Chocolate Protein Crempogs; With a Strawberry & Vanilla Compote

It feels like a lifetime ago since I was last able to cook a decent meal and blog about it; actually it feels like forever since I was able to cook a decent meal; enjoy the meal; and also feel full after the meal. Now I remember why I chose to start eating a low carb, high fat diet last year; it’s because it satiates me more than eating high carb, which is how I’ve been eating for the last two weeks in order to get myself through the insanity workouts. Yes that’s right, I am being put through my paces by Shaun T and getting my butt kicked everyday; man those workouts are hard, but satisfying when you start to realise that your stronger than you think; well in my case anyway. Well, today is my rest day and I was taking this opportunity to kick the carbs for the weekend and resort back to eating low carb, high fat, and I just had to make these stunning crempogs.

Chocolate Protein Crempogs, with a Strawberry & Vanilla Compote

Now I know that my last post was crempogs but these are different; I experimented a little with the recipe and also added in some chocolate protein powder, because if it’s one thing I need with these insanity workouts; its protein. I also made a fresh, homemade Strawberry and Vanilla Compote to go with the crempogs and everything went together perfectly; even my sister loved them and thought they were delicious –which they were. 

Chocolate Protein Crempogs; With a Strawberry & Vanilla Compote

I was actually hoping to make this strawberry and vanilla compote with some home-grown strawberries from my garden, but sadly while they are doing better than they ever have, they’re still getting eaten by tiny worms and also the rain isn’t helping with rot – maybe next year. However; I have had a few strawberries from my patch, I'm just saving them for a rainy day. 

Homegrown Strawberries 

I think I have some way to go before I can make a jar of strawberry jam - eeek. 

Yield – 7 Pancakes

Ingredients

• 25g Coconut Flour
• 2 Eggs
• 15g Grass-fed Butter
• 15g Chocolate Protein Powder
• ¼ tsp Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 60ml Whole Milk, or Full Cream Milk
• ¼ tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• Coconut Oil (or any oil)
• A touch of Himalayan Salt

Instructions

Before you start your crempogs you will need to make your buttermilk.

In a bowl pour out your milk and add the apple cider vinegar; stir the milk and then leave to stand until you need it.

In a blender or another separate bowl crack your eggs and beat, then add in your coconut flour and combine thoroughly; now you can add in some protein powder and again combine.

Warm your buttermilk either in a pan or microwave, for a few seconds – you will notice the curds have separated from the whey; this is buttermilk, now add in the butter and stir until the butter has melted. Add the bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt to your buttermilk and stir; the buttermilk will start to foam and look like egg whites.

You can now add your buttermilk to the coconut flour mixture and make sure everything is well combined; scraping the sides to make sure no mixture has stuck.

You should now have a nice smooth, chocolaty batter which is slightly thick; leave it for 5 minutes to thicken a little more and then start cooking the crempogs.

Ingredients – Strawberry & Vanilla Compote

• 100g Strawberries
• 1 tsp Honey
• Vanilla Extract or Vanilla pods

Chop your strawberries and place them in a saucepan with enough water to just cover the fruit; the vanilla and honey; bring it all to a boil; and let them cook for a few minutes, when foam starts to reach the surface stir the fruit and reduce the heat – when the compote slides off the back of a spoon slowly and looks almost like jelly; it’s done.

Your pancakes and strawberry compote should be done around the same time, so plate up enjoy.

The Hungry Welsh Girl. 

Crempogs with Honey

Last night I devoured a welsh cake in a matter of seconds. It was everything a welsh cake needed to be - not too thick, not too dry, smooth and buttery on your tongue - it was beautiful.  However, for the next hour after I was itching like a dog with fleas - it wasn't fun. That’s when I knew I needed to make something sweet and gluten free. My initial idea was to make Welsh cakes with a healthy twist, but I’d never made Welsh cakes before, so that idea went out the window. That’s when I thought of making pancakes - which were like welsh cakes, but I didn't have any currants, so I decided on plain crempogs.

Crempogs are welsh pancakes, which are usually eaten on Shrove Tuesday. Traditional crempogs are usually thicker than my end result - like Welsh cake thick, but I ran out of coconut flour and made my batter too wet by adding vanilla extract.

Crempogs with Honey. 

As I mentioned above these crempogs were made with coconut flour, which makes them; gluten free, grain free, wheat free, healthy and have a bunch of other benefits that I won’t ramble on about here. However, if you are interested in finding out more on coconut flour, you can visit this website here. Traditional crempogs are made with self rising flour, but obviously I wanted to make healthy pancakes so opted for coconut flour. At first coconut flour can be tricky to use, as it drinks liquid like a thirsty camel, but I’m happy to announce that after a whole year of experimenting with coconut flour and pancakes, I very rarely get a bad batch of pancakes; which is why I knew this recipe was going to be successful.

I was so convinced this recipe was going to be a triumph that I even went as far as to make my own buttermilk – which was super easy to make, and had no nasty ingredients in it just; full cream milk, lemon juice and to let it stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, or longer – easy as your ABC. Now that I had my buttermilk it was time to make the crempogs.

Ingredients - Buttermilk

• 80ml Gold Top Jersey Milk - or milk of choice. 
• 1/2 tsp- Lemon Juice, or Apple Cider Vinegar - too much will result in a bitter buttermilk.

Instructions 

In a jar, container, or measuring cup at the milk and lemon juice, then leave stand for 10 minutes, or longer. As soon as your milk splits, you have buttermilk. It's really that simple. 

Yield – 6 Crempogs

Ingredients

• 25g – Coconut Flour
• 2 Eggs
• 15g – Grass-fed, or Organic Butter
• Buttermilk
• ¼ tsp – Baking Powder
• 1/4  tsp – Bicarbonate of Soda
• ½ tsp – Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/8 tsp Himalayan Salt
• Sugar substitute

NB: You can adjust any of the ingredients above to suit yourself, or your dietary needs, although I’m not sure if the end result will be the same.

Instructions

By this point you should have your buttermilk ready, if not follow the steps I noted above.

Warm your buttermilk in a saucepan, or microwave, then pour over the butter and stir until the butter has melted.

Next pour the butter and milk into the coconut flour and combine.  – The coconut flour turned into a lumpy, almost dough- like mass, I’m not sure if this would happen with self-rising flour, but I added a tablespoon of milk and then left it.

 In a separate bowl add the eggs, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, sugar substitute, salt and apple cider vinegar and beat. When everything is well combined add the mixture to the coconut flour and again combine thoroughly, until the mixture turns into a thick, heavy batter – which is what you want. Do not add any more liquid at this stage, or it will turn thin. You will also see little bubbles forming and bursting in the batter, again this is good as it will help your crempogs rise.

Leave the batter for 20 minutes to thicken.

Heat a non stick frying pan on a low heat, with butter, or coconut oil and when the pan is warm enough, spoon in your batter. Your pancakes should immediately start forming bubbles and resemble something like a crumpet, when the top of the pancake looks cooked, flip and cook the other side. Continue this process until all your crempogs are cooked. If you are cooking for more than just yourself – yes I did eat that entire batch to myself – you can put the cooked crempogs into an oven, on a low heat to keep warm.

Because these crempogs were cooked with grass-fed butter, I didn't want to add anymore unnecessary calories so I kept the crempogs simple with a nice helping of pure honey and they were delicious. The crempogs were fluffy from the buttermilk and weren't at all dry from the coconut flour, which can happen with coconut flour, so don’t be alarmed if you alter the above recipe and get a dry, crumbly mess – it’s happened to me too.

Hope you all enjoy these crempogs as much as I did.

Hwyl Fawr

The Hungry Welsh Girl.