Sunday, June 8, 2014

Gluten Free Pancakes

Can a pancake really taste just like an apple turnover pastry? In my world of experimenting with Gluten Free baking, I've found a wonderful combination which does it's best to try. It was a serendipitous accident frankly, as I was looking for a gluten free donut recipe.

The one I found, worked brilliantly, but it was rather too fiddly for the few donuts baked. I thought eighteen would be plenty, but I underestimated how far they'd go for four people! It's a brilliant tasting donut recipe though, I just wanted a simpler way to use it. I also didn't want to use some of the ingredients. I'll put the pancake recipe down below, but first, the apple turnover bit!




Cook your pancakes as you would normally on a hot skillet. We like to use them when they're freshly cooked and slightly warm, but there are plenty left over to stick in the fridge and reheat in the microwave or oven, the next day.




Next, put some cooked and chilled diced apple down. Spread it around. I haven't used too much because of how I'm going to roll the pancake at the end. You can make your own apple filling or buy it in a can, but be sure to add a little sugar and cinnamon for sweetening and flavour. Don't go overboard with the cinnamon though.




Whip some cream and add a dollop to the pancake. Again, don't use too much or it will come out the pancake when rolled. When whipping the cream I add a little icing sugar, which I make from processing white sugar. Most store bought icing "mixtures" contain gluten fillers, so steer clear of them.




Spread the cream around the pancake, then you want to sprinkle it with some cinnamon sugar. This is what gives the texture of the pancake, that subtle pastry crunch of an apple turnover. You just need a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar from a dispenser.




I make my own cinnamon sugar from quality ground cinnamon. Most supermarket cinnamon doesn't even come from the cinnamon plant, but a cheaper substitute plant. I sourced my cinnamon from a bulk supplier of natural ground cinnamon and I can't go back to the supermarket stuff. It's lasted me years and still smells like real cinnamon.

I reuse an old spice jar with a dispenser lid, by combining white sugar and ground cinnamon, then shaking together.




The last step to complete, is simply rolling the pancake up. When eaten, it will taste ever so much like an apple turnover. If you want more filling, don't roll the pancake and just layer the apple, cream and cinnamon sugar on top of the flat pancake. Eat it with a knife and fork. I ate it both ways, and they both tasted incredible. I liked the flat way best, but by rolling the pancakes it made the fillings go further and is probably better for the waistline!

This is a once in a while treat, when we've been working hard in the yard.

Time for the pancake recipe. Bear in mind to use your own judgement with quantities. I've used a rough approximate for the list of ingredients, but you'll need to add what liquid to flour ratio, gives the correct consistency for pancake batter. I like my consistency easy to pour, but not water thin. I like to be able to pour it on the skillet, but use the back of a spoon to push the circle out a little further.


2 eggs
1-2 cups apple juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup to 1 cup gluten free flour
pinch of xantham gum if not already in the flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
pinch ground cinnamon
splash of vanilla essence


Mix all together in a one litre pouring jug. I use a stick blender with blending attachment, because its better at mixing in a jug without spilling over the sides. Cook on the skillet until golden brown on both sides. Stack on a plate with a cover, until all the pancake batter is cooked.

If you don't want to use the xantham gum, I recommend adding extra eggs...1 or 2 depending what size the eggs are.

The bicarbonate soda and apple cider vinegar, make the pancake batter lighter and aerated as they react to one another. Try your own experimentation with fillings, with whatever you have around.


8 comments:

  1. Not sure exactly what 'gluten free flour' is, but have you tried buckwheat flour? I made some a while ago and they weren't bad.

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  2. You can buy a premix GF flour from the supermarket, but that's too expensive for me. I make my own GF flour mix. You can use any kind of GF flour combinations you want. I should go into detail of how I make my GF flour mix, but I need to wait for my current batch to run out, so I can show how I put it all together.

    Buckwheat is one of my favourite GF flours to use for any kind of baking, but especially so for pancakes. I will often use a little buckwheat to make my white GF premix flour go further.

    I use sorghum, buckwheat, rice, tapioca, arrowroot, besan and cornflour, depending what I'm making. It sounds terribly complicated, but once you know how each flour is best used, its just standard repetition.

    Here's a good recipe for Gluten Free pancakes, using exclusive buckwheat flour:

    http://glutenfreegirl.com/2012/03/gluten-free-buckwheat-crepes/

    I've use this recipe before too and it tastes delicious with chocolate gnash and rolled up, like the apple turnover pancakes. Basically though, its use what you have and experiment! I'm sure if you wanted to make this apple turnover pancake recipe with regular flour, it would work just as well. Only you wouldn't need the Xanthum gum and you could also cut back on the eggs used.

    Xanthum gum and eggs, are what bind Gluten free flour, so it sticks together and allows what you're baking to be flexible once cooked. :)

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  3. My husband is a donut guy so all recipes welcome! I confess to never experimenting with gluten free, so I read posts like this with great interest. Your crepe like pancakes truly look like a must try though.

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  4. My pancakes, do look very much like crepes, don't they? Just not as paper thin, and thick enough to still be flexible while rolling.

    I'm sure your husband wouldn't be disappointed if you made the donuts I linked to. If you only have gluten flour, then use that and omit the Xantham Gum. I just used plain old apple juice too, instead of the cider and the method of boiling it down. Still tasted divine!

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  5. That looks wonderful! And it hold together like gluten based recipes! I look forward to your post about GF flour-its certainly expensive for us here in the U.S. too. There is a recipe for quinoa pancakes somewhere-it requires soaking the quinoa for a bit and a very good blender but I did manage it with my own cheap one when it was newer. The recipe is very delicious. I'll try to find it again and make it again.

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  6. Goodness, I thought I replied to your comment linda M. Sorry for the large gap time in response. I think I will try to buy some more GF flours in the next few months. I buy in bulk and have to pay for delivery, so make it worth my while by ordering everything I need.

    I've not heard of quinoa pancakes but that recipe sounds very interesting. Have you tried processing the quinoa grains in a blender, or are they too hard? I use a coffee grinder like device, to powder my chia and flax seeds for baking.

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  7. Its okay Chris:)
    I have not tried grinding quinoa in my grain mill but I think they might be too small for it. I'll give it a try some day though. I also use my coffee grinder for flax and a few other seeds. It works fine. Here is the recipehttp://www.cookingquinoa.net/lemon-raspberry-quinoa-pancakes/ and I really think you will love it. It might be just as good using millet maybe?

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  8. I'll look that recipe up, thanks for sharing. :)

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