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
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
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.
Jo says
Are you sure about the energy values? 54kcal seems very low given that 1 cup of flaxseed alone contains 897 kcal according to the USDA.
Carolyn says
Hi Jo… No I am not sure about that! 🙂
This is an old recipe and it never even had anything but the carbs listed. When it transferred over to my new recipe plug in, they clearly inserted some weird values. I will go and put all of this into my software and fix it. Thanks for the heads up!
Niki says
One cup of flax seeds is very different from one cup of flax seed meal. I grind my own meal in the coffee grinder. 5 tablespoons of flax seeds equals about a cup of meal. The calorie count for the brand (Simply Nature organic whole brown flax seeds from Aldi) I use would be 212.5 calories.
Sue Harmon says
My favorite pancakes before keto were apple cinnamon walnut!! I can’t believe I’m just finding this recipe!! First batch I’m making just as written… couldn’t wait an am eating the first one as I type! I have to say they fluff up better than any keto pancake I’ve tried and taste wonderful!!! Due to an intolerance of egg yolks the next batch will make with just egg whites and add apple extract to a batch and see what happens.. Thank you Carolyn!!!
Mary Ellen says
So, I needed an appetizer for a party, and thought I could adapt your recipe for blini. I omitted the walnuts, Swerve and cinnamon, and added 1 tsp onion powder instead. I cooked them 1 tablespoon at a time to make “dollar” sized pancakes. I mixed a topping of cream cheese, sour cream, chives, capers, smoked salmon, and pepper, adding a dollop on each blini. Wow! what a hit!
Carolyn says
Sounds good to me!
Sue Harmon says
what are your thoughts on gelatin as an egg replacement?
Timothy Dunbar says
Can you use packets of sweetleaf brand Stevia and if so how many instead of the swerve sweeter?
Carolyn says
I am sure you can but I have no idea how much. Sorry!
Denise says
After mixing the dry ingredients, I realized that I only had three eggs. I was not sure what I should do, continue or wait until I bought more eggs. I took a chance and only used three eggs and added the wet ingredients. The only substitution I did was add hazelnut oil instead of walnut oil, since that was all that I had on hand. Actually, one last modification I made, was after making the first two pancakes, I wanted them a little sweeter. I added stevia glycerite and it helped my sweet craving.
Reading the other comments, I think the next time I will try throwing a handful of blueberries in with the mix. I can’t think of a more delicious combination of flax, walnuts and blueberries. That would heavenly!
Carolyn says
Sounds good!
Ann R says
I made these this morning for my mom and we loved them! added a few slices of banana and a drizzle of the wild blueberry syrup from another recipe on your site. PERFECT!!
April says
These are the best low-carb pancakes I’ve tried yet. I’d just about given up on them, because most recipes are so awfully not-pancake-like. Thank you!
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it!
Samantha says
Thanks so much for this recipe! I usually make almond flour pancakes but only had flax meal this morning. I came across this recipe and I find them to be superior to the almond flour pancakes! Much better texture/taste and very filling. My non-grain-free husband thought the same. Thanks again 🙂
Carolyn says
So glad you liked them!
Cyn E says
Whenever I use flaxseed flour , my batter is sticky and there’s no way I can make pancakes with this recipe. What could have gone wrong?
Carolyn says
No idea, but maybe it’s the brand of flax seed?
Sandy says
Did I do something wrong? I followed the recipe but my batter was super thick. I noticed it says pour batter. I also had a hard time cooking these all the way through. The flavor is good but do you have any suggestions to change how thick the batter is?
Carolyn says
Something must have gone wrong but I am not sure what. Your batter shouldn’t quite pour like conventional pancake batter, but you should be able to scoop it and spread it into a circle and it should cook through. Could be the brand of flax. I would add some more liquid, 1 tbsp at a time, until it’s thinner next time.
Common Sense says
I woke up not feeling like my usual breakfast so I browsed through my list of To Try recipes and hit on this one. REALLY good!
Note: The batter is very thick and stuck to my silicone spoon as I tried to spread the pancakes, but it worked OK. I cooked them on low so that I was sure the middle was done. Oh, and like most low-carb pancakes, they’re a bit tricky to flip. I use a second spatula to scoot the pancake all the way onto the other one before I flip, otherwise part of the pancake will break off because they’re heavy.
Oh, but they are so good and very filling! And I get the leftovers all to myself since my husband hates walnuts 😉 Next time I will be nice and make them with hazelnut.
Thanks Carolyn, for another fabulous recipe!
Nicole says
I’m looking at Swerve online and noticed that in this recipe you call for powdered Swerve. Is that the same as the Confectioners Swerve on the website?
Carolyn says
Yes, sorry. I grew up calling it powdered sugar or icing sugar and the habit is hard to break!
Joanna says
Thank god for these! Just finished a stack of two with butter and carb friendly syrup. Thank you so much for coming up with this recipe.
Linda says
For me, this was a very dense pancake – had a hard time getting them to cook all the way through without first burning them (my batch made 9 pancakes, not 8, so mine were a tiny bit smaller I guess). Part of my problem is that I didn’t use as much fat as the recipe called for. I’m doing Medi WOE (think: “Atkins on crack”) so they were a bit high on fat for me. Our emphasis is on controlled carbs, protein, and very high protein. I’m going to try the coconut flour ones you also posted and see if those cook a bit better for me but I think the high fat will still be problematic for my WOE.
Carolyn says
Yes, I am guessing that the reduced fat would be an issue for these. Hope the coconut ones work!
Linda says
Oops, I meant to say our emphasis is on controlled fat and carbs. Oy, not enough coffee this morning!
Anita says
I am making traditional pancakes on friday,
But not for me I am using your recipe.
but dont have every thing in the house.
So I am going to swap some stuff to.
sunflowerseeds instead of the walnuts
some shaved coconut instead of the flower (cant buy that here) and maybe coconut milk.
Lets see how they taste
Lily Rose says
These pancakes! Deelish. I always have a super good ketosis after I eat these for brekkies. I love putting 1/2 a banana in and upping the cinnamon. Mmmm! Thank you!
Rivka says
Hey, think I could still make these into waffles?
Carolyn says
Probably. I can’t guarantee they will be crispy, but they will taste good!
Buttoni says
Oh, I’m so glad to know the name of my “disease” now, Carolyn. Thank you. Nice to finally have a diagnosis/label on it. I, too, suffer from this illness. 🙂 My husband is always razzing me about “Why don’t you just make it by the recipe ONE time?” I just can’t seem to be able to do it either. 🙂
Your pancakes look lovely. I’m off baked goods right now, but one day perhaps.
Michele says
I saw these this morning and made these this morning–not bad! I did make some substitutions of my own. Can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me? /sarcasm/ I used melted butter instead of walnut oil, brown flax instead of golden flax and soy flour instead of coconut flour, and I added a little bit of maple flavoring. I had these right out of the pan drenched in sugar-free maple(-esque) syrup. The texture was of course different from traditional pancakes, but this is probably the best LC pancake recipe I’ve tried so far. Num, num!