breakfast items that will support my family in a healthy way. I will be able to make pancakes that my whole family will enjoy, that at the same time, work for my husband and I in our goal of healthy low-carb eating.

We here at Kitchen Cheetahs, are also pleased to be able to share the up and coming recipes with you. We want to support you in your healthy ways of eating too.

I am very excited over what my mom sent me:

Organic coconut flour

Ultra Gel

Hi-Maize Resistant Starch

Organic coconut flour is a must-have for low-carb, gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo baking. It is a very important component in healthy flour blends. It's very high in dietary fiber, healthy fats, and is very low in carbohydrates. Honeyville Grain sells organic coconut flour in 25 pound bags. Package it in smaller air-tight bags and seal in a 6-gallon food storage bucket for long term storage. It will last a long time this way. Coconut flour is  recommended in a book called The 100, by Jorge Cruise, and is promoted in other books like Grain Brain, Wheat Belly, as well as several paleo cookbooks.

Ultra Gel is another cool ingredient used for instantly thickening hot or cold foods. I like to use it to make sugar-free jams and sauces. It can also be used to add body to frostings. It is also available online through Honeyville Grain.

Hi-Maize, by National Starch - I have been wanting resistant starch for low-carb, gluten-free baking. Why resistant starch? Because your body does not absorb it like it does normal starch. That means it is much lower in carbohydrates! It can be used to replace up to 25% of the flour used in a recipe. It has a neutral taste and gives a great texture to baked goods. It is a trade secret for gluten-free, low-carb formulating. Now you know. A particular brand of resistant starch that is available to the public is called Hi-Maize, made by National Starch. It is made from corn. Our family do not have issues with corn and plus, this product has been purified. There is resistant tapioca starch too, but it is expensive and not readily available. You can order Hi-Maize online from Honeyville Grain. 

Organic coconut Flour

Ultra Gel

Resistant Starch by National Starch.

Hi-Maize 260 is the trade name of the resistant starch.

I'm now set to mix, bake, and explore.

Happy Baking!

P.S. Make sure you check out this post for great low-carb pancakes!

Leila.

Our 3 Favorite Fiber Blends for Gluten-Free Baking - Great to have on hand for other recipes too...

Our Favorite Synergistic Soluble Fiber Blends - Critical for Superior Gluten-Free Baking!

Besides using our favorite 4-Flour Blend in gluten-free baking, using one of these fiber blends is crucial for obtaining superior gluten-free baked goods that have nice chew, rise, stability, moisture retention, and bread-like texture and structure.

We have given you 3 choices of fiber blends to give you more flexibility. Some people prefer one gum over another. In the Cheetah Test Kitchens, we feel all of these gums are healthful and beneficial to the body. Soluble fiber improves gut health, helps to level out blood sugar levels, and helps you feel satisfied longer after a meal. Fibers and gums are superior to using starches for thickening purposes for these reasons, and more.

We use these soluble fiber blends a lot in our households, not only for gluten-free breads, but also for GF cakes, muffins, and cookies. We also use it in sauces, salad dressings, smoothies, etc... We recommend having some in your pantry too!

3 BEST SYNERGISTIC SOLUBLE FIBER BLEND FORMULAS:

In order of preference...


SYNERGISTIC SOLUBLE FIBER BLEND #1:

50 % Konjac Flour and 50 % Xanthan Gum



SYNERGISTIC SOLUBLE FIBER BLEND #2:

50 % Konjac Flour and 50 % Guar Gum



SYNERGISTIC SOLUBLE FIBER BLEND #3:

50 % Xanthan Gum and 50 % Guar Gum




Method: 

Place in a jar with an air-tight lid and shake the tar out of it to thoroughly blend together.
Store air-tight in your pantry.




Notes:

About gum synergy: When mixing 2 or more soluble fibers or gums together, they are more powerful than when used on their own. These gum blends are carb-free and basically calorie-free. Only small amounts are needed.

Konjac Flour - A naturally occurring gum. Contains Glucomannan, a water-soluble polysaccharide and a dietary fiber. Glucomannan is derived from a tuber called Amorphophallus Konjac. Glucomannan has the thickening power that is about 10 times stronger than corn starch.

Guar Gum - A naturally occurring gum from guar beans, a commonly eaten vegetable in other countries. It is a galactomannan, which is a soluble fiber.

Xanthan Gum - A polysaccharide created by a fermentation process.
To quote +http://modernistcuisine.com/ - "First discovered by USDA scientists in the 1950s, xanthan gum is fermented by plant-loving bacteria, characterized by sticky cell walls. It is no less natural than vinegar or yeast. We think xanthan gum is one of the best discoveries in food science since yeast."


We will be sharing more on how to use these gum blends, along with recipes using them.

Happy baking!

Leila & Nancy

Time Tested healthy gluten-free 'white flour' blend - our exclusive formula now being released!

Kitchen Cheetah's Healthy 4-Flour Blend (GLUTEN-FREE)

A WHITE FLOUR SUBSTITUTE

This is a special formula we are releasing to you. The ingredients are simple but the results in gluten-free baking are remarkable. It will work in just about any GF application, replacing other GF flour blends out there - plus it tastes great!  The starch content is much less than typical gluten-free flour blends. The protein content is much higher in our blend and it is more nutritious. It is a formula easy to remember. So you can make more easily from memory.

Have you ever noticed how gritty baked goods are that use rice flour?

Or how 'beany' and weird tasting foods are that contain bean flour?

What do you think about the heaviness of coconut flour and almond flour?

And then there is the dry, crumbly, stale, tasteless starch-filled GF baked goods.

We are really sick of all that.

This formula came about with much lab-testing over a period of years by professional food formulators. We have found this to be the best combination, having the best texture, taste, and nutrition.

There are more secrets to gluten-free baking that we will teach you. Like how to use psyllium, soluble fiber blends, and eggs to make superior GF baked goods. So hold tight.

I am sure more gluten-free advancements will come, as more unique healthy ingredients are made available. We already do have more advanced formulas, but they contain too many ingredients available only to large food manufacturers. Remember, we deal only with healthful ingredients when we formulate, that is important to us.

Use our 4-Flour Blend in place of the other gluten-free flour blends used in GF baked goods.
We are also currently working on a whole  grain, whole wheat type flour, and will share that at a later date, so check back with our blog.

Make sure to measure everything by weight, not volume.
Ingredients at different times have different moisture levels and be more or less compacted, which will throw off your proportions. Gluten-free baking is touchy and the ingredients are generally more expensive, so measurements matter. I won't even give you volume measurements, so you won't be tempted.

See the notes below about the ingredients used here before you make the flour blend.

We will be adding specific recipe how-to's using this flour blend plus other ingredient combos for the best GF baked goods ever. Stay tuned!


I know this post is a bit wordy - but this really is EASY.



GLUTEN-FREE 4-FLOUR BLEND Recipe

25 % Sorghum flour, whole or white
25 % White Bean flour or garbanzo bean flour
25 % Extra-fine Sweet Rice flour (AKA glutenous rice flour) (no substitutions)
25 % Cassava flour (not the same as tapioca starch)


Method:

Mix and sift the flours together a few times to make sure all of the flours are evenly distributed.
Store air-tight.



Tip: The more finely ground your gluten-free flours are, the better results you will have.



Notes About The Cassava Flour:

This is a food formulator's secret we are giving you here. The Cassava Flour used in this gluten-free flour blend is made by one company only. They own a patent on this product. We like this product a lot in the Cheetah Test Kitchens! Their cassava flour contains 7 % naturally occurring cassava fiber. Regular cassava starch is all starch (also known as tapioca starch or tapioca flour). It can get confusing because people mistakenly call tapioca starch 'tapioca flour', when it really isn't.

The manufacturer of the cassava flour is AKFP (American Key Food Products). I do not know if they sell to the public. Check it out and see. Let us know if it is, because that would be cool.


If you can't locate this product, use one of  the substitutions below to make a kasava-type flour:

a.   90 % tapioca starch plus 10 % very finely ground oat bran flour.

b.   93 % tapioca starch plus 7 % very finely ground rice bran flour (or organic corn bran flour).

First grind the bran as finely as you can in a seed mill. Regrind if it's not really fine.
In a VitaMix, regrind the bran with the tapioca starch to make it extra-fine textured.
Use this in place of the 25 % cassava flour called for in the 4-Flour Blend recipe above.
Store the leftovers in an air-tight container.


Tip: If the bran mixture gets hot but still isn't ultra-fine textured, pour it out onto a baking tray to cool down and let the moisture evaporate for a few minutes. You can do this 4 times if desired.
We will do this in our test kitchen and we label the amount of times something is ground and cooled, then reground. Like I said, texture is everything when it comes to gluten-free baking.

For example:
1X   - Means it was ground once.
2X   - Means it was ground twice.
3X   - Means it was ground three times.
4X   - Means it was ground four times.



Notes about any type of bran:

Taste your bran before you mix it into any of your food. The fats naturally found in bran quickly go rancid, causing a bitter taste. If it's bitter, it's rancid. Throw it out or take it back to the store you purchased it from. Usually bran is now stabilized for a shelf-life of 1 year, but you don't know how long it has been sitting around before you bought it. It is a good idea to store your bran in the freezer.



Notes about the Bean Flour:

We use a special bean flour that does not taste weird or 'beany'. We have a professional food manufacturer's source for a specific kind of bean flour. It is made by ADM (Archer Daniel Midlands). The specific product we use is called VEGEFUL. They manufacture several types of bean flours: white bean, pinto bean, garbanzo bean, etc. They really tastes good! Now you know.



If you share our recipe, please credit the creator's of it and our blog - Thank you.



Have fun baking!

Leila & Nancy

The Kitchen Cheetahs

Gluten-Free Wheat Bread Project (Jiffy Bread)

Gluten-Free "Wheat" Bread Project!

Up and coming TASTY gluten-free bread

There is a saying, "If it looks like a fish, smells like a fish, and tastes like a fish...it's probably A FISH!"

Well, we are working on a special project in the Kitchen Cheetahs Test Kitchens. It's wheat bread...but it isn't wheat bread. But it IS "Wheat " bread.

What I mean is, It looks like wheat bread, it smells like wheat bread, it feels like wheat bread, and it tastes like wheat bread! But it's NOT wheat bread! But you will think it is wheat bread. Got it?

This is a teaser of what is to come. As I mentioned in our very first post, we are professional food formulators. we specialize in gluten-free and sugar-free formulas. Most gluten-free recipes are full of sugar and starch, so in reality, you are only exchanging one problem for another! Our goal is to create Truly healthy recipes that will fool anyone into believing that they are eating the real thing. That's a tall order. I said before, "Food should taste good." I don't want to eat healthy, only to miss even more, the old "unhealthy" foods, and I know I am not alone in this.

Gluten-free bread seems to be the carrot dangling before the horse, longed for but never achieved - successfully. True?

Well, we are nailing it! We are working on several gluten-free bread formulas right now. Some of these formulas we will soon be able to share with you.
       
So far we have breads that are like a 50% whole wheat/50% white bread, Challah bread, corn bread, and a "white" sandwich bread that we are making great progress with. These breads have a yeasty flavor and smell like real bread, they have nice spring and hold their shape beautifully for sandwiches and toast. The texture is amazing in the mouth. They are not at all gummy, or sawdust-textured. They are not a gritty, rice bread, or a heavy coconut flour bread, or a dense almond bread. they are not loaded with starches, and they do not have weird off-flavors.

What these breads DO have is a healthy high-fiber content and a very low carb count (great for curbing appetite and aiding in weight loss).

We are very excited to share this with you.

Below are some photos of our gluten-free bread that takes the place of a regular 50/50 whole wheat/white flour gluten-containing bread. we wish you could smell and taste this bread. We really don't think you would miss real bread anymore.

Slices of our easy gluten-free bread

Look at the structure of this gluten-free bread

Perfect for toasting

Yeah baby!

Please stay tuned,

Leila.