Tag Archive for 'pancakes'

Product Reviews: Gluten-Free Pancake Mix and Pizza Crust

Today I’m reviewing a pizza crust and a pancake mix. One of these has become a favorite new product. The other we didn’t really care for, although we recognize that it might be a case of personal preference. Keep reading to find out which is which.

Gluten Free Pancake Mix!

Regular readers will know that I’m all about pancakes and have been working on finding the perfect gluten-free pancakes since I started this blog. As such, I was pretty excited when we were contacted by Gluten Free Mama to review some of her mixes and found that one of them was a pancake and waffle mix. Thanks to Gluten Free Mama for sending us some out for testing. Besides the pancake mix they also make pizza crust mix, a sugar cookie mix, pie crust mix, and various other gluten-free flour mixes. If you can’t find these mixes in your town or neighborhood, they are available on Amazon.

Gluten-Free Pancake Mix

Here’s a list of ingredients: White Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour, Potato Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Almond Meal, Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, Aluminum-Free Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Vanilla Powder (Vanilla Bean Extractives, Evaporated Cane Juice, Silica, Cellulose), Sea Salt. Gluten Free Mama figures a serving is a third of a cup, and there is only 260mg of salt in that, which is pretty good.

I don’t have any pictures of the finished pancakes. For some reason I got distracted because I was trying to make them better by adding mashed-up banana. Unfortunately, this mix cooks up more like the Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pancake & Waffle Mix, which is to say that the resulting pancakes are kind of tasteless. The pancakes taste a lot like rice buns, which makes sense considering the ingredients, but have a funny aftertaste, which I think is probably the baking powder. If you’re the sort of person who hates how gluten-free flour mixes have funny, beany, or corny flavors, then you might prefer this sort of mix, because it’s really kind of tasteless. The resulting pancakes were also rather fluffy, although kind of in a spongy way. They also don’t really brown. Sienna and I both weren’t crazy about this product.

Considering that we weren’t that crazy about Pamela’s Gluten-Free Pancake Mix either, it looks like we’re striking out on the pancake front. Maybe I’ll have to try coming up with my own recipe.

Gluten-Free Pizza Crust!

By now you know that the pancake mix was the product we weren’t into, so that means that we really loved this pizza crust. Actually, we’ve read about this crust in different places and never tried them. We were able to find some in Portland at New Seasons Market down on Division. The crust is made by Bavarian Mills Specialty Bakery. It is gluten-free (natch) and also soy free. The crust we got says it was manufactured in Vancouver Washington.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Sienna decided to make this pizza like a Zachary’s Pizza, which is a popular Chicago-style pizza place in Oakland, California. So like a good Chicago-style pizza, it has the sauce on top of the cheese, spinach, and lots and lots and lots of sauce. This is evident in the picture. The pizza crust ingredients are as follows: White Rice Flour, Water, Garbonzo (Chickpea Flour), Brown Rice Flour, Eggs, Sorghum Syrup, Almond Meal, Grapeseed Oil, Olive Oil, Potato Starch, Xanthan Gum, Sea Salt, Yeast, Apple Cider Vinegar, Guar Gum. There is a shared equipment disclaimer on the package which names tree nuts, legumes, and dairy products. The package figures that you will get 12 servings out of it, and there is 100mg of salt in one serving, which is awesome.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

What’s really awesome about about this crust is that it comes out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The flavor is good, the crunch is good, the crusts come frozen and are easy to use, so it’s win-win-win. We’re really excited to finally have a great pizza crust product like this one and recommend it. Hopefully they’ll be easier to get soon!

We want to know: Do you have a favorite store-bought gluten-free pancake mix? How about a flour mix or pancake recipe on the Internet? Send us a link. Let us know in the comments!

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Published on February 9, 2010 in Product Review. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

Product Review: Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking & Pancake Mix

We’re getting close to our one year anniversary of Gluten Free Portland dot Org, and a lot of our long-term readers will know by now that I love pancakes and am on a one-man search for the best gluten-free pancakes in the world. Right now, my preferred gluten-free pancakes are the Trader Joe’s frozen kind, which we reviewed here. We also tried the Trader Joe’s mix, reviewed here, but I liked the pre-made ones better, mostly because the mix doesn’t have much flavor. Over the year we’ve received a lot of comments from people that we should try Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking & Pancake Mix. So we finally did it.

Pamela's Gluten-free Baking & Pancake Mix

If you have trouble getting Pamela’s mixes at your local store, you can get them on Amazon. Here’s a list of the ingredients: Brown Rice Flour; White Rice Flour; Cultured Buttermilk; Natural Almond Meal; Tapioca Starch; Sweet Rice Flour; Potato Starch; Grainless & Aluminum-Free Baking Powder (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Potato Starch); Baking Soda; Sea Salt; Xanthan Gum. Those of you who watch for allergens in ingredient lists will have caught the buttermilk and almond meal. Their cross-contamination statement states that this mix is manufactured on shared equipment that is also used with tree nuts, soy, eggs, and milk. Seeing as how we’re talking about the ingredients, their serving-size (two 4-inch pancakes) contains about 390 mg of sodium. That compares well to the frozen Trader Joe’s, which have 430 mg in a serving.

Mix it up

Making pancakes with this mix is ridiculously easy. Depending on the size of your skillet, it can be a good idea to pre-heat the skillet. You’ll want it hot enough that drops of water will sizzle, but not so hot that they jump. Put the Pamela’s gluten-free mix in a mixing bowl and add eggs, oil, and water. I also added a half teaspoon of vanilla. Obviously, you’ll want to add the water last, and do the thing where you add most of it in and then mix it up to make sure your mix doesn’t get too watery. Your mix should be wet enough that it pours, but thick enough that it’ll hold together when you pour it on the skillet.

gluten-free pancake!

It is in the very nature of pancakes that your first batch won’t be good. I always cook only one pancake first to make sure the temperature is right. If the skillet is too hot, the insides won’t cook. If it’s too cold, the outsides won’t brown properly and the pancakes will be dry.

Steaming Hot Pancakes

Gluten-free pancakes!

Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes!

I also made some blueberry pancakes. By now you’re probably like “Yes Yes Dave, but how did they taste?” I thought they were good. They cook up fluffy and moist. If someone were to cook them for me, I would eat them happily. Sienna didn’t like them much and said that they had a strange aftertaste. She said that they tasted like ashes. Maybe we were expecting them to be really amazing because of all the positive comments we’ve read. It’s pretty clear that this mix is rather popular with the gluten-free crowd. I would say that the Pamela’s mix is better than the Trader Joe’s gluten-free mix, but the finished pancakes aren’t as good as the Trader Joe’s frozen packaged pancakes.

Freeze them pancakes

Speaking of frozen pancakes, I like to make a large batch of pancakes and then freeze them to eat later. They reheat very well.

I think that, ultimately, if you miss pancakes and want to make some from a mix, I would recommend giving Pamela’s a try. From the disclosures on the package, it looks like there isn’t a chance of gluten cross-contamination, which is nice. The recipe is easy, and besides just pancakes, the package includes recipes and directions for making waffles, crepes, muffins, chocolate chip cookies, and also for breading chicken or fish. (For breading chicken and fish, we really love using garbanzo and fava bean flour with pepper and paprika – see our recipe here).

We’ve been having a lot of good luck using some of the various gluten-free flour mixes available on the Internet. Maybe it’s time for me to start looking for some.

We want to know: Do you have a favorite store-bought gluten-free baking mix? How about a flour mix or pancake recipe on the Internet? Send us a link. Let us know in the comments!

Times we have visited: 1 (So your mileage may vary.)
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: about 45% more (based on prices of wheat-based mixes on Amazon)

Check out other Pamela’s Mixes on Amazon.

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Published on November 30, 2009 in Product Review. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Product Review: Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Banana Waffles

In the interest of full disclosure I think it’s only fair that I admit that I’m not really all that crazy about waffles. If good waffles are put in front of me I will eat them, but I don’t really seek them out. I think this might be the result of eating too many bad quality waffles over the years. It seems to me that a bad quality waffle is much worse than a bad quality pancake. They have more of a problem with uncooked batter and also lose their crispness too easily.

This is totally a side note, but one of my favorite Simpson’s moments is when Homer makes waffles. He mixes up the batter (his recipe includes a whole package of caramels,) pours it onto an iron with the batter overflowing. Then he runs a finger around the sides of the iron and eats all the batter that has overflowed. (“Mmmmm… Waffle runoff”) When the waffles are done (they’re all burnt, of course) he wraps one around an entire stick of butter and puts it on a toothpick. I love that scene.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Banana Waffles

So getting back to waffles in general and Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Banana Waffles specifically, as with their frozen gluten-free pancakes, they get points for making a great gluten free product, but they lose points for lots of packaging. Each box has eight waffles and the box is big enough that the waffles kind of flop around in it. They also lose points (as with the frozen pancakes) for having a lot of salt. A serving is two waffles and two waffles have 440 mg of salt in them.

Trader Joe's Frozen Gluten Free Waffles

On the plus side, they’re fast and easy. Also, I think they taste exactly like regular frozen waffles, so if you’re a frozen waffle fan, you’ll like the Trader Joe’s Frozen Gluten Free Banana Waffles. As a butter and maple syrup delivery system, they get the job done and they’re better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I’m actually amazed at how many gluten-free products Trader Joe’s has. Here’s a link to the current Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Product List (pdf.) We’ve reviewed a few. Click here for our Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Pancake and Waffle Mix review. Click here for our Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Frozen Pancakes review. We’ll have to do more because there are a bunch of other gluten free products that we eat that I just realized we’ve never reviewed.

We want to know: Is there a good place to get gluten free waffles in Portland? Do you have a favorite Trader Joe’s product? Let us know in the comments.

Times we have visited: several (So we feel confident about our score.)
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

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Published on May 7, 2009 in Product Review. 4 Comments Tags: , , .