Walnut Flax Pancakes – Low Carb and Gluten-Free

I’ve always thought of myself as a very well-adjusted person, but I am beginning to think that may not be so true.  I think I may actually have something of a compulsive disorder.  See, here’s my problem:  I can see a recipe that looks amazing and that I am wildly eager to make.  And I have every intention of following the recipe to the letter, so I can try it as it was intended to be.  But as I go along, getting out my ingredients and my utensils, I find myself changing the recipe.  I make additions or deletions, I vary the amounts of the ingredients, I might even change the way it’s cooked or baked.  I simply cannot leave well enough alone, I feel compelled to change the recipe.  As much as I cringe with shame to admit it, I have Compulsive Recipe Adaptation Disorder (aka CRAD, as it’s referred to in the medical field).  It’s a sickness with no known cure, I’m afraid.

Thankfully, however, I am in good company.  Many of my fellow food bloggers have the same compulsion to adapt recipes any chance they get.  CRAD is found to occur with very high frequency in the food blogging world and there is a direct causal relationship .  Our disease is the very thing that drove us to become food bloggers in the first place, as a way to document the changes to which we’ve subjected any and all recipes.  I don’t know why we feel compelled to document these alterations, since chances are we will never make the recipe the same way again.  We can’t help but adapt our own adaptations, eventually rendering them completely unrecognizable from the original recipe.  And I know there are more CRAD sufferers out there, among the general populace.  In fact, many of my readers have confessed to adapting MY recipes with their own little changes here and there (sacrilege!  Have you no shame???).

This recipe was one I’ve been intending to make ever since I came back from New Orleans.  I had every intention of making Maria’s Omega-3 Waffles exactly as she did for one of her segments of Get the Skinny with Molly Kimball, because they were fantastic just as they were.  But as I started to gather up my ingredients, I felt the sneaky first twinges of my compulsion kicking in.  First, I didn’t want to bother with my waffle iron, as it’s not a very good one and has a tendency to make very soggy waffles.  So I thought the batter might make great pancakes as well.  Okay, so that’s not too much of a change, surely that doesn’t really count as an adaptation.  Then I thought about how they were rich in Omega 3’s and that I could get even more into them by making them with walnut oil instead of butter.  Once I had walnuts on the brain, I found myself throwing in a handful of chopped walnuts to get a nice nutty crunch.  By that point, I figured I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and just go ahead and change the name to Walnut Flax Pancakes.  Oh, and I found the batter a bit too runny for pancakes, so I tossed in a tablespoon of coconut flour to thicken it.

See what I mean???  It’s a sickness, really.

Walnut Flax Pancakes

These delicious Walnut Flax pancakes are a hearty low carb breakfast rich in Omega-3s.

4.58 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Breakfast

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup golden flax seed meal**
• 2 tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch salt
• 4 large eggs
• ¼ cup walnut oil
• ½ cup almond milk
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• Butter or oil for cooking the pancakes

Instructions

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flax seed meal, coconut flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
• Stir in the eggs, walnut oil and almond milk until well combined. Stir in chopped walnuts.
• Heat a large skilled over medium heat. Add 2 teaspoon or so of butter or oil and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan.
• Using a scant ¼ cup of batter for each pancake, pour batter on griddle and spread into approximately 4 inch circles.
• Cook until bottom is golden brown and top is set around the edges. Flip carefully and continue to cook until second side is golden brown. Remove from pan and keep warm on plate or baking sheet in oven, while repeating with remaining batter.

Notes

**I prefer golden flax for this recipe, as the lighter colour looks more like traditional pancakes. But brown flax would work just as well.
Serves 4 (2 pancakes per serving). Each serving has 13.5 g of carbs and 10.2 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 3.3 g.

Nutrition Facts

Walnut Flax Pancakes

Amount Per Serving (2 pancakes)

Calories 54

% Daily Value*

Carbohydrates 13.5g5%

Fiber 10.2g41%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.