Birch Benders Paleo Pancake And Waffle Mix Review

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birch-benders-paleo-waffle-mix

About

Birch Benders is a company located in Boulder, Colorado and their entire business is dedicated to making pancakes easy to make at home.  Their Paleo Pancake mix is dairy free, low glycemic, gluten free and contains no added sugar. 

I have to say I do like pancakes and waffles and I don't like to eat highly processed foods. Sometimes I'm just lazy and waffles sound great but I don't feel like taking the time to measure and mix and clean up the kitchen too. So when this email arrived in my inbox introducing this "healthy sounding" mix, I jumped at the chance to give it a try.

The Ingredients

I always read ingredient labels and in fact it's almost a hobby of mine.  In many cases it's such a fun challenge to even pronounce some of the words.  This is no problem with the Birch Benders Paleo Pancake and Waffle Mix.  Here are the simple ingredients:

Cassava Flour, Organic Coconut Flour, Almond Flour, Eggs, Leavening (Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt, Monk Fruit, Spice.

See, nothing you can't pronounce! 

How To Make Paleo Pancakes and Waffles

If you are making pancakes you just add water to the mix, stir, pour, cook, that's it.  The chart on the package shows you how much water and mix you need per the amount of servings you wish to make.  If you are making waffles  you do need to add a little bit of oil and they recommend using coconut oil.

My Tests Waffles

I made a small batch of waffles for two of us to test.  I used 1 cup of mix and 3/4 cup of water and 1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (I was out of coconut oil).  I just measured out the mix, water and oil, dumped it in a bowl and stirred it with my blending fork . 

paleo waffle ingredients measured out

I had my waffle iron preheated and ready to go so I poured a small amount of batter on the iron and closed it.  I waited until the light on the iron went out and checked the waffle.  OK, not enough batter so the waffle looked a bit like a snowflake.  That said it was nicely browned and fluffy looking.

test paleo waffle

Not wanting to waste anything, we added a little butter to the sample and poured on a little syrup and gave it a taste.  Pretty darn good!.   Then I tried tasting just the batter.  It has a slightly granular texture and that's from the almond flour.  If you are a Paleo eater then you're probably familiar with this texture. The other thing I noticed is that the pancake was pretty sweet which is typical of a product sweetened with Monk fruit.  It's not an unpleasant sweetness but it is very sweet.

I proceed to make a couple more waffles.  Clearly this is not a testimony of my waffle making skills because they did not come out "perfect" looking.  This is mostly because of my reluctance to getting the batter too close to the edge of the waffle maker.  I hate when batter oozes out along the edges because the waffle maker becomes a beast to clean.

paleo waffle on waffle iron

I let the last two waffles bake longer because I like my waffles crisp not doughy.  I gave my husband the first waffle.  He said if I'd not told him it was something "different" he would not have known (or cared).  He though it tasted great.

paleo-waffle-served 

When I sat down and really gave my waffle a good taste I did notice the flavor of the almond flour which for me was a good thing.  Depending on how you top your waffle you may or may not notice the almond flavor. 

paleo waffle 2

Fun Fact about Birch Benders Paleo Pancake And Waffle Mix Review

The first stove top waffle iron was invented in 1869 by one Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, N.Y.

Where To Buy Birch Benders Paleo Pancake and Waffle Mix

You can purchase the mix online at Amazon.com or buy directly from Birch Benders.

Nutrition Information

Based on our test batch I estimate 1 serving to be about 1/2 of a full size waffle.  So, the amount shown in the image below:

Calories: 140
Total fat: 7g
Cholesterol: 100mg
Sodium 340mg
Total Carbohydrate: 16g
Dietary fiber: 5g
Total sugars: (no added sugar) <1g
Protein: 7g

paleo waffle one serving

Product Shelf Life

Based on the sample I was provided the package has a shelf live of 2 years.  This is a great pantry item to keep on hand for regular use or even for emergency use. 

Review Wrap Up

This product gets a total thumbs up from me.  I love the fact there are few ingredients, it's gluten free, low glycemic, made in the U.S.A.,  no added sugar, dairy free, grain free and more. 

The waffles took only a few minutes to prepare and really tasted very good. I would definitely purchase this product to keep on hand. 

I should mention here that Birch Benders has a variety of other pancake mixes as well so make sure to checkout their website. 

Pumpkin Spice Paleo

UPDATE! We finally had a chance to try the Pumpkin Spice Paleo pancake and waffle mix.

The Ingredients

Cassava starch, almond flour, eggs, dried pumpkin, organic coconut flour, leavening, salt, spices, monk fruit (as a sweetener).

As you can see there are no artificial flavorings or sweeteners or wheat flour.

Mixing Up The Pancakes

The recipe just calls for 1/2 cup mix and 1/3 cup water (for 4-6 pancakes). 

pumpkin-spice-paleo-mix
 

Given we did waffles last time we made pancakes this time.  The process is the same.  Just add water to the mix and stir.

paleo-pumpkin-spice-mix-in-bowl

 My batch came out to be 4 small pancakes which was 2 servings of 2 pancakes each.

pumpkin-spice-pancakes-cooking

The Taste Test

I don't typically buy anything pre-flavored but I have to say I found the pancakes very flavorful and not in a chemical waste dump kind of way.  I did put a little dot of butter on mine and served it with some sugar free Maple syrup.  I also served them with some chicken apple sausages. 

pumpkin-spice-pancakes

The only complaint I have is that these pancakes are very fragile. With a normal wheal flour pancake you can make a stack of those suckers and keep them warm in the oven until you are read to serve.   These little guys tend to "deflate" rather quickly so you'll want to make them "to order" and serve immediately.

Calories

A serving is about 2 of the pancakes as shown, about 4" in diameter.  This provides 140 calories, 17g of carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber, 6 grams of protein and 6 grams of fat.

The Paleo Pumpkin Spice Bottom Line

If you eat Paleo and you want an organic time-saving mix I think this product is a winner.  Just like the unflavored version it has a long shelf life so it's a good pantry item.

author

Barbara Bowman graduated with degree in Foods and Nutrition from San Jose State University. As CEO of GourmetSleuth.com she spends most waking hours writing, cooking, eating, gardening and traveling.