Olympic marathon trials day

The U.S. Olympic marathon trials are being run in Los Angeles today. The top three men and women are selected to represent the U.S. in the Olympic marathon in the Rio games next summer. Among the women running the trials is Sara Hall, who is married to Ryan Hall, who won the 2008 men's Olympic marathon trials and is currently the American record holder in the marathon and half marathon.

After Ryan retired recently, I was reading some articles about him and saw a mention of his Cocoa Teff Pancakes, which he and Sara and the four Ethiopian sisters they adopted eat everyday for breakfast. Ryan says he realized a bowl of cereal wasn't really the proper fuel for his marathon training, so he did a lot of R&D and came up with these pancakes. They are loaded with healthy carbohydrates, protein, and iron from the teff flour, which Ethiopians use to make their staple bread, injera. Plus, they're gluten free so I figured I'd give them a try. Your Mom loved from the start but I wasn't too impressed with the taste. I've worked the recipe over a few times now and finally come up with a version that I think is pretty good. So if you need to fuel up or recover from running, playing soccer, climbing, etc., you might want to give these a try.

Ryan Hall's Molten Lava Cocoa Teff Pancakes

Adapted from Ryan Hall

I cut the cocoa powder in the original recipe by two-thirds—it was way too bitter with that much cocoa powder. Also, for such a supposedly healthy recipe, it's odd that Ryan uses 5 packets of Splenda or Stevia to sweeten the pancakes. Each packet provides the same sweetness as 2 teaspoons of sugar, which means that his pancakes will taste like they have more than 3 tablespoons of sugar in them. Not to mention that I'm not too impressed with Splenda or Stevia, even if they are FDA-approved. So I went with 1 tablespoon (or less) of real sugar, which is plenty. Owing to his sugar avoidance, Ryan also warns you to "skip the syrup," to which I say, "Hogwash." These pancakes, like all others, are significantly improved by the addition of some pure maple syrup. (As you can see from the picture, I also tried them topped with homemade Nutella, but that was a bust.) Ryan makes this as one big pancake, which he eats right in the pan, but I think it's nearly impossible to flip that way, so I make regular-sized pancakes.

½ cup (80 grams) teff flour
1 scoop (~23 grams) protein powder, chocolate flavor
1 scant tablespoon (10 grams) sugar
1 tablespoon (5 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon oil, optional
½ teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
almond milk or water or a combination
Kerrygold grass-fed butter
maple syrup, for serving

    1. In a small bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients (teff through salt) together. Slowly whisk in the oil, vanilla, and enough almond milk or water to achieve a pancake-batter consistency—slightly gooey, but not overly runny. It takes a little over ½ cup of liquid. Taste and adjust for sweetness before you make the pancake.
    2. Melt a pat of butter over medium heat in a nonstick skillet—10 inches if you're making 1 big pancake or 12 inches if you're making smaller pancakes. For 1 big pancake, pour all of the batter into the skillet. For smaller pancakes, use a ¼-cup scoop (#16) or measuring cup to pour three rounds of batter into the skillet. Flip when some bubbles appear on the pancake(s) and the edges begin to look firm.
    3. Cook the pancake(s) for another 10 to 60 seconds, depending on doneness preference and the size of the pancake(s). The earlier you take them off the heat, the more the pancake(s) will be like a molten lava chocolate cake in the middle, which is how Ryan likes them. Repeat with the remaining batter if you're making smaller pancakes. Serve with additional butter and/or maple syrup. Makes 1 very large pancake or 5 small pancakes. Serves 1 or 2, depending on how hard you worked out.