In my quest to learn how to bake with a wider variety of flours, I have likely opened hundreds of webpages for gluten-free recipes, only to find that most of them call for "all-purpose gluten-free flour mix."
X. Delete.
Living in Uganda doesn't exactly afford you the luxury of going to the grocery store to buy a gluten-free flour mix, so I need real recipes that call for real flour and even then, I can't buy many of the exotic flours that are imported to the states.
So when I want to make a new gluten-free food, I usually pull up several different recipes, study them to see the commonalities and what possible substitutions I can make, and then try something myself.
Although it's more time-consuming and it's frustrating when I fail, it's also rewarding to come up with something on my own and to slowly learn how different flours behave.
One Sunday morning, our friend Tyler was coming over for breakfast and I wanted pancakes, so I tried a new recipe combo. It won compliments from both Eric and Tyler, so I count it as a success! Here's the how-to:
Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice flour
1 can(12 oz) coconut milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup cassava flour
1 cup white rice flour
2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
1 Tablespoon pure honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
Directions:
I didn't have brown rice flour, but I did have brown rice, so I put some in my Magic Bullet and let it grind for a few minutes. Viola!
1) Pour the coconut milk and apple cider vinegar into a mixing bowl and add the brown rice flour. Let it sit for a few minutes and soak.
2) While the brown rice is soaking, mix the ground flax seed with the water and set it aside for about 3 minutes while it also soaks. When it is done, it should have a very "gummy" texture to it.
3) Stir in the cassava flour, white rice flour, honey, baking soda, baking powder, 2 eggs, and vanilla extract to the coconut milk and brown rice mixture. Lastly, stir in the soaked flax seed.
4) Heat a griddle with olive oil and spoon your pancake batter onto the griddle. Flip when the bottom turns a golden brown.
5) Pour some honey or maple syrup over those pretty pancakes and eat 'em up while they're still hot!
Gluten free pancakes (dairy free and sugar free, too!)
Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice flour
1 can(12 oz) coconut milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup cassava flour
1 cup white rice flour
2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
1 Tablespoon pure honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
Directions:
1) Pour the coconut milk into a mixing bowl and add the brown rice flour. Let it sit for a few minutes and soak.
2) While the brown rice is soaking, mix the ground flax seed with the water and set it aside for about 3 minutes while it also soaks. When it is done, it should have a very "gummy" texture to it.
3) Stir in the apple cider vinegar, cassava flour, white rice flour, honey, baking soda, baking powder, 2 eggs, and vanilla extract to the coconut milk and brown rice mixture. Lastly, stir in the soaked flax seed.
4) Heat a griddle with olive oil and spoon your pancake batter onto the griddle. Flip when the bottom turns a golden brown.
5) Pour some honey or maple syrup over those pretty pancakes and eat 'em up while they're still hot!