Steemit Culinary Challenge #20: Dutch "Paleo Yeah Baby" (Insert Austin Power's Character Voice Here) Pancakes

I challenged myself with this particular creation. I thought I'd try my hand at a version of Dutch Baby Pancakes.

Yeah, I  was surprised too. I wasn't sure if I could achieve a good rise on these babies... 

(without using flour, derived from grain or dairy.)

The problem with many "Paleo" inspired pancakes is that most end up flat and limp...

Plus, they won't stay together and they break apart when a "flip" with a spatula is attempted...even if they're smaller than a silver dollar.

"Do I look like a lady who would be happy to settle for flat and limp and smaller than a dollar coin?", I ask you. 

 

While I'm at it, I will also confess to wanting to flip broken bits of half- baked Paleo pancakes right out my @#$#ing kitchen window and sometimes when I'm creating new recipes, I use the F-word like a coma.

(My kitchen can be colourful, at times... not to worry, you'll eventually get use to my style.)

So, to say that I have been working on nailing the perfect Paleo Pancake recipe is an understatement.

Today, I gave up trying to flip anything.

A Dutch Baby Pancake is traditionally baked in a cast-iron frying pan in a very hot oven. This lets the batter cook and take the shape of a shallow bowl without the need to "flip-it" half-way through the process.

"Good solution", I thought. "Flip-this" you uncooperative Paleo batter with no structure. I've finally figured out what to do to make gigantic pancakes that don't fall apart. (I'll say it. Size matters....when it comes to somethings in life.)

(@englishtchrivy, you can breathe now...)

For this recipe you will need the following tools:

1. a stand or handheld mixer to whip egg whites;
2. a food processor;
3. 2 cast-iron frying pans with one being bigger than the other;
4. a spatula;
5. a selection of measuring cups and spoons;
6. a cooling rack;
7. a lifter to lift the pancakes out of the frying pans;
8. and a parring knife to slice the strawberries and bananas. 

The ingredients needed are:

1. 5 eggs;
2. 5 bananas;
3. 1/2 lb of fresh strawberries;
4. 1 cup of fresh blueberries;
5. 3 ripe (read: soft) avocados;
6. 2/3 cup + 2/3 cup + 1/3 cup of coconut milk that's been chilled for at least 12 hour in the refrigerator;
7. 2/3 cup of coconut flour;
8. 2/3 cup of walnuts (ground to a large crumb);
9. 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp + 2 tsp of maple syrup;
10. 4 tbsp of cocoa powder;
11. 2 + 2 tsp of vanilla infused agave syrup;
12. 1 + 2 tsp of coconut oil;
13. 1 tsp of ground cinnamon;
14. 1/2 tsp of cream of tarter;
15. 1/2 tsp of baking soda;
16. 1/3 tsp of pink Himalayan salt;
17. 1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg;
18. 1/4 tsp of ground ginger;
19. and 1/8 tsp of ground cardamon. 

(Wow! That's a whopper of an ingredients list, but nothing hard to find.)

Directions:

• Gather the ingredients needed.

• Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Today, we are only using the whites, so be careful not to get any yolk into your whites.

• Whip the whites for 3 minutes.
• Add the cream of tarter to the whites, which are starting to firm and form peaks.

• Continue whipping the whites for another 3 minutes or until they resemble this level of structure:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• In the food processor, blend 3 bananas, 2/3 cup of coconut milk, coconut flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamon, 2 tsp of vanilla infused agave syrup, 1/2 tsp of baking soda and salt.

• Blend well.
• Add 3 tbsp of maple syrup and blend again.

• Gently fold this batter into the whipped egg whites being careful not to loose too much of the air that you've whipped into them. (This is a crucial step so that your finished pancakes will rise and be fluffy.)

• On the stove top, melt 1 tsp of coconut oil in the smaller of your two cast iron frying pans and 2 tsp of coconut oil in the larger one. This heats up the pans. Make sure that the oil completely coats the sides and the bottom of the frying pans really well.

• Pour the pancake batter into the frying pans, making sure that the bottom of each pan is completely covered.

• Put both frying pans in the oven at the same time, on the middle rack.
• Bake for 25 minutes.

(Notice that the pancakes have pulled away from the edges of the frying pans.)

• Using a lifter, remove the pancakes from the frying pans and let cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

(@englishtchrivy, here's the frog, just for you. Notice that one pancake is larger than the other due to the different size frying pans that I used.)

Here's a picture of the underside of the pancakes:

Once the pancakes are cooled you can handle them and they will not fall apart. This demonstrates that this oven baking method cooks them all the way through and you will not have a soggy bottom. O.k., I like to celebrate the small things too, people... ;)

• Add 2/3 cup of well chilled, full fat coconut milk to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with 2 tsp of maple syrup. (It is important to use the highest fat coconut milk that you can find. The one I use contains 17 grams of fat per 1/2 cup serving. You need the high fat content to transform it into coconut whipped cream.)

• Whip on high speed for 3 minutes.

• Cut, remove the pits and peel the avocados.

• Add them to the food processor along with 4 tbsp of cocoa powder, 1/3 cup of coconut milk, 1/4 cup of maple syrup and 2 tsp of vanilla infused agave syrup.

• Blend well until the consistency of thick chocolate pudding is achieved.

• Clean the food processor and grind 2/3 cups of walnuts.

This is the level of "crumb" that you want to achieve:

• Wash the berries and slice the strawberries and 2 bananas into even slices.

• Start building your "Dutch Paleo Baby Pancake" stack by starting with your largest pancake. (It goes on the bottom.)
• Coat it with a generous covering of chocolate pudding. (Yeah, the one that is filled with avocados. It will be our little secret.)

• Top this with crushed walnuts.

• Sliced bananas are next.

• Now, add the coconut whipped cream.

• Add the second, smaller pancake and repeat the layers.

• Now, add more whipped cream and the strawberry slices. I positioned them to look like flower petals. (Yeah, it's not the fastest stack of pancakes you'll ever make, but it has an amazing table presence.)

• Add the blue berries.

Let's take a closer look:

How about a slice?...

Well, well, would you look at that! It's holding together and even has some height!

Thanks for making it all the way to the end of this post. It is a lot of steps, but it's well worth the effort.

There are some calories in this recipe but I am happy to report that it is full of whole foods, is high fat, high protein and is lower carb.

More importantly, what it doesn't contain are grains, dairy and refined sugar.

I would like to thank our guest judge: @pharesim;

Our prize sponsors: @smooth and @sirwinchester.

A big thank you also goes out to @englishtchrivy for organizing and running this challenge and @vegascomic for designing the trophies and @oaldamster for designing the logo.

I welcome your comments and invite you to join me...there is always room for one more at my table. ;)

~ Rebecca Ryan