Gluten Free Instant Pancake Mix

Asked by Stowwoman39. Answered on 8th July 2015

Full question

Have used the fabulous Instant Pancake Mix recipe so many times but now I have developed an allergy to gluten I don't want to miss out when serving these lovely breakfast pancakes. How do I adapt the recipe? Do I use a straight swap of flour and more importantly do I need to add xanthan gum and if so how much? Help please as I have vistors coming who love these pancakes!

Our answer

Nigella's Home Made Instant Pancake Mix (from Nigella Express and on the Nigella website) is made with a combination of plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and a little sugar. We have not tried a gluten-free version of this recipe ourselves but as blinis are usually made with buckwheat flour then we suspect that this would be the best substitute and you would use the same quantity of flour but you may need to add a little extra milk to get the batter to the correct consistency.

Buckwheat (or sarrasin) flour is gluten free itself but please check the packaging as some brands may have problems with cross-contamination during processing and packaging. Also avoid the whole grain type of buckwheat flour as it can be a little bitter for many peoples' taste. You could also try half buckwheat and half plain gluten free flour mixture. We suspect that xanthan gum is probably not particularly necessary if using buckwheat flour but if you prefer you could add a pinch to the mixture. And please check the labelling on the baking powder as not all brands are gluten free. Also watch out for Nigella's new book, Simply Nigella, this Autumn as it will have many new gluten free recipes.