I made these pancakes with an all purpose gluten-free organic flour that I came across in France. In the past, I’ve baked with teff, oat, rice and sorghum flours, but never with an all-purpose gluten-free flour and so, I wanted to experiment.

All-purpose gluten-free flour is a great option for people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. I am not sensitive to gluten and I don’t have celiac disease, but as I said above, I like to experiment. Also, it’s nice to know that I could be helping someone who needs to avoid wheat gluten for medical reasons.

This is the type of flour that I used in this pancake recipe (picture below). If you live in North America, Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flours are top choices. All of Bob’s Red Mill flours have a healthy nutrition profile and are sold around the world. However, I still haven’t found any of Bob’s flours here in Switzerland or France. Maybe one day.

As a side note and for your personal interest, if you want to read on the life of the founder and president of Bob’s Red Mill — Bob Moore, check out this eight-minute read right here.

Naturally sweetened with mashed banana and one tablespoon of coconut sugar, there’s no dairy and there are no eggs in this pancake batter. For richness and flavour, I decided to substitute the vegetable oil with two tablespoons of smooth cashew butter. You can also use almond butter, if you prefer. Make sure to choose a nut butter that’s smooth and runny.

Fluffy, light, plant-based, wholesome and easy to digest, even people who are not sensitive to gluten can enjoy these delicious morning pancakes. The picture below speaks for itself!

Gluten-free vegan pancakes

Makes 8 to 10 medium-small pancakes.

Wet ingredients

• ½ cup mashed ripe banana
• 2 tablespoons (tbsp) 100% cashew or almond butter, a smooth & runny kind
• 1¼ cups almond milk, no sugar or additives added *
• 2 tbsps apple cider vinegar

Dry ingredients

• 1¼ cup all purpose gluten-free flour (or regular flour)
• 1 tbsp granulated brown sugar, optional (coconut, date, maple or cane sugar)
• 1 heaping tbsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (tsp) baking soda
• 1 tsp powdered cinnamon

* Note: If necessary, you can add a bit more almond milk (1 – 2 tbsps), but in this recipe, I didn’t have to do that.

Procedure

1. In a small bowl, add the apple cider to the almond milk and let this stand for 5-7 minutes to make non-dairy buttermilk.

2. In a separate small bowl, mix together with a fork the mashed banana with the nut butter and let stand.

3. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.

4. Pour the almond milk with the vinegar into the mashed banana and nut butter mixture. Whisk well to combine.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and hand whisk until completely combined. If need be, here you can add 1 or 2 tbsps of extra almond milk. Be careful not to add too much almond milk.

6. On medium-high stove-top, heat up a skillet lightly greased with vegetable based butter or light tasting oil or a mix of both. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low. Make sure that the skillet is well heated through. You’ll notice that the first pancake is often the trial pancake that the cook eats, so make that one smaller. That’s often the case because your skillet has been heating up evenly across the surface. The subsequent ones will be perfect!

7. Drop the batter in the hot skillet 1/4 cup at a time, lightly spreading the batter with the back of a spoon or shaking the skillet to spread it out to form about 1 cm thick pancake. It doesn’t have to be perfectly round. Fry for about 3-4 minutes – until you see some air holes at surface and the edges turn golden. Flip over with a stainless steel spatula and fry the other side for one minute, or so.

Serve immediately with maple syrup and fresh fruit.

If you are making many all at once, fry one pancake at a time and stack them up on a dish in the oven on low heat. If you are extra fussy, you can separate each pancake with a small piece of parchment paper. Serve immediately.