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.

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.

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.

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!