Sometime after I graduated from college and embarked on the adventure of living sans parents, I started making pancakes from scratch. I began with a standard recipe from The Joy of Cooking, and perfected it over the years until I had a formula I knew by heart.
There was a time when I would regularly make a double batch of these perfect pancakes on Sunday, freeze the leftovers, then pop them in the toaster on weekday mornings for a toasty breakfast treat on the way to the office. They were so good, I even recall my mother asking me to make my special pancakes when I was visiting her and my stepfather.
Needless to say, when I learned I couldn't eat gluten, I began a quest for the perfect gluten-free pancake recipe. Well, more accurately, the perfect gluten-free, egg-free, butter-free, milk-free pancake recipe. And, so far, I have not found it. (Although I do have a great recipe that I am slowly perfecting, and I will share that with you...soon).
In the meantime, I have found an amazing gluten-free pancake and baking mix that could possibly be better than any made-from-scratch recipe I develop. So, I wanted to share it with you. Here it is:
It's called Organic Buckwheat Flax Pancake and Baking Mix and it's from The Pure Pantry.
I discovered this little gem at Natural Pantry in Anchorage, where there is always some new product that looks delicious and intriguing. Normally, I would bypass any gluten-free mix, but this one spoke to me for some reason, and when I read the ingredients I was surprised to find it free of not only gluten, but also the other major offenders -- soy, dairy, and eggs! And, for those of you concerned about nuts, it is also nut free! Yippee!
Anyway, I took it home and followed the directions for 8-10 pancakes. Only, because I was out of egg-replacer, I tried a little experiment. I used chia seeds in place of eggs. I also left out the sweetener. That's right, I did not add the agave nectar, or any other sweetener for that matter. And, boy oh boy was the result good!
I have made these pancakes three more times since that first experiment, and because I loved the chia seed results so well, I have yet to use egg replacer. I'm telling you, chia seeds soaked in a little warm water are excellent egg replacers (at least for this recipe), and so good for you too!
Here is a terrible photo I took of these delicious pancakes with my iPhone a few weekends ago. We had an overnight guest, so I'd bought organic blueberries, strawberries, and watermelon, and I also whipped up some rhubarb syrup. So, here is the finished product with all the fruit and syrup goodness on top. Yum!
Do you have a favorite gluten-free pancake mix? Or, how about a from-scratch recipe? I'm trying to reduce my daily sugar intake (soooo hard to do), so eliminating sweetener from recipes that don't really need it is one approach I'm trying. I don't really like my pancakes sweet anyway because I ad syrup and fruit, and I'd rather taste the sweetness there. What about you? Do you like your pancakes unsweetened like I do?
