Gluten Free Pancakes

I am so excited I made pancakes and they ROCK!!!!!! When you go gluten free you accept there are foods that you either won't ever eat again or that just won't be the same ever again. It is a fact that gluten free flours cannot achieve the same results as wheat flour because these gluten free flours lack the structure to rise. Not only do they not react the same when baking and cooking but they do taste different. The good cook in me desires to create tasty gluten free foods that mimic their glutenous cousins.

Pancakes is something I NEVER enjoyed because they were a texture I didn't like, gooey and heavy. Waffles were always alright because they were crisper but I knew there could good pancakes, I just knew it! The trick now was to create good gluten free pancakes. First thing to do is research and try this and that. The first try for me was Bob's Red Mill gluten free pancake mix which for me was a flop, the pancakes were flat and I didn't enjoy the flavor. So trying a recipe was next, but what recipe? Many pancake recipes along with many gluten free recipes uses rice flour and just doesn't taste wonderful, nor does it react the same way as wheat does. Flat and boring, yup that pretty much describes it and a soggy factor.

Enter Gluten Free Girl's blog. She is happily eating gluten free, if she can do it then so can I.
I refer to her site often when I am researching a recipe and trying to make something familiar but tasty, even though there are gluten free cookbooks in my kitchen. Please don't misunderstand, these cookbooks have fine recipes and are wonderful guidelines. Gluten Free Girl's blog though is the most up to date and wonderful resource I have come across.

Pancakes though are the topic at hand and yes on Gluten Free Girl's blog there is a recipe for pancakes. Of course being who I am, I play around with any recipe I come across. There is a cookbook author that states to NOT play around with gluten free recipes as it is too hard and there is too much potential for failure. I think I will ignore this advice. Thankfully this has worked out to my advantage. I took the pancake recipes and played around with it. One reason was I did not have teff flour so I used cornflour for the sole reason that I wanted a corn taste. The corn taste was pretty mild and didn't really shine through, but that was alright because the pancakes were wonderfully close to perfection. I wasn't satisfied though and had to keep trying because even though they tasted wonderful they tend to flatten out and get soggy if left to sit on a plate. I won't tell you all the mistakes I made but one of the mistakes was pretty yucky and involved too much liquid.

There is a gluten free ingredient that is gaining popularity in use and that is coconut flour, except for the fact it requires a large amount of eggs. If coconut flour is used in smaller amounts then the large amounts of eggs doesn't appear to be an issue. The coconut flour was the best thing I could have added to my pancakes. They hold their shape, they don't flatten, they are not soggy and they taste wonderful oh and coconut flavor is not noticed. Coconut flour produces a wonderful result in gluten free baking without tasting much like coconut.

Gluten free pancakes:

1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup cornflour
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup oil (my preference is corn oil)
2 eggs

Whisk all dry ingredients together until well blended. Whisk together all liquid ingredients until blended then combine with the dry ingredients. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes, it will puff up and look like a raised batter. Do not stir this down.
In a heated and greased (I use a combo of butter and oil) skillet drop 1/4 cup batter and spread slightly out. Patience is required here, let them cook until there is bubbles over 3/4 of the pancake. Flip the cakes and let cook for a few more minutes. I tend to test the pancake with a fork to check for done-ness, no one likes a soggy interior of a pancake!
Enjoy!