Vanilla Almond Pancakes

As far as pancakes are concerned, I used to have a strategy: whenever I was craving for them, I would send my little sister to ask our Dad to bake some - and he would never refuse. Had I asked directly, the answer would have been no, most of the time. (My sister was really thin as a kid, so I guess my parents were just over happy that she would spontaneously want to eat something...)

For about three years now, I've tried a new dairy-and-egg-free pancake recipe every now and then, and failed miserably every single time. They'd be sticky, impossible to fry; they'd taste like soy or some other unpleasant ingredient; their consistency would be like rubber; well, you get the picture.

Until Santa brought me a new vegan cookbook, the Vegan Love Story. A very recommendable book indeed! It features a pancake recipe that immediately caught my attention: no dairy-free-milks nor egg-substitutes needed, just basically water and flour. Simple and ingenious! I substituted part of the flour by almond flour, and the result was the best-ever vegan pancakes that even my son adored.

To make enough pancakes for 1 hungry or 2 moderately hungry breakfast eaters:

• 50g almond meal


• 125g flour


• 2 tsp sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• a pinch of salt


• 3/4 tsp baking powder


• 150ml water


• 1 Tbsp sunflower oil, plus some more for the frying

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and oil and beat energetically until you have a smooth batter. Let the batter stand for about 10 minutes - just enough time to make some coffee ;)

Fry your pancakes over a medium heat until both sides are golden brown. Make sure that they are well cooked from the inside as well - if not, reduce the heat.

Serve with your favourite accompaniment - I opened a jar of home-made wild raspberry jam for the occasion!

P.S. Who would invent a method to make even the first pancake turn out perfect?! Mine didn't, as you can see from the pic... it never does...