Pancakes have always been a staple in our family. When we first got married, my husband often made us chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. What a treat! (But not something I really wanted to eat every day!)
After children, we started making them a bit healthier, adding bananas, blueberries or apples. Of course, everyone’s favorite is still chocolate chip!
Pancakes = Family Time
Pancakes represent some of our favorite times together.
On each first day of school, the children would get a big number of the grade they were entering.
On holidays the pancakes “mysteriously” changed colors with red for Valentine’s Day, and green for St. Patrick’s Day.
On snow days, we made snowmen pancakes.
And, of course, on birthdays, we always made their BIG NUMBER that year.
Lots of fun memories!
Going gluten-free changed it all
Starting our gluten-free diet, we all wondered what would happen to our favorite pancake breakfasts (and sometimes dinners).
We tried mixes on the market. Most had too many ingredients, many that we couldn’t or didn’t want to eat. And, many were expensive! (We don’t worry too much about that now as I teach how to SAVE $$ in our GF Growth Membership.)
For a bit, we struggled trying to concoct our own mixture, with poor results! We just couldn’t find one we liked from any cookbook or online.
The RIGHT Gluten-Free flours make all the difference
Using different gluten-free flours changed everything about the pancakes.
Different gums do as well. I finally realized that xanthan gum was making me sick so started using guar gum with better results.
Adding no gums creates a crepe!
For a little while Trader Joe’s came through for us with a pancake mix that was very good and cost-effective. We all loved them. Unfortunately, they stopped carrying the mixture!
Back to the drawing board, each time improving our recipe for something we would all enjoy.
We have tried many gluten-free flours from brown rice, white rice, buckwheat, arrowroot, soy, potato, oat, cassava, and tapioca flours.
Potato and soy flour make the pancakes brown too much and feel a bit heavy.
The kids didn’t like the strong taste of buckwheat.
Oat flour can make the pancake heavy, but you can ground your own oats to lessen the heaviness.
This recipe shared below is still our family favorite. Try it out and see what you think!
Crazy for Pancakes
You can make all plain pancakes. Or, choose your favorite additions like chocolate chips, blueberries, bananas, other favorite fruits or even nuts and seeds.
To make healthier pancakes, mash up a banana and stir it into the mixture before cooking, or try our oat pancakes.
Applesauce mixed with cinnamon is a great combination to add. My daughter gobbled up applesauce pancakes when she was a baby!
Pumpkin pancakes are always a treat – grab our recipe here.
Our zucchini pancakes hit the spot for a fun side dish or use them for your taco shell for a sweet balance to your spicy filling.
Yes, we are crazy for pancakes!
Which is your favorite pancake?
Gluten-Free Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 egg (or use a substitue. See notes)
- 2 T organic applesauce
- 1 cup rice milk (or favorite milk of choice)
- 1/2 cup Organic Brown Rice Flour
- 1/4 cup Millet Flour
- 1/4 cup + 2T Tapioca Flour
- 1 t Baking Soda
- 1/2 t Guar Gum
- 1 T Organic Ground Flaxseed (Optional)
Instructions
- Add the egg and applesauce to a medium bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients right into the same bowl. Slowly add in the milk, using a whisk to stir out any lumps. Mix well, but do not overmix as the batter can become gummy.
- Let the batter sit for about 5 minutes. Thisallows the batter to come together and improves the outcome of the pancakes.
- A griddle or a fry pan work well. You may want to add a little butter to your pan, but we do not add anything to the griddle.
- Fun tip: use a cookie scoop to scoop the batter so that you get the same sized pancakes (and no one can complain about not getting the biggest pancake!)
- As you place the mixture onto the griddle, spread it out a little as it doesn’t always spread on its own.
- Add chocolate chips or blueberries to the mixture in the pan or add them to the mixture before scooping onto the griddle.
- Cook for a couple of minutes - until bubbly. Then flip over and cook for a couple of minutes on the back side and they are ready.
- Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon, pure maple syrup, blueberries or more chocolate chips. Enjoy!
Notes
Want to learn why each gluten-free flour creates a different result?
Grab my Gluten-Free Baking for Beginners Program and learn all about the flours, so that you can start making delicious GF treats everyone will crave.
