I love pancakes, don’t you? Buttery and smothered in maple syrup …..you just can’t beat them in my humble opinion. Pancakes!
It’s no secret that most gluten free mixes just do not produce optimal results when baking. You learn that when you have to go gluten free, but don’t want to go without. That’s what this blog is about, not going without. I have been on a mission to recreate recipes that we normally eat, but gluten free and I’ve had mixed results, I’m not going to lie. I’ve also had huge let downs in the pancake department because I’ve tried a few mixes and they just tasted awful to me and I want REAL pancakes! Ones that you don’t know are gluten free …see my goal is to create food that you can eat and not tell it’s gluten free and with this recipe, you really can’t tell because they are just PANCAKES! Oh pancakes, how I love thee…
You’ll learn that baking gluten free requires some kind of gummy binder-like ingredient or your dough isn’t really dough at all, it’s more like batter, so in the flour blends I use, I add xanthan gum to make up for the lack of gluten, which really means lack of elasticity. Ever tried to knead bread dough that’s batter? You can’t. Go try it. I’ll wait right here.
Back? How did it go? Not well …and I know this because I’ve been there so many, many times. You need something to help hold it all together, and that’s what xanthan gum does – holds it all together. However, if you try to make crepes or pancakes (or anything really light) xanthan gum creates this weird, wet consistency inside of your pancakes because it’s not like batter. Weird. Your bread dough will be batter-like but you can’t get a decent pancake batter to save your life. If I subscribed to Alanis Morisette’s definition of irony, that would be a perfect example. It’s almost like they didn’t cook through all of the way, but really it’s just gummy, and no one wants gummy pancakes now do they?
Enter the xanthan gum free flour blend. What you do is use the same formula for the all purpose, but omit the xanthan gum. That’s it! It’s important to omit the xanthan gum when making pancakes or a few things will happen to you:
1. You won’t get pancake batter at all. You’ll get pancake dough.
2. Those little bubbles on the pancake that let you know when to flip them? There aren’t any. At all.
3. Forget about pouring the batter into a squeeze bottle or using a ladle, because you just can’t spread pancake dough into a skillet and expect a pancake. It’s not going to happen. It’s just …wrong.
My favorite pancake mix has always been Aunt Jemima. Why? Because you just have to add water and nothing else, it’s easy as 1 2 3. Unfortunately, you can’t just add water to this instant mix, you need just a few other things, but they are just an egg, oil and water. Easy, right?
Since today is #NationalPancakeDay, I decided to get into the kitchen and make a gluten free instant pancake mix because I’m having a huge stack to celebrate! With bacon! Maybe even some whipped cream too. I made a mess of the mix and put it into a glass jar, so we can have pancakes without all of the measuring! Pancakes for dinner? Yes, please! Pancakes for a snack? Oh yeah! We’ll be having pancakes all weekend here. I’m not even going to lie about it. I want to help you celebrate, too – so below you will find a recipe for gluten free instant pancake mix, half the amount based on this not-gluten free recipe and adjusted for gluten free xanthan gum free flour and lack of moisture. I have a gum free flour mixture, but I found that I got better results by just removing the gum from the all purpose flour mix. I tried them both ways because I want perfect pancakes and I found that using the gum free mix produced some pretty flat cakes, I suggested just mixing the all purpose flour and omitting the xanthan gum. They turned out great! I have even included a cinnamon mixture that you can swirl into the top …because cinnamon swirl pancakes are the best pancakes …wait …except maybe for blueberry, but that’s another post for another time! I found that waiting for those bubbles to show up and then swirling the cinnamon mixture on works best – if not it kind of settles weird and isn’t really a swirl at all.
So use the all purpose blend, omit the xanthan gum and wait for those bubbles before you swirl on the cinnamon. Got it? Great! If you make these, please come back and share an image in the comments. I love to see how others do with these recipes!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 42 grams supefine brown rice flour (30%)
- 42 grams superfine white rice flour (30%) - this is where I made a mistake and used Betty Crocker Rice Flour Blend instead of just white rice flour.
- 21 grams tapioca starch (15%)
- 21 grams potato starch (15%)
- 7 grams potato flour (5%) - NOTE: tapioca starch is the same as tapioca flour - but potato starch and potato flour are two different things and should not be substituted for each other.
- 3 grams pure powdered pectin (2%)
- 3 1/4 c [gf flour
- 1/4 c + 3 TBS instant dry buttermilk
- 2 TBS baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 TBS sugar
- 4 TBS unsalted butter - melted
- 1/4 + 2 TBS packed brown sugar
- 1/2 TBS ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Melt butter and add brown sugar and cinnamon - set aside
- Add 1 egg (slightly beaten), 1 TBS oil and 2 1/2 c water to the instant mix
- Heat griddle and use either a light cooking spray or a pat of butter
- When the pancakes get those little bubbles, swirl the cinnamon mixture on them taking care not to get too close to the edge. You can use a pastry bag for this mixture or put into a ziplock and cut one of the corners off.
- Top with butter, maple syrup or anything you like! Icing sounds good!
I definitely am craving a stack of pancakes right now. These look so perfect and delicious.. and I love the instant recipe!
Welcome Thalia! I’m so glad you found us, I really hope you like the mix. I invite you to come back and share your experience with this! We would love to hear from you again!