Piling on the pancakes

"Samantha: So, how were they?

Carrie: The pancakes? Delicious, exactly what I wanted. I couldn't get enough.

Samantha: No, I was referring to the moves.

Carrie: Delicious, exactly what I wanted. I couldn't get enough."

- Sex And The City -

Before you say ooh how naughty, I am talking about nothing other than pancakes here. Anyone who is living g-free will be able to identify with just how incredibly, delectably, delightfully, deliciously (okay, I'll stop) moreish a pile of syrupy pancakes is after a week of corn flakes, rice puffs and rice milk.

I'm not going to get into semantics here, but the "pancakes" I've made here are what some people call American/Canadian pancakes; what the Aussies call Pikelets (I think, although it's very confusing); and the South Africans would consider giant crumpets. Perhaps I should just call them Panklets for the sake of world peace.

Last week's attempt at g-free pancakes South African style, ie crepes, ended in a huff and a battered ego (I thought I'd throw a terrible CSI-type pun in for my sister's amusement). They say the first pancake is never perfect, but this time it was every one. My attempts at using egg alternatives (ie egg replacer and milled flax seed with water) ended up a gooey mess.

This weekend, however, there was more excitement in the kitchen than at the cinnamon sugar-encrusted pancake stall at a farm town fun fair. Success.

Perfect Panklets

2 cups gluten-free flour blend *

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ cup maple syrup (a great alternative to sugar that helps soften the flavour of tapioca flour)

1 tsp vanilla essence

½ cup milk (I used soya)

½ cup water

2 eggs beaten (I'm afraid nothing but eggs works here)

2 tblsp oil

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and add the rest of the wet ingredients in another bowl and then slowly add this to the dry ingredients, stirring constantly. If you can hold off for a bit, let the mixture stand for a while (I am no scientist, but apparently it helps). Then ladel it into a greased hot pan, wait until bubbles start to appear, flip, count to 10 and then start piling them up. Serve with maple syrup and crispy bacon. If you do, by some remote chance, happen to have leftovers, they can be refrigerated, but will need to be heated up to soften them (gluten-free flour toughens up overnight) for round two.

*I came across Bette Hagman's featherlight flour mix on The Baking Beauties and played with that, using 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour, ½ cup rice flour, ½ cup tapioca flour, ¼ cup corn starch, 1 tsp potato flour.