Pancakes or Blini: any flour will do

Is it true that every culture has a variation of "the pancake"? I'm discovering that a pancake can be a wonderful gluten-free alternative to bread for any meal. They are quick, cheap, simple, store-able, and vkusniya (yummy!). I urge you to cook some up for a special Sunday brunch this weekend, and save the extras (if there are any) for dinner.

Chestnut flour blini with fruit salad filling

In Russian, pancakes are called blini (blee-nee) or blinchiki. In Ukrainian, mlyntsi. The root of the word comes from the old slavic verb meaning "to mill". They are sometimes made paper-thin like the French crepes, and sometimes small and stocky like IHOP silver dollars. 

I've been on a a blini-binge the past few weeks: trying a different type of gluten free flour each week. So far, corn, chestnut, and rice flour all work wonderfully, each with a distinctive color and taste. I'm going to keep experimenting with other gluten free flours. Blini can be paired with fruity/sweet fillings, or savory fillings, or just served on the side as a vehicle for wiping up sauces at the end of a meal.

Basic Blini Recipe (thin style)
You can use a blender, but they are such a pain to clean! It's really easy to whip the batter by hand with a whisk:

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup milk (or almond/soy/hemp)
• 1 cup flour (rice, corn/masa, GF blend, or half-chestnut and half-rice)
• dash of salt
• 2 Tbs vegetable or olive oil

Let stand for at least 30 minutes while you prepare your fillings. This lets the flour expand and makes for better crepes, and is especially important for corn flour.

Heat a non-stick or cast iron skillet on medium high, and brush with oil.
Using a 1/3 cup ladle, spread a portion of the batter on the pan, and tilt the pan circularly to get a nice thin blin. (If you're using a cast iron skillet like I do, you get an added arm muscle workout!)

When the top is dry and the edges are a tiny bit brown (around a minute), flip the blin and let cook no more than 30 seconds. This excellent video shows the process: Foodwishes.com Guide to cooking the perfect crepe
 
Heat oven to 200 degrees, and keep a cookie sheet there to keep them warm, adding as you cook them.

Ready to be devoured! Corn flour makes really yellow blini

Fillings: 
Set your table with lots of filling options. You and your guests can make each blini roll-up unique!

• Any and all fruit, cut up small into a fruit salad
• Sour cream & jam mixed
• Fresh lemon wedges
• Cinnamon
• Crushed nuts
• Honey, maple syrup
• Caviar (the authentically Russian choice!)
• Savory scrambled eggs with salsa
• Asian stir fry
• Mexican spiced black beans
• Any meat & vegetable saut
• Base for cannoli

Gluten free bread: it's a sensitve topic

You may know that the issue of "bread" is an emotional one for those of us who cannot consume gluten. Gluten is the stuff that gives bread that lovely crusty-yet-elastic texture you love. Gluten free bead is at best muffin-like, and at worst sandy. I'm getting misty thinking about it now.

Grocery stores offer better and better GF bread that toasts up almost as well as traditional bread (in my opinion, Udi's makes it the best, in my hometown of Denver Colorado!). But, the stuff can be expensive. Even mixes are $4-$5 each, which is more than a baked loaf! My inner frugal girl decided to conquer the bread...

Here I've reviewed and adapted the Gluten Free Goddess' Delicious Gluten-Free Bread Recipe. I've made two loaves so far, and while they weren't quite as springy and airy as Udi's, they were still pretty darned good. I'd give it a B+. I revised the recipe a bit to include some cheaper ingredients. And, it can be made vegan.

Behold! This came out of my kitchen! This is the first loaf. I got it even better the second time 'round. (P.S. thanks to my darling friends who sent me this "Betty Rocker" tea towel!)

This was somewhat labor intensive, but extremely satisfying. Now that I know the process, I might pick up a few more loaf pans and make several at once to freeze! I need to do a cost analysis to see if this one is cheaper to make than the $4-$5 loafs cost us at the store.


Here is my adaptation of the Gluten Free Goddess' Delicious Gluten-Free Bread Recipe.
Her version includes a bread machine option, which is nice if you have that appliance. The following is sans machine. Please note, my Colorado pals, this recipe is optimized for lower elevations, but I've made a few high elevation notes.

In a small bowl, combine:

• 1 packet rapid dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
  1 1/4 cup warm water at 110 to 115 degrees F. (I did 1 c cold tap water and 1/4 c boiled)
• 1 tsp honey or agave nectar

Allow this mixture to get "poofy", around 3 or 4 minutes. If it doesn't get poofy you have inactive yeast! Stop here and get some fresh yeast to start over.


In a separate, large bowl, whisk together these dry ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour blend (often found at Costco) (or 1 cup sorghum flour and 1/2 cup millet flour)
• 1 cup potato starch (not potato flour!) or corn starch (which is cheaper)
• 2 teaspoons xantham gum
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt

Pour the yeast mixture into your dry mixture and mix by hand. Then stir in:

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 more tablespoon honey or raw agave nectar 
• 1/2 teaspoon mild rice vineger or white wine cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
• 1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 4 tablespoons warm water till frothy, OR 2 Tbs flax meal soaked in 4 Tbs warm water for 5 minutes OR one real egg with two egg whites. I did flax meal. *Note: High elevations try reducing the amount of egg/egg replacer by half.*

Beat until a smooth batter forms. I use the word batter because gluten-free bread dough is more like thick muffin batter than wheat based bread dough -- it is not as thin as cake batter, though. I found that whipping it really made a difference to the airiness the second time I made the recipe.

Scrape the dough into a ceramic or glass loaf pan (or use a 7 to 8-inch round cake pan for rustic ciabatta style bread) and smooth the top evenly, using wet fingers. Top with sesame seeds (optional).

Place the pan in a warmed oven or draft free spot with a cloth draped on it. I set mine on top of a  recently used toaster oven. Allow the dough to rise until it domes nicely -- from 45 to 50 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

When the oven comes to temperature bake the risen bread until it sounds hollow when thumped -- about 45 minutes to 55 minutes, and even up to 65 minutes if you're at higher altitude. Lower style round pan loaves will bake quicker -- at 30 to 40 minutes, usually.

Cool on a wire rack. Wait about 10 minutes or more until you can comfortably handle the loaf. Run a spatula along the side walls before turning over. 


After it's cool, keep the loaf wrapped in two plastic vegetable bags in the fridge. It will last up to 4 days (if you don't gobble it up!)


Has anyone else mastered the home made gluten free bread dilemma? Let me know!


Kiss Kiss! Tsyom Tsyom!