Is it me or are there more special days around this time of year: Valentines, Burns Night, Mother’s Day, St Patrick’s?
But Pancake Day is surely the most loved of all!
Pancakes are so popular they are made in thousands of different ways around the world, whether they are French crepes, Russian blinis, Mexican tortillas or Indian dosas, so don’t be afraid of trying something a little different.
Just add fizzy water…
If you’re avoiding dairy, or eggs, the day can still be fun.
Did you know that it’s possible to make pancakes with just self-raising flour and carbonated water? You just sift 300g/11oz of flour and whisk in 600ml/1pt of water, and that’s it! Of course, there are lots of little flavourings you can add like vanilla or cinnamon, and it’s easy to use buckwheat flour as a substitute well.
You may start drooling now...
Cooking pancakes with fruit.
Or perhaps if you are avoiding eggs you may want to use pulped mango or banana instead which make brilliant binders for flour and milk (or soya milk). There again, you could always use an egg replacer. Significantly for coeliacs, when it comes to avoiding gluten, the whole process is now a lot easier because there are so many speciality flours out there.
However, if you want a tried and tested method then there are always pancake mixes from Orgran and Barkat. The Orgran versions are vegan too.
Try this recipe
Finally, you could try using coconut flour in your pancakes – an entirely gluten free recipe of course; but be careful, the coconut flour soaks up a lot of liquid, you may need to water it down…
Makes 4 pancakes.
2 tablespoons organic coconut flour, sieved
2 tablespoons organic butter, melted down
2 organic eggs
1 teaspoon organic sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
75ml whole organic milk
Blend the eggs, oil, sugar and salt. Then mix in the coconut flour thoroughly. Continue to stir the mix as you add the milk.
When frying the pancakes use a small frying pan. Make sure you spread the batter thinly across the whole pan.
Enjoy.
