American Pancakes (Vegan, Gluten Free Option)

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I've been addicted to these for brunch at the weekend ever since I went to stay with my friend Alexis when I was 14. 

Her Mum (who was a loveable vegetarian hippy) made these amazing pancakes and I vowed to learn how to make them one day!

When you think of pancakes, you generally think of all kinds of non-vegan ingredients like butter, dairy milk, eggs, but the good news is that you don't need any of those things to make stunning pancakes.

Serve these up to guests and they'll have no idea they're vegan!

This recipe works very nicely with gram flour too - it does have a slightly different flavour to wheat flour so I like to make the cinnamon or banana variation if I'm not using wheat.

I personally prefer to use Orgran No Egg egg replacer for this recipe, but it will work with flax eggs or your preferred egg replacement too. Just make sure you adjust the water accordingly (see below.)


Dry Ingredients

7 oz / 200g Self Raising Flour (For Gluten free you can use gram flour + 1 tsp baking powder)

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 tbsp Caster Sugar

3 tsp Orgran No Egg

Pinch of Salt

Wet Ingredients

1 tbsp Sunflower Oil

200ml Plant Milk

175ml Water

Extra oil for greasing


Method

Place all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and gently mix with a whisk until combined and lump-free.

Add the wet ingredients and whisk gently until you have a thick batter. It takes a good few minutes to get rid of all the lumps, so you might prefer to use an electronic beater for this. 

Preheat a large frying pan to a medium high heat and lightly grease.

Add spoonfuls of batter to the pan to make 10cm rounds and cook until the batter is solid on top and looks a bit like a crumpet. Flip and fry the reverse for about 1-2 minutes until slightly browned.

Place on a preheated plate, and continue until all the batter is used up.

I normally make 11-12 pancakes from this mix. 

Eat immediately with your favourite toppings. I like lemon juice & sugar, but my other half likes to butter them with Vitalite and add Golden Syrup on top. The cat likes them with just Vitalite - warning if you have pets, they like to share these!!


Flavour Variations:

Banana Pancakes - Add 1 tsp cinnamon to the dry ingredients and mix in 1 mashed banana to the batter 

Blueberry Pancakes - Add 150g Blueberries to the batter immediately before frying.

Cinnamon Pancakes - Add 2 tsp cinnamon to the dry ingredients

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes - Add 2 tsp Pumpkin Spice Mix to the dry ingredients

Savoury Pancakes - Omit the sugar & add an extra pinch of salt - top with vegan margarine, melted vegan cheese, Marmite or whatever you fancy!


Egg Replacer Variations

To use a different egg replacer, omit the 3 tsps of No Egg and reduce the water to 100ml. Then add your egg replacer in the usual way. 

For flax eggs, make to your usual recipe and add them along with the wet ingredients. 

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