Little Almond Pancakes

I've mentioned this before, but making naturally gluten-free dishes is sometimes better (and often simpler) than trying to pull together flour mixtures and adjust moisture levels to adapt a recipe. I was recently making breakfast on a Saturday morning, and my mom requested that I keep it gluten-free so she could have it too. But I wanted pancakes. Um, issue.
Pancakes are one thing I've never been able to replicate really well using gluten-free flours. I decided to try a recipe I heard of a while back, that uses nothing but almond meal as a binder.

These are shockingly delicious. The almond gives a really nice flavor to an otherwise plain pancake, and they are actually pretty fluffy, with a little bit of crunch from the nuts. Most importantly, they get golden-brown and crispy on the outside, while still being soft enough inside to soak up plenty of maple syrup (or the topping of your choice; fruit compote would be delicious, but that involved way too much planning ahead for a weekend morning).
 Enjoy!

Little Almond Pancakes

(slightly adapted from The Nourishing Home)

1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup buttermilk 

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or butter, but the coconut oil adds a lovely flavor), melted

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine the blanched almond flour, baking soda and salt.
Sparate the egg whites from the yolks. Place the egg whites in a medium bowl; set aside.
Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and whisk in the melted butter (or coconut oil). (Be sure the melted butter/oil has cooled to touch before adding.) Whisk in the milk, maple syrup and vanilla.
Add the dry mixture to the egg yolk mixture, whisking well to thoroughly combine, making sure there are no lumps in the batter.
Using a clean large wire whisk, whisk the egg whites rapidly until very foamy (about two minutes).
Then, use the whisk to gently fold the whipped egg whites into the batter until well combined. The batter will be thick; if you'd like to thin it out a little bit, add an additional tablespoon or two of milk.
Ladle a spoonful of batter onto the griddle to form a silver dollar size pancake (about 3” in diameter). (It's important to keep them fairly small in order to maintain the great texture.)
Cook for a few minutes, until pancakes begin to dry out at edges and the bottoms are a golden brown. They will cook quickly, so keep an eye on them.Carefully flip and cook another few minutes until done, but not over-browned.Serve hot with desired toppings. 
             -makes about 15 - 3" pancakes