Baking Experiments

I had decided this year I would experiment more with different flours. Since I can’t have grain that eliminates a lot of flours that I can use. And, since I recently found out I can’t have rice that really eliminates a lot of options. I’m down to almond meal, coconut flour and chickpea/garbanzo bean flour. At least those are the 3 I’m focusing on right now. I have finally gotten around to buying some of these things. Being pregnant and not wanting to eat much of anything has kinda put a pause on the whole experimenting in the kitchen thing, but I’m feeling pretty good right now so I thought, “why not?”

I bought some coconut flour a couple weeks ago. I then realized that to really make coconut flour work well you have to have some kind of starch, like potato or tapioca. I don’t have either of those yet, so the one thing I made with the coconut flour (pancakes) was a colossal failure, and I was driven to tears (I blame pregnancy hormones). This past week I bought chickpea/fava bean flour at our local grocery store. It is the Bob’s Red Mill brand and only has the chickpeas and fava beans in it (I have not liked a lot of Bob’s stuff as they still put a lot rice or corn flour in their mixes.). In any case, I was excited to find this and went ahead and bought a bag.

A few weeks ago my sister had made a really yummy cake with chickpea flour. I thought Cora’s b-day would be a good time to try and make one myself and that’s just what I did! Turns out my sister didn’t use any special recipe, she just found a devil’s food cake recipe in her regular ol’ cookbook, and rather than use the wheat flour used the chickpea–an equal exchange, no more/less and didn’t add any starch. That’s what I did too. WOW! It was so yummy!!!!! It’s been over a year since I’ve been able to indulge in chocolate cake (my absolute favorite dessert!!), and I was so excited it turned out well. It was moist, the cake still rose, it was chocolatey, and it didn’t have any weird “wheat free” taste or texture. We had my grandma and another family over to share the b-day cake, and everyone agreed it was very good! I was so excited. I just wanted to bury my face in the cake and finish it off myself. I didn’t…well, not right then. It took me a couple days to finish it off…

Here is the cake! See how yummy and normal it looks?

The other thing I’ve been dying to eat for over a year is a pancake! I know, it might seem strange, but I love pancakes. Hot, dripping with melted butter and hot syrup. SLURP!! So tasty! But, alas, I have not been at all pleased with any of my attempts to make pancakes with alternate flours. I found a recipe on a different blog that boasted the best ever pancakes, made with coconut flour. I have yet to try them as the recipe calls for potato starch. I want to give them a fair shake so don’t want to make the recipe until I have all the ingredients. However, when I received the coconut flour I was so excited I went to the web to find another recipe that didn’t use starch with the coconut flour so I could just have some pancakes already! Well, this was a huge mistake! They were TERRIBLE!!!! I was so upset and disappointed I cried (as I’ve already mentioned). A friend of mine gave me her recipe, and I do need to try it out. Since the cake above had been such a success I figured why not apply the same thought to pancakes? That’s precisely what I did! I got out my trusted pancake recipe and just switched out the wheat flour for chickpea flour. I anxiously flipped my pancakes, didn’t rush the process, and even made some Mickey Mouse ones for the kids. We all gathered around the table, and I took my first bite. YUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!! I was so excited!!!! We had SUCCESS!!! Now, the pancakes had a yellow tint to them from the chickpea flour and a bit of a nutty flavor. My husband said it reminded him of popcorn. But, we all agreed they were very good and by far the best alternative I’ve been able to make. Pancakes are not my husband’s favorite, but he said he would have no problem eating these. So, YEAH! I didn’t get a photo…we ate them too fast…but, I assure you other than the yellowish color they looked just like regular pancakes.

I look forward to continuing my experiments in the kitchen. I know now that having baked goods around at all times is not beneficial, but it’ll be nice to have some good stand-bys to go to when the occasion (or craving) calls for it! I’ll keep you posted…