A couple times a month, if not more, I will wake up on Saturday morning and instantly think of pancakes. I don’t know what it is about this breakfast, but Saturdays just scream pancakes to me. They can be a little bit of a labour of love as they take a bit more time than my normal breakfast in the week but I’m usually never rushed on Saturday mornings so it works out perfectly!
This past Saturday I woke up with that familiar pancake craving and decided to put my amazing Circulon Electric Griddle to use. This griddle is honestly THE perfect pancake maker. While I know pancakes can be easily made in a pan, the griddle is wide enough to cook 8 pancakes at a time, evenly and perfectly!
When it comes to pancakes, we all know that they can vary in terms of nutritional quality. On one end of the spectrum there’s the fluffy, white flour, white sugar, Aunt Jemima laden delights (which, once in a blue moon can be enjoyed.. don’t get me wrong!) and then on the other end are pancakes made with wonderful whole grain or grain-free flours, protein-rich eggs, natural sweeteners, and loads of nutritionally dense whole-food ingredients!
Can you guess which are my favourite??
I decided to go with coconut flour and tapioca flour for the base of these pancakes as I find the flours works wonderfully for lighter, fluffier, puffier pancakes! Other whole grain or grain-free flours can often leave pancakes with a denser, heavier consistency, which isn’t a bad thing, but I’m all about the puff and fluff!
I love how many variations to pancakes there are out in the blogosphere! If you are into protein pancakes but don’t necessarily need them to be paleo, Gina’s perfect protein pancakes recipe is definitely worth checking out!
As per usual, I chose to keep it simple with minimal ingredients for the pancakes themselves; coconut flour and tapioca flour, eggs, pure maple syrup, coconut milk, and cashew butter! To go with a Christmasy theme, I added in some yummy holiday inspired spices like cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger!
The fibre-rich, naturally sweetened, protein packed pancakes turned out wonderfully and I made use of two leftover mandarin oranges that were sitting in the fridge just begging to be eaten to make a simplea and sweet mandarin “compote” to top the pancakes!
The Cinnamon Spiced Paleo Pancakes with Mandarin Orange Compote & Pistachios (it’s a mouthful, I know!) definitely made for a great start to our Saturday and got me into even more of a Christmas mood as we spent the rest of our Saturday setting up our tree, hanging the stockings, and listening to all the Christmas classics!
Do you have a healthy Christmas-inspired pancake recipe? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
- Pancakes:
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoons cashew butter
- ⅓ cup coconut or almond milk
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup tapioca flour
- ⅛ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- 18 tsp ground ginger
- Pinch of salt
- Mandarin Compote:
- 1 tsp coconut oil or organic butter
- 2 Mandarin oranges, peeled and segmented
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- Garnish:
- 2 tablespoons crushed pistachios
- In a bowl add the eggs, cashew butter, milk, maple syrup, vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Add in the coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, spices, and salt and stir until a smooth batter is achieved.
- Heat a griddle or large pan over medium heat and grease with coconut oil, olive oil, or organic butter.
- Pour 2-3 tablespoons of batter into a round and cook for 2 minutes (or until slightly bubbling) each side and then flip and cook another 1-2 minutes.
- Once pancakes are done add the oranges to a hot pan with coconut oil or butter and saute, squishing with a spatula to get the juices into the pan as well.
- Add in the cinnamon and maple syrup and sauté on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until bubbling and syrupy.
- Stack the pancakes between two plates, divide the mandarin compote between each stack and top with crushed pistachios and pure maple syrup as desired!
Have a wonderful rest of the week,
Christal
These are incredibly perfect for a holiday breakfast! Im obsessed with the orange and pistachio compote! Sounds and looks amazing!
Thanks Bethany! 🙂
Christal, I actually can’t get over how great these look! I will definitely be testing them out 🙂
Thanks girl!! Enjoy! 🙂
MMmm, these LOOK wonerfully fluffy 😀 And I also love the festive topping! Sadly I have run out of coconut flour, but one can always buy some more eh? I also love how sweet and juice the clementines and tangerines are this time of the year! Better make the most of it 😀 x
Thanks Jules! Mmm yes they are fluffy and the topping was really what amped this up another level! Hope you are enjoying your December!