Early Shrove Tuesday

You ever have one of those mornings where you just want something different?  For whatever reason, you just suddenly miss something?  I had one of those mornings this morning.  I got thinking about when Paul first moved to the US.  He had a cute fully furnished place that was perfect for a bachelor.  The kitchen was small but serviceable and whenever I would stay over on the weekends, we’d take turns cooking breakfast.  He’d make bacon sandwiches and I would get up and make pancakes.  They were on the smaller size, but always fluffy, golden and smothered in butter and syrup.

And this morning I wanted them!!

I decided I wanted a change from the usual brekfast and at first thought about a fritatta, but that just wasn’t doing it for me.  Then I thought bout the pancakes.  With that bit of reckless flair, off I went to the pantry to see if it could be done.  I have gluten-free flour of course.  I have baking powder, sugar eggs… did I have syrup?  After a fair bit of rummaging I found it at the back of a shelf, a nearly a full bottle of that wonderfully brown sticky sweet stuff was there.  It’s pure maple syrup, so I know there would be no gluten issues with it.  So yes, in theory it could be done.  Off I went to get my old recipe out.  The way I saw it was if I couldn’t get this, I could always have the usual breakfast.  My only concern was the milk that needed to go in.  I’m always a bit leery of dairy since it usually makes be bloated and ill.  But it was worth a try.

At first, using the recipe portions the batter was a bit runny,, very bubbly and had little structure to it.  When I poured it into my skillet, you could see the bubbles bursting and see the bottom of the skillet.  They didn’t rise and were honestly more like crepes than pancakes.  But they tasted ok.  So I tried adding more flour and some of the Bob’s Red Mill GF flour mix.  It thickened the batter up quite nicely.  Suddenly I was getting real pancakes.  They weren’t as fluffy as they used to be, but they did fluff some.  They also cooked *much* quicker.  In very short order I had a big stack of golden pancakes.

They were wonderful.  Airy and moist, with lots of corn oil butter and syrup - YUM!!!  They disappeared very quickly.  Paul had to finish mine, as they were also incredibly filling.  And he best bit?  No issue with the dairy.

I can’t tell you how happy it made me to make something I haven’t made in years.  I just need to make sure that I add more flour or less liquid.

Fluffy Pancakes

1 to 1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder (That’s not a typo - honest)
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp oil

In one bowl, combine the flour, sugar and baking powder.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil.  Add the wet stuff to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Heat an oiled griddle (or a non-stick skillet if you have it) and pour in the batter, about a 1/4 cup (50 mL) at a time.  Allow the pancake to cook on one side for a minute or two.  When you can get a spatula under it and it’s nice and golden, flip it over.  Let cook for another minute or two.

Makes roughly 10-12 pancakes.