Foodie Fridays: Rice Flour Pancakes

Although I try to limit my carbohydrate intake, I recently had a craving for pancakes, so I decided to whip up a batch for lunch.  I never eat them for breakfast as they tend to upset my stomach when eaten in the morning, but I can eat pancakes with no problems for lunch or dinner.  I remembered that I had a bag of rice flour I bought a while ago and never used - I had intended to get glutinous sweet rice flour but bought the wrong kind.  I searched for and found a recipe for Rice Flour Pancakes that used the type of rice flour I had, and enjoyed the results very much.

I did find out the hard way that your skillet must be very hot before you add the batter or it will remain a wet sticky mess and cannot be flipped (this batter is not as thick as some and the extra liquidity requires a properly heated skillet).  For best results, cook one pancake at a time in a hot pan because they cook very quickly and will burn if not flipped in time.  The best time to flip is when the edges of the pancake are solid enough to slide a spatula under without sticking - even though the middle will still be wet it will cook through rapidly when flipped.

Once I got the hang of how this batter needed to be cooked the process went very smoothly, and I ended up with ten perfectly cooked and shaped pancakes.  I served them with a little golden syrup (another purchase from a while ago that I probably bought for some specific purpose but now have no idea what that purpose was) and they were quite good.  If you happen to be gluten intolerant of just find yourself with some non-glutinous rice flour for some reason, you should give this recipe a try!

Rice Flour Pancakes

1 C.white rice flour
1 T. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 1/4 C. buttermilk
2 T. oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center, add the wet ingredients, and mix just until smooth (do not overmix).  Set aside.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat until it is very hot.*  Drop 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet.  Cook until the edges are solid enough to slide a spatula under without sticking.  Flip the pancake and continue cooking, pressing the surface lightly after about 30 seconds to flatten out any trapped air.

Remove the pancake from the skillet when both sides are golden brown (the side cooked first will be darker).  Continue making pancakes with the rest of the batter.  Makes about 10 pancakes.

*If your skillet is not nonstick, wipe it lightly with butter or oil.  This batter is rather thin, and if the skillet is too heavily greased the batter will spread too thinly.  Also, make sure the skillet is very hot before adding the batter or again it will spread too thinly.