Gluten-free German Pancakes (just as good as the wheat version!)

The deliciousness has landed!

Since my diagnosis with Celiac Disease a year ago, I have slowly been expanding my repertoire of gluten-free breakfasts. This has been one of the very easiest. I love to whip this up, put it in the oven, and let it bake while I make the kids' lunches and help them get ready for school. Even my not-a-morning-person daughter, who often tries to skip breakfast, will eat several helpings. In fact, she's the one who said, "These are just as good as the gluten version!"

I first got the idea for making German Pancakes gluten-free while staying with my sister-in-law. She made them with sorghum flour. They were a little heavy (similar to German pancakes made with whole wheat flour), but still quite tasty, and I realized that this recipe had potential. She recommended I try oat flour (lighter and less strong taste), which I did, and that's how I've been making them ever since. If you cannot tolerate oats, I recommend trying sorghum flour (for a heartier version) or experiment with brown/white rice flours, millet flour, and so on.

[For those without gluten issues, here is my delectable gluten version. I still miss them just a little.]

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Gluten-free Goodness: Whole Grain Pancakes for the Whole Family

Some for now, some for later (see double recipe below)

I am coming up on 6 months since I was diagnosed with Celiac and started eating gluten-free. And in that time I have found that some of my whole wheat favorites have easy and delicious gluten-free versions, and others don't. For example, bread. Gluten-free bread is a tough sell for me since I still remember well the deliciousness of my honey whole wheat bread and the airy crumb and crunchy crust of an artisan loaf.  But pancakes! My gluten-free pancakes are just delicious! If I do say so myself.

One thing I've quickly realized is that most recipes for gluten-free goods are decidedly not whole grain. But after spending years tweaking recipes to achieve deliciously healthy whole grain baked goods with wheat, I'm not willing to settle for the fiber-less not-hearty un-filling recipes full of starches and white rice flour that so often populate my search results.

After much searching and experimenting, I present to you this delicious recipe for whole grain gluten-free pancakes. If you hate weight measurements, I'm really sorry (and I did include a volume approximation just for you!), but I have already been thoroughly converted to baking by weight with gluten-free flours. I dug a decade-old IKEA digital scale out of my cabinet and have never looked back. I find it much easier to pour rather than scoop out when dealing with all these types of flour. Baking by weight makes doubling or tripling a recipe easy-peasy too.

Often gluten-free recipes will say, "use 1 cup or so many grams of gluten-free flours," and then provide a list of about 300 different gluten-free flours you might use. As a gluten-free newbie, I did not find this useful. I want a combination of flours that will work and taste delicious right now!  So this recipe prescribes specific flours in specific amounts, but of course you can and should substitute your favorite gluten-free flours (although the mysterious properties of buckwheat may be why this recipe needs no oil) or fudge the amounts and flours based on what you've got on hand, as I often do. But here is my favorite version so far. The one I keep coming back to.

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Vegan Whole Grain Waffle & Pancake Mix

Jeanette's Pumpkin Whole Grain Waffle recipe that I posted last week is actually a modification of Natalie's Vegan Whole Grain Waffle/ Pancake Mix. I've never made this recipe myself (I've been making the pumpkin version since we purchased our Teflon-free waffle maker), but I have eaten these waffles and pancakes dozens of times and I can attest that they are delicious. This recipe is awesome because you can mix up all the dry ingredients in advance and then use a cup (or more) of dry mix plus nothing but water and oil for an easy homemade breakfast anytime. My sister often takes this mix with her when she travels (so she can make her children a vegan breakfast) or even camping. Your own vegan homemade waffle/ pancake mix anywhere anytime.

Natalie's Vegan Waffle & Pancake Mix

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{Teflon-free} Pumpkin Whole Grain Waffles with Pumpkin Syrup

I Found a Teflon-free Waffle Maker!

Given my deep and abiding love for breakfast foods, some might find it surprising that homemade waffles were not in my regular breakfast rotation. After all, they freeze and toast up so well! Problem is, I ditched Teflon many years ago and I couldn't find a Teflon-free waffle maker anywhere. I had seen cast iron waffle makers, but they were unseasoned, and came with parrafin wax on them (to prevent rusting). In order to use it, you had to melt off the parrafin wax and season it yourself. Sorry, but that's a little too much effort for me. [Now a pre-seasoned cast iron waffle maker, that I would buy in a heartbeat. Are you listening, Lodge Logic???]

At any rate, I had resigned myself to living without waffles. That is, until recently, when my son's umpteenth request for waffles compelled me to half-heartedly google (again) "Teflon-free waffle maker." And, lo and behold, there it was: the Oster DuraCeramic Stainless Steel Flip Waffle Maker. Now, really, I should have done my due diligence and tried to find out more about what the nonstick coating of my waffle maker is made of before purchasing it, but I was just so excited to see a PTFE-free and PFOA-free ceramic-based coating on a waffle maker that I just went ahead and purchased it. (Read Debra Lynn Dodd's take on the coating here.)

Enjoy Superfood Pumpkin Year-round

Since then I have been keeping my freezer well-stocked with my sister Jeanette's Pumpkin Whole Grain Waffles. My 6yo son loves to have these for breakfast, and I love sending him to school with a tummy full of whole grains and pumpkin goodness. We most often eat these with maple syrup, but for even more pumpkin deliciousness, try with pumpkin syrup (recipe follows).

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Celebrate a Special Day with a Special Breakfast

I love breakfast, so for special occasions like holidays or birthdays or even just the arrival of the weekend, I love to celebrate with a special breakfast.

We regularly have whole grain pancakes, French toast, German pancakes, or scrambled eggs, for breakfast. If you are used to eating cold cereal with milk for breakfast, any hot homemade deliciousness could be a special breakfast. Around here, I need to kick it up a notch to make breakfast special.

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Multi-grain Buttermilk Pancakes

Lately I've been making this pancake recipe with whole wheat, quick oats, cornmeal, and molasses instead of my usual whole wheat pancakes. It's my current breakfast favorite. This recipe comes from epicurious by way of my friend Megan. I've made a few changes from the original recipe. Instead of light molasses, I use blackstrap, because that's what I've got. And instead of white flour, I just use more whole wheat flour. I'm sure they would taste excellent with butter in the batter, but the lazier approach is to just use oil and butter the griddle.

Multi-grain Buttermilk Pancakes

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Homemade Yogurt

Homemade yogurt: delicious with homemade granola

Homemade yogurt is one of those things that is so easy... once you figure it out.  There are about a gazillion posts and web pages about how to make homemade yogurt. And all are determined to convince you how very simple and doable it is. And yet they all give slightly different directions. And often give pseudo-scientific reasons for doing so (e.g., if you add too much starter the bacteria in the culture fights with each other and won't work correctly). The problem is the number of variables involved:

• Milk (whole, 2%, skim, raw, pasteurized, goat, cow, sheep)
• Type of starter (brand of yogurt, greek or regular, flavored or not, powdered)
• Ratio of starter to milk
• Method of heating milk
• Temperature milk needs to reach to kill vagrant bacteria
• Temperature milk needs to cool to before adding starter
• Other ingredients (powdered milk, gelatin, flavorings, sweetener)
• Incubation temperature 
• Length of incubation period 
• Method of incubation 

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What's for Breakfast? Whole Wheat Pancakes

One of my goals after my month of Plastic Awareness was to eat less packaged cereal. And lately, cold cereal with milk just hasn’t been filling us up enough anyway. Anyone with kids also knows that breakfast for dinner is always a good idea, and a pretty painless way to have a Meatless Monday too! So I’m writing a series of posts featuring my favorite breakfast recipes.

I like to make pancakes at least once a week.  Here is my favorite whole wheat pancake recipe with some variations. (Note: this post is an update and expansion of this post from last June.)

Whole Wheat Pancakes

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What’s for Breakfast? Scrambled Eggs

One of my goals after my month of Plastic Awareness was to eat less packaged cereal.  And lately, cold cereal with milk just hasn’t been filling us up enough anyway.  Anyone with kids also knows that breakfast for dinner is always a good idea, and a pretty painless way to have a Meatless Monday too!  So this month each Wednesday I’m featuring a favorite breakfast recipe.   

These eggs are delish.

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What’s for Breakfast? German Pancakes

One of my goals after my month of Plastic Awareness was to eat less packaged cereal.  And lately, cold cereal with milk just hasn’t been filling us up enough anyway.  Anyone with kids also knows that breakfast for dinner is always a good idea, and a pretty painless way to have a Meatless Monday too!   So this month each Wednesday I’m featuring a favorite breakfast recipe.      

This recipe dates all the way back to my very first recipe book.  It’s an oldy, but a goody.  You may know it as a Puffed Oven Pancake.

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What’s for Breakfast? French Toast

Making french toast with my Le Creuset cast iron pan
and Lodge Logic griddle.

One of my goals after my month of Plastic Awareness was to eat less packaged cereal.  And lately, cold cereal with milk just hasn’t been filling us up enough anyway.  It seems like everyone is hungry 15 minutes after eating it.  Also, cooking first thing in the morning is a great way to heat up a cold house (we keep our thermostat around 60 at night). So this month each Wednesday I’m featuring a favorite breakfast recipe.

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