I recently learned about a fun blog titled “Investigating Food Used in Novels,” by Sally Jo Pitts. Last week, she featured my book, Lethal Legacy, where the heroine Andi Wheaton makes hero Bryce Caldwell a giant pancake. She tells him, “It’s super easy. You mix up the ingredients, then bake it in a cast-iron skillet. Slather melted butter over it when it’s finished, sprinkle with sugar and voilà, breakfast.”

Sally Jo recreated the giant pancake using a Kodiac Cakes dark chocolate flapjack and waffle mix. In her words, “…the results were yummy.” You can check out her post here.

Giant pancakes for breakfast used to be a regular occurrence at our house, but in recent years we’ve gotten away from making them. Seeing the picture of Sally Jo’s gave me a serious craving for a giant pancake again. Except now, I eat grain free, almost keto. So I had to make some substitutes. Here is the original recipe:

2 eggs

½ cup of flour

½ cup of milk

¼ tsp nutmeg

4 Tbsp butter cut in small pieces

2 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in cast iron skillet. Beat eggs, then beat in flour, milk and nutmeg. Pour mixture into skillet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. When top is slightly browned, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. (serves 2 or 3)

When I made mine, I substituted ¼ cup of almond flour and ¼ cup of coconut flour for the regular flour. At home, I would have used almond milk instead of regular milk, but since I’m at my sister’s house in North Carolina I used her regular milk. Instead of the sugar, I drizzled raw honey over the top. Here’s how it turned out:

The texture was grainier than the way I used to make them, because of the different flour, but the taste was similar. It gave me a tasty and reasonably healthy alternative to my usual green smoothie. Looks like giant pancakes will be making a comeback at my house.