Hi, Jenn - nice to know there is another GF cook besides me and Veloute here on LTH.

Thank you for the compliment, but I doubt my skills or cooking are superior in any way...I just like to tinker, read, cogitate and try things that people say "can't" be done re. Gf foods. I can eat gluten, so I can compare what I make to the GF things my DH must eat (he has celiac disease). It's the challenge to make things taste excellent that excites me I love to hear, "Wow, if you didn't tell me it was gluten-free, I'd never have known."

That's why I like these pancakes sooooo much. They truly are exceptional from any standard, not "just" a GF standard. If I received these at a high-end breakfast place or a bed and breakfast, I'd beg for the recipe. I just got lucky making them. One time I added too much mung bean flour to pancakes I was making. I had to make them less chewy. I kept adding more flours of different kinds. But the time I was through fixing my error, I'd created something delicious. So, definitely not superior! Just trying to avoid throwing away those expensive GF flours, lol.

It's partly the price of Bob's (or any other) that hold me back from purchasing it. I do buy some mixes when they are on sale and to support the people making GF products, but mostly I find that I can make things much more economically and I prefer the taste of what I make. And, in the end, it's just about as convenient.

I make both my pancake and waffle batter using 1/4 regular unbleached flour, 1/4 whole wheat flour, 1/4 coarse cornmeal, and 1/4 cracked wheat (currently bob's red mill bulgar). I find that the cracked wheat gives a great bite to the pancakes, and adds to its crispablilty. I add the usual other ingredients, baking soda and powder, eggs, buttermilk and butter. I beat the egg whites for the waffles but not the pancakes. The pancakes are not as light and fluffy as some like, but I prefer the coarser, johnny cake consistency. The waffles, however, are a good combination of very crispy exterior with a light cloudlike interior. Both freeze very well.

What's the deal with the price of maple syrup the last 6 months? My trader joe's grade b amber has gone up by 5 bucks a quart. Even the thin crap at costco that drips all over the side of the container has gone up a lot.

-Will

I was just telling Cathy2 about Jim Gaffigan and his food comedy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Im9Le9Vy2o
Go to 1:15 for his classic, inimitable, hilarious take on pancakes.

WillG wrote:I make both my pancake and waffle batter using 1/4 regular unbleached flour, 1/4 whole wheat flour, 1/4 coarse cornmeal, and 1/4 cracked wheat (currently bob's red mill bulgar). I find that the cracked wheat gives a great bite to the pancakes, and adds to its crispablilty.
-Will

Will,

I frequently make the cracked wheat bread from The Bread Bible. For this loaf, you rehydrate the cracked wheat by pouring boiling water over it and letting it soak for an hour before preceeding with the recipe. Do you do anything similar for your pancakes or waffles?

Evil-
I just use the cracked wheat straight. I probably use less than 1/4, but I dont really measure. You also need to adjust down the amount of buttermilk that you use since it doesnt absorb very much. It softens a little bit just in the 10 minute+ rest in the batter, but it stays pretty crunchy, which I like. Not sure that I would recommend it for someone wearing dentures.

-Will

Don't forget Dad's legendary blueberry pancakes!

These have been updated from their original version. The new and improved 2009 version substitutes plain kefir for the buttermilk. Using kefir and letting the batter sit five minutes before making the pancakes results in the highest rising lightest pancakes we ever made.

G Wiv - I made some pancakes last night based upon your recipe. I thought they had good flavor and enjoyed the cornmeal in there, that was a first for my pancakes. However they turned out very dense, is this how they usually turn out for you? I guess I prefer my pancakes to be a bit more fluffy, any suggestions on how to make that happen?

For reference this was the recipe I came up with:
3 cups flour
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 Tbls melted butter
1 egg
Added milk until the consistency was what I found to be proper, I'd guess it was over 2 cups.

brandon_w wrote:G Wiv - I made some pancakes last night based upon your recipe. I thought they had good flavor and enjoyed the cornmeal in there, that was a first for my pancakes. However they turned out very dense, is this how they usually turn out for you? I guess I prefer my pancakes to be a bit more fluffy, any suggestions on how to make that happen?

For reference this was the recipe I came up with:
3 cups flour
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 Tbls melted butter
1 egg
Added milk until the consistency was what I found to be proper, I'd guess it was over 2 cups.

I generally follow the King Arthur's recipe, which calls for 1 1/2c. flour to 2 eggs and 2 teas. baking powder and produces a fluffier pancake. What you have above is 3 c. flour + 1 c. cornmeal, only 1 egg and 1 teas. baking powder. So, based upon the recipe I use, I might add 2 tsp. more baking powder and 1-2 more eggs to the above recipe if you want it to be fluffier. Also, try separating the wet ingredients from the dry and add the dry after you've combined the wet ingredients. What I do is I beat the eggs on high in my KitchenAid with 1 1/4 c. milk (and 3 T. butter and 1 t. vanilla) until they've exponentially increased in volume and fill the entire bowl. Then I add the dry ingredients and lightly combine. I think beating a lot of air into the eggs helps make the pancakes fluffy.

Brandon,

I'm with aschie30 - it sounds like you've got far less baking powder than you need. I like fluffy too, and I usually use about 3 (unmeasured) teaspoons for every 2 (unmeasured) cups of flour.

Kenny

Thank you for your help. I bake (or mix batters in this case) very little and I'm not fully aware of what properties each ingredient brings to the mix in terms of how things will rise, or in this case "fluff".

Hi,

Food scientist Shirley Corriher indicates 1 teaspoon baking powder per cup of flour. As Kenny and Aschie have already pointed out, you are short of baking powder by at least 3 teaspoons. If your pancakes prove to be too fluffy, then back off on the baking powder.

I made corn pancakes using Jiffy cornbread mix last night. I found when I let the batter sit for a few minutes the dough was thicker than I began. I added more milk to thin it out.

Regards,

brandon_w wrote:However they turned out very dense, is this how they usually turn out for you? I guess I prefer my pancakes to be a bit more fluffy, any suggestions on how to make that happen?

Brandon,

As has been pointed out you were light on the baking powder. I, for my personal taste, would use less sugar and, as mentioned in my post, add a wee bit of syrup to the batter.

If you are looking for light and fluffy, but with the taste and crisp of corn meal I suggest adding the yolks, for your proportions I would have used three eggs instead of one, to the batter then, in a separate step, whip the egg whites and gently fold into the batter just before cooking.

Enjoy,
Gary

JoelF wrote:Sue uses a recipe from Consumer Reports from many years ago
2 C Flour (fixed -- thanks Paulette)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Stir above items together, then add
2C Buttermilk
2 Eggs
2 Tbs melted butter (although a third of this often ends up spattered over the inside of the microwave)
Don't over-mix, stir just until flour is mixed in

Absolutely delicious. Probably one of the top reasons why we got the stovetop with a griddle instead of a grill.

Joel,

A question about the pancake recipe you posted:

I've used it the last two Sundays exactly as you posted it. However, my mixture is waaaaaayyyyy too thick. Almost biscuit-batter like.

I end up adding at least another cup + of buttermilk to get a pour able consistency.

Are you using regular all-purpose flour? Are there different types of buttermilk?

I must say that the finished product is great but I don’t understand why my batter is so thick…

Yes, it sometimes comes out thick. Don't know why. Might be the buttermilk brand (yes it is AP flour).

It's never consistent.. except in deliciousness.

Go ahead and thin it out a bit, it's no problem.

My favorite is a 60s-era Joy of Cooking recipe (also posted here a couple years back, but less legibly) which is my standby:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp melted butter
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated

I use bakers sugar and sift the dry ingredients together (not sure how much difference that makes, and mix the butter, milk and egg yolks separately before adding to the dry, and beat the egg whites and fold them in. As noted above, you needn't separate the eggs, but it makes a noticeable difference.

I'll have to try throwing a little cornmeal in there.

I love the pancakes at Richard Walkers in Schaumburg. I assume they have cornmeal in them due to their texture, but I can't seem to get mine right. Anyone have any thoughts?

Got around to making pancakes again last week. This time I went from 1 tsp on baking powder to four, and one egg to three. Seperated the whites out, beat them, and folded them in last. Still not as fluffy as I would like, but they were much better than the last batch and the flavor was great:

LTH,

Out of milk and substituted applesauce thinned with a bit of water. Pancakes were most to the point my wife wondered out loud if they were done. Subtle apple flavor as bonus.

Enjoy,
Gary

Last night I made some more pancakes. This time I followed the pancake batter ratio from Ruhlman's new book, Ratio. The only thing I changed in the ratio was adding one more tsp of baking powder hoping for a bit of extra fluff. At first I thought the batter was too thick, or at least thicker than I was used to, but I forged ahead and started pouring out pancakes. I think they were the best I have ever made. They were fluffy and light, but still had a nice density too them. I hope that makes sense.

For the last four that I poured, I mixed about 1 tsp or so of ancho powder into the batter and made ancho chocolate chip pancakes. However one tsp wasn't quite enough to present any really noticeable flavor change when fighting against the chocolate and maple syrup. Next time I'll try chipotle powder, or maybe some adoboe sauce and a chopped chipotle, or Cayenne. Also after beating the ancho into the batter those pancakes did not fluff as much as the previous ones, so it seems that overworking your batter has a direct relationship to how fluffy your pancakes will get.

Aaron Deacon wrote:My favorite is a 60s-era Joy of Cooking recipe (also posted here a couple years back, but less legibly) which is my standby:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp melted butter
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated

I use bakers sugar and sift the dry ingredients together (not sure how much difference that makes, and mix the butter, milk and egg yolks separately before adding to the dry, and beat the egg whites and fold them in. As noted above, you needn't separate the eggs, but it makes a noticeable difference.

I'll have to try throwing a little cornmeal in there.

10 thumbs up to Aaron's contribution! It was road tested today at the Bridgestone household.

Quick, easy and extremely tasty. Thank you!

Blueberry Fluke-cakes

My standard pancake recipe is King Arthur Flour's, which calls for you to whip on high 2 eggs + 1 1/4 c. milk + 1 t. vanilla for 3 minutes. Then, you stir in 3 T. melted butter and the dry ingredients (1 1/2 c. flour, 2 T. sugar, 2 t. baking powder, 3/4 t. salt), until they're just incorporated.

Not having had my coffee yet, I totally forgot to add the milk in the first stage and didn't notice my error until I incorporated the dry ingredients and they turned into a ball of dough with a few turns of the Kitchen Aid. So, trying to salvage my pancakes, I dumped the milk into the dough ball, stirred, cut up the dough ball, and let it sit for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the mixture thickened, but even after a few more stirs, bits of dough remained. Oh well, onto the hot grill they went . . .

So, the batter-dough was more watery than your usual pancake batter, but managed to generally maintain a circular shape. The bits of dough melted as it cooked, and the end result was one of most texturally complex pancakes I've ever had - airy, moist, fluffy interior and crispy edges - almost like a '30s burger.

Here are the pics, not the prettiest specimens:




I think I'll try them again to see if I hit on something . . . or if it was a fluke.

aschie30 wrote:


I think I'll try them again to see if I hit on something . . . or if it was a fluke.

damn nice lookin side shot of that pancake. well done.

So, discussion of the tiresomeness of scooping had me do a bit of googling, which brought me to this homemade pancake mix recipe.

Not as good as my pancakes, and I thought to myself "why would I make a batch of 80 pancakes that has to be eaten in two weeks, or will otherwise take up valuable meat-space in my freezer?)

So I modified it, thusly:

Chez Mhays Pancake mix:

1 cup Whole wheat flour (preferably ww pastry flour, if you've got it - soft wheat has better flavor, IMO)
2 1/2 cups Buckwheat flour (Fresh Farms Niles has the best price I've seen)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup AP flour
3 1/2 cup instant oatmeal (I like texture, so I didn't bother with the grinding step - but this is why instant is important)
3 tbsp brown or demerara sugar (or maple sugar, if you've got it)
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp baking powder

Mix these ingredients, store in an airtight container. I don't know how long it will actually keep, but I'm guessing longer than two weeks. Besides, not adding the oil to the mix enables you to use melted butter in the final product:

1 cup Chez Mhays mix
1 cup milk (any kind)
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg, beaten

Mix together and allow to rest as you bring a skillet up to temp (you'll want to see the mixture thicken and pouff slightly as the oats soak in the milk and the first rise of the baking powder activates) Pour into hot, buttered skillet about 1/4 cup at a time.

I have no idea how many pancakes this made, as we ate them all before I could even get a picture. Yum. And I only had to get flour all over the kitchen once!

Blueberries from Logan Square farmer's market, using this recipe - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Good-Old-F ... etail.aspx

I decided to make Oven-Puffed Pancakes this morning. The recipe I use is from Nicole Routhier's Fruit Cookbook - 400 Sweet and Savory Fruit-Filled Recipes, Soups to Desserts. I doubled the recipe because the 12-year old said she wanted a whole pancake to herself.

3 Large eggs
2 TBL plus 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
3 TBL unsalted butter
Fruit of your choice, confectioner's sugar, maple syrup

Adjust oven rack to middle position; preheat oven to 425 F.

Whisk eggs with 2 TBL of the sugar and the nutmeg until well blended. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Add the milk and whisk until smooth.

Heat 2 ovenproof 6-inch skillets for smaller pancakes or one oven pancake pan or larger non-stick frying pan. Melt 1 TBL of butter in each pan and either divide between the two smaller pans or put all in one larger pan.

Bake until pancake(s) is puffed, golden brown and crusty around the edges, about 20 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR DURING THE FIRST 5 MINUTES OR THE PANCAKE WILL NOT RISE PROPERLY.

While pancake is baking, you can saute' the fruit of your choice in a remaining 1 TBL of butter and add the remaining 1/2 tsp of sugar. I also add lots of cinnamon.



I doubled the recipe and split the batter between my stirfry pan and an oven pancake pan. I made my daughter's pancake in my oven pancake pan and put more batter in hers. (The butter was starting to brown.)


The finished products. My daughter likes hers with powdered sugar and syrup. I had some overripe plums, so I sauteed them with sugar and cinnamon.

Has anyone used pancake mix for any other uses (besides waffles, crepes, etc.), like an additive to bread dough, or substitute for flour? I have a box but I wondered what else it can do in case I get lazy before the expiration date.

Buttermilk pancake mix, mixed 50/50 with your regular flour adds nice texture to any breading. We used this blend for our chicken, breaded pork tenderloins and fried mushrooms.

Hi,

In my household, there are differences of opinion when it comes to the pancake. My Dad does not like American pancakes. He does like Swedish, Russian blinis and other thin pancakes.

I made a new pancake for us: rice pancakes. It's a recipe in the older Joy of Cooking consisting of:

2 cups rice flour
4.5 teaspoons baking powder
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (actually they called for 2 teaspoons maple sugar)
2 cups milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter

I thought they had a nice chewy texture. My Dad liked them over American pancakes, because they were closer in style to the thin pancakes. While these pancakes puffed up fast, they also deflated quickly, too, which may account for his preference. These were served with butter and rosehip jam.

A new pancake enters the rotation.

Regards,
Cathy2

If you have Bisquick-type pancake mix, they make great biscuits
just follow the recipe on the box
also great drop biscuits on top of chicken stew for chicken and dumplings/biscuits
or biscuit -topped cobblers
It's actually my go-to for chicken and dumplings.

The also have a crazy recipe for something called impossible pie
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/product-recipes/bisquick-recipes/bisquick-impossibly-easy-pie-recipes
Where you basically throw everything in the blender,
then bake them, and as they bake they separate into layers.
It's not Hoosier Mama, but it's not bad.

Today is Fat Tuesday, which is also known as Pancake Day in the UK.

Clementine Paddleford offers up pancakes from Kansas

What popped out at me was: "The ladies shared topping ideas beyond syrup, like brown sugar creamed with butter and granulated sugar mixed with a sprinkling of lemon rind." Oh boy, does that speak to me.

A variety of pancakes offered up by The Irish Times

Regards,
Cathy2