One-of-a-Kind Gluten-Free Pancakes

The pancakes I made this morning could've been a disaster, but they turned out surprisingly good.  And I'm not really sure how I made them.

The classic pancake recipe¹ basically calls for 1 cup flour, 1 egg, ¾ cup milk, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted shortening, 2 teaspoons sugar, 3 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt.  That's from memory – it might not be exact.

But I had just bought Bob's Red Mill Teff flour² and I wanted to use it to make pancakes.  I read on the back of the package “Substitute up to ¼ cup teff flour per cup of wheat flour...” I took it to mean “Substitute ¼ cup teff flour for each cup of wheat flour...” and that's what I did.  But of course that's not what Bob meant.  I should've combined ¼ cup of teff with ¾ cup of wheat flour for my recipe.

Fortunately, I'm a veteran pancake maker, and I quickly realized my mistake.  I knew I needed more dry ingredients, so first I added some ground flax seed because I wanted to use it up.  Then I added more teff flour.  When I remembered that I had almond flour that was never opened, I added that.  But then it was too thick, so I thinned it out with tap water until finally I had batter that I could pour.

So here is my One-of-a-Kind Gluten-Free Pancake Recipe:

½ cup teff flour
½ cup almond flour
2 tbsp ground flax seed
¾ teas. Baking soda
1 ½ teas. Cream of Tartar
2 teas. Truvia (or other stevia substitute)
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
¾ cup half & half
2-3 tbsp extra light olive oil

Several pats of unsalted butter for the pan.
2-3 tbsp extra light olive oil for the pan

Place a large cast iron skillet, dry, on medium heat.

Combine the wet ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and beat the egg into a uniform mixture.
Combine the flours, flax seed and salt and add to the bowl.

Mix together the baking soda and cream of  tartare (or use 3 teas. fresh baking powder³) and add to the bowl.  Blend the batter together until all lumps are gone.  Add water to thin out the batter, if desired.  Observe the wonderful bubbles.

Check the pan.  Drip some water droplets onto the surface.  If they sputter and dance around, add the oil and coat the surface.  Then add a pat of butter at each spot that you'll pour the batter on.

As soon as the butter has melted, pour the batter onto the pan and cook like normal pancakes.

---

¹ Betty Crocker Cookbook
² http://www.bobsredmill.com/teff-flour.html
³ Basic Baking Powder substitution from Fitday