I’ve always been intimidated by the bulk flour aisle in my health food store – I always feel like I’ll buy the wrong thing or not enough, or I’ll buy it and it’ll taste bad so I won’t use it. This week I overcame that fear. Celiac.com has some great all purpose flour recipes. My blend most resembles #4. I ended up getting 1 part brown rice flour, 1 part garbanzo bean flour, and a scoop of arrowroot flour (about 1/2 a part). Yesterday morning I made pancakes with them, following very loosely some pancake recipes from other sources. Here’s about what I came up with:
1/2 c brown rice flour
1/2 c garbanzo bean flour
1/4 c arrowroot flour/starch
2 tsp baking powder (GF if needed)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c oil
2 eggs
1 c milk (or substitute for GFCF)
2 tsp honey (optional)
I mixed the dry ingredients, then added the wet and poured cup-fulls onto a hot skillet. It helped to shake them as soon as they were poured on because they started out thick and difficult to cook. I also threw in a handful of carob chips because I like them.
They worked beautifully! They looked like pancakes and even tasted like them! There were no weird off flavors, and texture-wise they kind of dissolved in my mouth, probably because of the arrowroot and rice flours. If there was anything bad about them, It would just be slightly less overall flavor, but to me that’s better than a gross flavor. My husband, whose diet is not restricted, was really impressed. This recipe is nice because it only uses 3 “weird” flours and xanthan gum, but if you’re going to do much gluten-free cooking, it would be wise to go ahead and get some. It’s kind of expensive, but it goes a long way. I’ll try mixing up the amounts and tinkering with the recipe more to make it perfect.
If you try this recipe, tell me how it goes and feel free to offer suggestions to make it better.
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Danika ~
Rosa and I are living in NYC this summer, and it just so happens that we’re around the corner from this bakery called Babycakes. It’s a vegan, allergen-free bakery. No eggs, no milk, often no soy, and no GLUTEN. In everything they serve. And it’s wildly popular. I wish there were a way to mail you some banana chocolate chip bread, but alas, I’m afraid it would be dust by the time it got to you. But anyway, I just wanted you to know… just in case you’re ever in the city, you should go there.
Have a good one!
Dave