Chestnut Pancakes (Gluten Free)

Today I received a delivery from Healthy Supplies, a Brighton based store who specialise in healthy food and  and dried ingredientsstuffs, and I particularly like them for their extensive range of organic and hard to find produce. The big item that caught my eye when browsing their easy to use website was not only the sheer number of different flours, but in particular, the organic Chestnut flour, which is, as the name suggests, made from ground chestnuts. It has a naturally sweet and nutty taste and best of all it's gluten-free! I'm not gluten intolerant but I like to bake for my colleagues at work and that means catering to multiple intolerances. I love experimenting with food so I don't see this as an annoyance, more a challenge and an excuse to try out different flours and flavours. Plain white flour is so overrated :p.

I had pancakes in mind when I ordered this as pancake day had only just passed and I was trying to think of ways to liven up my pancakes. Because who said you can't eat pancakes outside of pancake day? They make delicious breakfasts, or lazy Sunday brunches. And they're really easy to make as well. Healthy Supplies also tell me that the flour is also good for making pasta, so I guess I will have to try that another day.

Side one done- cooked at the edges with lots of tiny bubbles

To make these pancakes, I followed a buckwheat flour pancake recipe instead of the regular one since the flour doesn't contain any gluten it works better when mixed with another type of flour that does contain gluten. To keep this recipe gluten free though, I used Doves Farm Gluten Free plain white flour, which is already blended and contains Xanthan Gum which is a gluten replacement in food science land.  You can buy Xanthan Gum at Healthy Supplies as well as other supermarkets. I think it's becoming a lot more popular these days as gluten intolerances are becoming widely known. 

I didn't have any buttermilk and I didn't feel like going to the shops yet, so I made my own by squeezing a bit of lemon into some milk. I also didn't separate my eggs when I made this recipe because I was hungry and lazy (as you do on a Saturday morning). I find that if you do separate the whites from the yolk and give them a little whisk until frothy, the pancakes rise a lot more and become more like the thicker American pancakes. I think these had a good thickness as they were, especially stacked up like that, that's 12 pancakes. Any thicker and I would be too full to move!

The pancakes themselves were slightly sweet and had a delicious nutty brown flavour from the chestnut flour. I think the chestnut flavour actually works really well with the rice and potato in the plain flour blend to make these pancakes have multiple layers of flavour. So love your pancakes and try this recipe!

Ingredients (makes 12)
3/4 cup chestnut Flour
3/4 cup plain Flour
275ml Milk
1/4 Lemon, squeezed
35g Butter, melted
pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp gluten free baking powder


Recipe
In a small bowl, mix milk with lemon juice. Crack an egg in and whisk with the milk until combined. Then add the melted butter and whisk again.

Sieve both types of flour, bicarb of soda, baking powder and salt into a larger bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Whisk until smooth and with the consistency of double cream. Don't over-whisk! Rest for 10 minutes.

Heat a hot non-stick pan on medium heat. Take a ladle and add half a ladle-full of the mixture in the pan. If your pan's large enough, you can make two or three pancakes at the same time (no flipping though :p ). Cook for one minute on each side, you'll know when the first side is done as tiny bubbles will start to form on the pancake (see image three). Stack on a plate, drizzle with syrup of choice, add fruit on top and enjoy.

http://www.healthysupplies.co.uk