Monday, October 29, 2007

Waffles and Pancakes (DF; SF; V)

People really seem to miss this when they first go gluten and (in some cases) dairy free. I know that when we first started our journey, it took me *weeks* of trial and error before I got a decent recipe together. And that was using dairy. Several years later I realized that my family needed to be dairy free and I felt like I was starting all over again... Well, no worries... I like to share... :)

Once that was accomplished, waffles became our staple bread for a long time. After about a year or so we added in store-bought corn tortilla chips which has really given me a big break which is nice... but the waffles and pancakes are still big sellers on the brunch list in our house.

One place that I learned a lot about how to properly deal with eggs was at Baking 911.com . It's still one of my favourite places to brush up or renew my food physics knowledge: The Science Behind the Best Egg Whites and Some Egg Safety Too
(my title not theirs)

And so we begin:

I put my pan or waffle on to heat up to the proper temperature while I get everything else together.

Then I whip up the egg whites until they're fairly stiff. After that I quickly add in the cream of tartar and honey give them another quick whip for the honey to help the whites set and stay.

6 eggs whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar (not absolutely necessary)
1 tablespoon honey

While the whites are whipping up (before I put the honey in them) I start dumping everything else into my food processor:

1 cup rice flour (I use white because I react to brown.)
1 cup other flour (I alternate between buckwheat and quinoa .)
1 cup nuts (I alternate nuts too.)
1 carrot (Not necessary but a nice nutritional boost.)

Give a spin to get the nuts finely chopped here. (I go over to the egg whites and add the honey while this spins.)

Then I come back to my food processor and finish mixing my batter by adding to the flour:

2 cups water (sometimes I put in some coconut milk in place of the water to add fat and nutrition.)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Next, I pour the batter from the food processor over the fluffy, almost stiff, egg whites, and fold it into the egg whites as quickly as I feel I can.

Bake in on a medium hot skillet or your favourite waffle iron.

Toppings and Variances:

For breakfast:
honey
maple syrup
fruit syrup
poached eggs for those who don't care for sweet stuff in the morning
stewed fruit
strawberries

There's not enough honey in these to make them sweet so you can top them with almost anything. So try a savoury waffle for dinner:

spaghetti sauce
chicken stew
beef stew
shredded beef (like a hot beef sandwich)
and more

The only limitation is a lack of imagination.

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