My continuing gluten-free story…over the past few months I’ve been trying out more GF recipes and using different mixes to see how they bake up. I’ve found that – for me, at least – GF pancakes come out less dense and more cakey (rather than kind of damp in the middle…) than wheat pancakes. This is a good thing.
The inspiration for these pancakes comes from the Chocolate Granola with Red Berries recipe from Compassionate Cuisine. This granola was begging to have some pancake wrapped around it. And it’s a well-known fact that everything, even breakfast, tastes better with chocolate sauce on top.
Note: the sugar- and oil-free in the title refer to the pancakes and the chocolate sauce. There is coconut oil and maple syrup (yes, it’s sugar) in the granola.
Whole Grain Gluten-Free Pancakes
Makes 14
1 1/4 cup nut milk
~1 cup water
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. flaxseed meal + 6 tbsp. water (whisk together then let sit for a few minutes)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups whole grain gluten-free mix (I use King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Mix)
1/2 tsp. powdered stevia
3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
pinch salt
While you mix up the batter, heat a skillet or griddle.
In a large bowl, combine the GF mix, powdered stevia, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the nut milk, apple cider vinegar, water, flaxseed meal mixture, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well to combine. If the batter seems too thick, add more water. Let the batter sit for a few minutes.
Spoon batter onto the skillet or griddle and drop a tablespoon or so of chocolate granola over each pancake. Cook until the top dries and small bubbles pop up on the surface of the pancake and then carefully flip and cook for a few more minutes – these are thick pancakes. Serve piping hot with additional granola, if desired, and chocolate sauce.
Chocolate Granola with Dried Cherries & Ginger
Makes about 6 cups
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup double dutch or regular cocoa powder
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup brown rice puff cereal
2 cups regular oats
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
Preheat oven to 275F.
In a large bowl, stir together the cereal, oats, almonds, pecans, coconut, and cinnamon. In a small saucepan, warm up the coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup and whisk until combined.
Pour the cocoa mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until everything is evenly coated with the sauce. Place in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove pan from the oven, stir, and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Keep checking and stirring at 10 minute intervals until the granola is a deep, rich brown. During the last 10 minutes, stir in the cherries and ginger.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool, stirring once in a while to keep the granola from clumping too much. Cool completely before storing.
Date-Coconut Chocolate Sauce
Makes 1 1/4 cups
1 cup dates, soaked
1 tbsp. double dutch cocoa powder or cocoa powder
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 tsp. coconut extract, optional
Place all ingredients in a blender and process until very smooth. Gently heat on the stove top or in a microwave.
P.S. this sauce works deliciously as an add-in to hot chocolate…
I love the noble sound of Kathy Hester’s newest cookbook, The Great Vegan Bean Book. I know beans are considered to be one of the humblest of foods, but considering how often I eat them and how versatile they are, they seem pretty darn great to me. Even though I thought I had a pretty good handle on how to get the best out of beans, Kathy Hester puts me to shame. She has a new cookbook out that features beans – all kinds of beans – that take us from breakfast all the way through to sweet and healthy desserts.
I love tinkering with pancake (and waffle) recipes – and that’s because Sunday morning breakfast is hands down my favorite meal of the week. Over the past year or so of blogging I’ve made the following pancakes:
There’s nothing quite like pilfering a recipe – especially when you shamelessly pilfer one of your own recipes. At least I’m giving myself credit – it’s just blogging etiquette. These pancakes were inspired by my very own Virtual Vegan Potluck contribution for 
Simple Syrup
When I was a kid, I loved a thin, flat pancake – preferably made with Bisquick – adorned with a generous pat of butter and drenched, and I mean soggy, with real maple syrup. It was the way pancakes should be eaten. My tastes have changed in so many ways over the years and now I love thick, fluffy unrefined pancakes without a lot of sweetness (or oil). Pancakes that can handle a big, messy schmear of crunchy peanut butter and a boat load of banana slices. These whole grain pancakes can take the pressure, yet they’re tender and light. And they’re loaded with flavor from the blueberries and ginger with a nice crunch from the sunflower seeds. Freeze the leftovers and gently reheat in the microwave or toaster oven.
Long ago, when Mikey liked Life cereal, when it was okay to wear an orange plaid shirt with brown cords and when, as my mother describes it, “the whole family looked as if it had the flu for a decade,” pancakes came in one flavor. Pancake (a.k.a. Bisquick) flavor. Sometimes you got crazy and chopped up some apples to add to the batter, or if you felt really wild you’d sprinkle on a few blueberries as the ‘cakes were cooking. And then you looked around to make sure the neighbors hadn’t seen you do it. Now there are all kinds of ways to make pancakes – you can even make them savory and eat them as dinner with yummy things stuffed inside of them. (Some might be tempted to call these crepes, but I’m not talking about that flimsy cousin of the pancake.) No one even thinks you’re nuts to do it. This recipe certainly isn’t the craziest of the crazy, but compared to 1970s-era pancakes, they are downright zappy. And I think you can dig it.
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
This is what happens when you turn banana bread into breakfast food. With a small adjustment in ingredients the batter for quick bread becomes batter for Sunday morning breakfast pancakes. I further modified this – veganized – from a recipe from the Whole Foods recipe site. The dairy products were exchanged for vegan equivalents; I completely omitted the canola oil and used 100% whole wheat pastry flour instead of a combination of whole wheat flour and AP flour. The addition of toasted nuts or chocolate chips would be wonderful.