OMG. I think I found something good here.
I've been working on homemade gift ideas for Christmas, and I was hoping to make things that didn't require refrigeration and could sit for a few days, since coordinating among different houses and different days can be a problem with that stuff. I've also been looking for gluten free food ideas, and I didn't want to do all chocolate or other candy. There are a lot of variables here lol. I figured some sort of baking mix might be a good idea.
My sister has Celiac disease, which means she can't process gluten. This takes wheat, barley, and rye off the table. Some celiacs can't process oats, but more often the problem is that oats are contaminated by other grains. But, you can buy gluten free certified oats (I buy Bob's Red Mill). This is really a big deal, because I find that oats are the best gluten free baking medium. Have you ever looked at gluten free recipes? They have like 5 different kinds of flour in them, because no one flour is able to mimic the taste and texture of wheat flour. Rice flour alone gets too gummy. Others get too crumbly. You have to add things to take the place of the gluten like xanthan gum. Gluten free baking is hard. It requires a very delicate balance of flours for each item (taking into account the shape of the item even). And baking times are really delicate too, because GF baked goods go from raw to dried out dust in a matter of seconds sometimes. Plus, you have to invest in multiple kinds of flour, some of which are not cheap or are only sold in stores that are not cheap: sorghum, rice, arrowroot, buckwheat, corn, millet, tapioca, soybean, almond, etc. And in the end, your baked goods often STILL end up with a grainy, crumbly texture.
But oats. Oats are awesome for GF baking. First, they have a bit of chew to them and they set up well, meaning things don't fall apart as easily. Also, oats already have a pleasingly rough texture, so any textural issues with other GF baked goods are not a problem with oat-based recipes, because they're meant to be...textury lol. That's why, I find, oat-based gluten free baked goods are often VERY close, if not indistinguishable, from their non-gluten-free counterparts (even when you have to use other flours in conjunction). GF oatmeal cookies are amazeballs. Sometimes I make this recipe (without the raisins) and then sandwich them with some sort of flavored buttercream in the middle. It's awesome.
Also...bananas. Bananas are really great for baking, because they keep things moist and can take the place of a lot of added fat. (Applesauce is also great for that purpose.) Plus, bananas are the shit.
Anyways, I got this idea in my head that I wanted to make a gluten free pancake mix to give as gifts. Since pancakes are basically baked goods that are done on the stove, a lot of the same rules apply. There are lot of GF pancake recipes out there, but most of them either looked really boring, or they required all kinds of hippie ingredients I don't keep around or don't intend to. (A lot of gluten free recipes out there are ALSO vegan, for example, because gluten free diets are also sort of a health conscious fad now. This is good, because it means that more and more gluten free options are becoming available in grocery stores, but I'm still gonna use butter and eggs, damn it.) Also, I wanted to get as much of the recipe as possible into the mix so that it required as few add-in ingredients as possible for the person receiving the gift. So no agave syrup or soy products or lemon juice or various extracts.
By cobbling together ideas from a bunch of different recipes, I think I found the right mix. I got it down to only 3 added ingredients, all of which I know my sister has around at all times: butter, eggs, and bananas. So I can package all of the dry ingredients as a mix and just include instructions on adding the other items.
I tested these out today, and they were really, really good. Plus, they don't have to be just for your gluten free friends. They're just oat pancakes. You can use regular (non-GF-certified) oats if you don't have to worry about gluten. (Regular oats are a bit cheaper, and you probably already have them around.)
A note about oat flour: You can buy already-prepared oat flour (like Bob's Red Mill brand, available at Whole Foods for sure, but regular grocery stores like Jewel often carry it). But, I actually prefer the texture of taking whole rolled oats and pulsing them in the food processor myself.
A note about the spices: As written, the spices are subtle but definitely present. Feel free to increase any or all of them if you want the spice to be more pronounced.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup oat flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
2 tbsp butter, melted (or margerine, or even coconut oil if you're a hippie like that)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 bananas, well mashed
(Plus more butter or oil for cooking the pancakes.)
Whatever syrup or topping you desire.
Makes 6-8 medium-sized pancakes.
1) Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. At this point you can package this as a dry mix or continue with the wet ingredients.
2) Combine the melted butter, eggs, and bananas. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Fold it all together until just combined. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to let the oats absorb some of the moisture.
3) Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Butter or oil the pan and drop a few tablespoons of batter at a time, shaping into a circle or whatever shape you want. (Note, if you want to, you can thin the batter with a bit of water. I tried it both ways, and both are fine, so whatever you're more comfortable with.) Cook the first side for about 3 minutes, or until bubbles start forming on the surface. Flip and cook another two minutes. (As you can see from the photo, I may have overcooked these a tad, but they still tasted awesome.)
4) Serve with butter and maple syrup, any other flavored syrup, fruit compote, etc. I think these would be great with a ginger syrup (1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, approx. 2 tbsp water) or like a peach chutney or something.
Hooray!
Media pairing:
Mac Lethal rapping about pancakes (among other things) while making pancakes.
