Trader Joe’s Pancake and Waffle mix is wheat, peanuts, nut, milk and diary, soy and corn free! Since this list contains many of the allergy culprits this mix bodes well for any person avoiding these foods or allergic to them. Also sugar free!
Most importantly the waffles are delicious and lose nothing from the lack of wheat. The main flour is rice flour with some tapioca and arrowroot flour as well.
Light with a spongy textures inside, crisp, crunchy outside. We made ours with dairy free Sweet Cream and warmed up dark Morello Cherries – also from TJoe’s for a satisfying and delicous Sunday brunch.
It is significantly cheaper to grind your own specialty flours but you need a grain mill to do it. A bag of organic quinoa flour from Bob’s Red Mill is $6.19. You can buy a pound of organic quinoa at Trader Joe’s or even Whole Foods for $1.00. So at 25% of the cost of buying the flour you can grind your own – with the added bonus that the flour is completely and absolutely fresh. Just about any specialty flour: amaranth, coconut, almond, barley, brown rice, black bean, corn, spelt, millet, oat, and rye to name some can be quickly and cheaply made yourself.
A good grain mill isn’t cheap though so a purchase of this type probably makes more sense for someone who plans to use non-wheat specialty flours on an ongoing basis.
The grain mill can also be used for other things including, of course, grinding your own wheat.
Back when I ate soy – I ground up soy beans and made my own homemade tofu using the recipe from The Farm cookbook. The mill easily handled the soy and worked perfectly for tofu making.
We bought the Jupiter Family Grain Mill 8 years ago and are very happy with it. You get quite a bit of control over the coarseness / fineness of the flour grains and the machine is sturdy, simple to put together and take apart, and clean. I see that some website are selling it for around $200 and that sounds about right given inflation and what we paid for ours.
This is the best tasting gluten free flour mix I’ve found. There’s no predominating strong flavor that takes over the mix so the baked goods taste like . . . baked goods – not bean flour or quinoa or buckwheat. Not that those are bad it’s just sometimes a good old fashioned tasting pancake or muffin is just what is called for.
The basic idea for these came from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.
Use 1 batch of baking mix for each recipe below.
BAKING MIX
1/4 c. tapioca flour
1/3 c. almond meal/flour
2. T. ground flax seed (or your choice of gluten free flour)
1/3 c. brown or white rice flour
1/3 c. sorghum flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/4 t. salt
FOR CUPCAKES
1 c. almond or rice milk
1/3 c. walnut or canola oil
1/2 c. xylitol
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. almond extract
1 egg (optional)
Mix these ingredients on medium speed and then mix in the baking mix above. Mix well – there’s no gluten so there’s no danger of overmixing.
Preheat oven to 350F
Oil muffin tin
Bake 20-25 minutes
FOR PANCAKES
1 c. almond or rice milk
1/3 c. walnut or canola oil
2 eggs, separated
Beat the egg whites and set aside. Whisk milk, oil and egg yolks.
Mix in the baking mix above. Fold in the egg whites.
Make the pancakes over medium heat in a saute or frying pan.
Good with blueberrries sweetened with Xylitol.
FOR COOKIES
1/2 c. butter or Earth Balance
1/2 c. xylitol
1 1/2 t. Stevia
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. almond extract
1 egg (optional)
1/3 c. coconut
Mix these ingredients on medium speed and then mix in the baking mix above. Mix well – there’s no gluten so there’s no danger of overmixing.
Preheat oven to 350F
Drop by spoonfuls on baking sheet
Bake 12-15 minutes
I’ve been drawing a blank when in the mood for a snack and I read somewhere that pancakes could fit that bill so today I decided to make up a pancake recipe that could be made up in advance and stored in the refrigerator for when the mood hit. I really liked how they came out – light and fluffy and tasty. I ate some of mine with Tofu Aioli which I bought at the coop and think they’d be good with many different toppings.
Makes 8-12 pancakes
1 cup oat flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 t. baking powder (optional)
1/4 t. salt (optional)
2 eggs, separated
2 Tablespoons safflower oil
1 cup milk (or substitute)
a little butter or oil
Method
Combine the milk, oil and whisk in egg yolks.
Combine flours, sunflower seeds, salt, b.p. and then fold into milk, oil, egg mixture.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.
Heat a skillet, add the butter or oil and pour in batter
Cook until bubbles form then flip and cook on other side.
Cool and store for snacks or eat them all – but not by yourself!
