Coconut Buckweat Pancakes

Coconut Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. Coconut Flour
1 1/2 c. Buckwheat Flour (light or dark)
1/4 c. Sugar
2/3. tsp Bakewell Cream*
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 Tbs. Veg. Oil (or melted butter)
2 c. Milk (or favorite milk substitute)
1 c. water
1/4 c. flaxseed egg substitute

Procedure:
Combine all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Add all of the wet ingredients and stir together.  In working with coconut flour, you may find that it absorbs quite a bit of moisture (please see tomorrow's post when I discuss my experience trying out coconut flour).  This batter will be thicker than a "normal" pancake batter, but it should still be able to spread on it's own a little bit when poured onto the griddle, you may have to spread it out with a stroke or two of a spoon, but it should not sit idle in a clump on the pan, or be so runny that is spreads really thin.  Cook on a medium hot skillet, well buttered (or oiled).  Until the bottom is golden brown and the top should be starting to set.  These will not get bubbles in the raw batter on the top while they cook like "full gluten" pancakes (please see bottom left picture).  Carefully loosen them from the pan, as they will be prone to stick because of the high protein content of the coconut flour.  Flip them over and finish cooking the other side.  They will be firm to the touch and seem somewhat heavier than "full gluten" pancakes.

Pancake ready to flip

Pancake, after being flipped

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The flavor of these is very good.  The sweet coconut flavor blends well with the buckwheat flour (which can sometimes overpower an item) making the buckwheat taste more like a whole wheat blend.  The texture is heavier than that of the other buckwheat pancakes that I have posted, and much heavier than "normal full gluten pancakes".  When warm the pancakes have almost a creamy inside texture, when cool they become sturdy enough to make a delicious almond butter (or SunButter) sandwich out of.  My son really likes them for a snack as well as breakfast!  In the picture above, they are shown with the Citrus Prickly Pear Sauce, which was a great combination.  My son tends to eat them warm with butter and a sprinkle of sugar or cinnamon sugar.  Because of their heavy nature, and high protein content these are very filling and a healthy start to the day!  These would be great with mini chocolate chips added or maybe some mashed banana...  or Both!  Sounds like a good experiment to try next!


*Bakewell Cream is a leavening again manufactured in Maine, and usually only found in stores in Maine and other parts of New England.  I highly recommend using this in most quick breads and especially biscuits.  If you are not able to procure the Bakewell Cream, you can simply use 1 tsp Baking Powder and 1/2 tsp of Baking Soda, it will still work good for these pancakes with the coconut flour.

Apple Coffee Cake w/Warm Vanilla Sauce

This coffee cake is one of the best.  It originated from a "regular" coffee cake recipe that I use quite a bit with just about any fruit including but not limited to rhubarb, blueberries, apples, or cranberries (fresh).  I have not found a fruit yet that is not good in this, so feel free to be creative!  It can be eaten without the vanilla sauce, if you want to cut back on sugar and fat, or if you cannot have dairy (you'll notice that it is mostly butter, sugar and milk...) but it really sends this cake "over-the-top" in the flavor and texture category.  Sometimes, I will use the sauce if serving this as a dessert (pictured below) and omit it if serving the cake for a breakfast item (pictured above).  This recipe uses all quinoa flour, and I would highly recommend that you try it this way too.  I am sure it can be done with a combination of buckwheat and quinoa or just buckwheat, but the results with all quinoa flour is the best results I have had yet working with any gluten-free flours.  This recipe is also egg-free.  If you can have eggs and use them, simply use 1 egg in place of the 1/4 c. flaxseed egg-substitute.  You will probably want to omit the applesauce in the cake batter as well if actually using eggs.  There are more explanations about this egg-substitute in the "Egg Substitutes" post.  I am so excited about sharing this recipe with you and hope that you find it as wonderful as we did!

Cake Batter:
2 Tbs Butter
1 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Flax seed Egg-Substitute (See "Egg-Substitutes" Post)
2 Tbs. Applesauce
2 c. Quinoa Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 c. Milk
1 c. Apples, peeled, cored and diced (or other fruit like fresh or frozen rhubarb, blueberries, cranberries)


Cream together butter and sugar, and then add the flax seed egg substitute and applesauce.  Mix until smooth and creamy.  In a separate bowl, stir together the quinoa flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  Add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk.  Scrape the bowl and continue mixing until all ingredients are incorporated and the batter will be smooth.  Stir in the apples (or other fruit).  Pour into a greased 8" or  9" square pan or a 9" round cake pan.  Sprinkle the Struesel Topping (recipe below) over the entire surface of cake, make sure to use the full amount of topping that you have, it might seem like too much, but it will be perfect once the cake is baked.  Bake cake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 mins.  The topping should be lightly browned and a toothpick stuck in the middle of the cake should come out mostly clean with possibly a moist crumb or two on it, but nothing gooey.  Let cool for 10-15 mins before cutting.  This cake is still absolutely delicious at room temperature with or without the optional Warm Vanilla Sauce (recipe below).


Struesel Topping:

1/4 c. Quinoa Flour
1/4 c. Sugar
2 Tbs. Butter, cold

Mix together the flour and sugar in a small bowl.  Cut in the butter until all pieces are smaller than the size of peas.  Sprinkle over unbaked panned caked batter.

Warm Vanilla Sauce (Optional, but Highly Recommended):
1/2 c. Butter
3/4 c. Sugar
2 Tbs. Cornstarch
1/2 c. Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla

Mix together the sugar and cornstarch until there are no lumps.  Place into a sauce pan with the remaining ingredients.  Cook on medium low, whisking, until the butter is melted and everything is incorporated.  Turn heat to medium high and cook until the mixture comes to a boil, turn heat down to medium low and continue to boil for 2-3 mins.  The mixture should thicken to a nappe consistency (cling to back of spoon) and have no starchy texture/flavor when you taste it.  Remove from heat and cool for about 10 mins before drizzling over cake, it will thicken just a little more as it cools. 

Apple Coffee Cake w/Warm Vanilla Sauce

                      

Buckwheat Pancakes (GF/EF)

These pancakes come out soft and tender, of course not as light as a regular pancake but superior to most other recipes I have tried for Gluten-Free, Egg-Free.  This particular recipe does have milk in it, but it works great with other non-dairy milks if you are dairy-free.  One of our favorites is the almond milk, but it also works great with soy, coconut, and rice.  I have made pancakes with part orange juice as well - makes a great orange ginger pancake, by adding about 1/2 tsp ground dry ginger.  Be creative with these!  We like them with apples and cinnamon or blueberries.  They are good with mini chocolate chips as well.  Sometimes I just add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the plain batter just to liven up simple pancakes.  And, of course, always serve them with REAL maple syrup!


1 1/2 c. Buckwheat Flour*
1/4 c. Granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2 Tbs. oil (vegetable oil, light olive oil, or coconut oil)
1 c. Milk (regular or non-dairy)
1 tsp. vinegar
1/4 c. flaxseed egg substitute (see info on "Egg Substitutes" post)
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs. applesauce

Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Add all the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry, and whisk until smooth.  That is one beautiful thing about working with gluten-free flours, you really can't over mix a batter.  For instance, with regular pancake batters or muffin batters made with wheat flours, over mixing will produce a heavy, tough product.  I have not found this to be true of the gluten-free flours.

Pancake is ready to flip!

Heat a skillet to medium low heat.  When skillet is hot, grease it with butter.  I use butter to grease pan, but again if you are dairy-free, veg oil, coconut oil or light olive oil will also work.  Ladle batter onto skillet into pancakes, I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup as a ladle for small pancakes, or a 1/3 cup measuring cup for slightly larger pancakes.  Flip pancakes when they start to get bubbles on the top and edges and parts of top look set.  See photo to the left.  Both sides should be a nice golden brown color.  If the pancakes are not getting golden but are cooking through, turn the heat up, if the opposite is happening where they are getting too dark, but the middle is not setting up fast enough to turn them, turn the heat down slightly.

This recipe makes about 8 pancakes when using a 1/3 c. measuring cup as a ladle.  Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, reheating them quickly on a hot skillet works great!  They are also good eaten like toast with Sun Butter or almond butter (if you can have those.).

*This recipe does work well substituting 1/2c Masa Harina for 1/2 c. of the buckwheat flour.  I do this when I am running low in buckwheat flour, but have plenty of Masa.  

 YUM!  ENJOY!