Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles, Gluten-Free

Welcome to Topsy Turvy House.  Wow.  Our lives are kind of  a mess right now.  I think that’s the theme of things for us these days.  Right before dAhub got laid off a few weeks ago, we had agreed to do a major house reorganization.  We live in a charming 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom bungalow.  Our house is tiny, but we love it.  It was a nice-sized back yard in which we’ve created a little oasis of nature.  And we live a few steps away from a city park in one direction and a block away from the neighborhood business area in the other direction.  And we have amazing neighbors. It is our perfect little slice of heaven.

That’s not to say that we don’t have space issues. I will admit that I would love an extra bathroom. Now that Girlfriend is a teen, she spends a lot of time in the bathroom brushing her hair and experimenting with lip gloss (Or whatever. I’m not really sure what she’s doing in there other than she takes epic showers that seem to take hours).  And it would be nice to be able to get in there every so often so I can brush my own hair and fix my own lip gloss.  Thank goodness, we do have a refinished attic space that runs the length of the house.  Over the years, we’ve crammed a lot of use into that attic space.  dAhub and I have had our office spaces up in this attic.  The attic is also the guest area.  And a storage area.  And it has TV area.  Our TV doesn’t work anymore (ever since they switched over to the new TV system) and we don’t watch TV anyway, so the TV area is kind of just collecting dust.  Whenever we have family movie night, we just watch it on one of our laptops in the living room.

This past winter I finally realized that having my office upstairs wasn’t all that useful to me because I need to be close to the kitchen.  So, I’ve been doing all of my work on my laptop at the dining table.  Which isn’t all that great, because then I have papers all over the dining table that we have to shove over in order to eat.  Which is ridiculous.  So, for Mother’s Day, I asked dAhub if he would be open to moving our bedroom area up into the attic area and moving the office stuff down into our old bedroom space as my Mother’s Day present.  He said yes.  So, we got all ready to do this and then he got laid off.  We went ahead and moved our bed up into the office area and moved our desks into the old bedroom downstairs.  It’s a tiny room, so we’re kind of crammed in there.  Also, our closet is still there (there is no closet upstairs).  And our bureau is supposed to go upstairs, but it’s currently still in the new office area.

Basically, this is all to say that I’m feeling kind of discombobulated these days.  In addition to dAhub being out of work, we’re not really settled upstairs or downstairs.  And if anyone wants to come visit, we have no guest area at the moment.   And half of my baking books are still upstairs and half are now downstairs.  When I feel out of sorts, I go into the kitchen and start experimenting.

This week I’ve been experimenting with sourdough pancakes and waffles.  I’ve had requests for them from my readers and finally got some time to figure out a recipe.  Oddly, I didn’t grow up with sourdough pancakes and waffles even though I did grow up with awesome San Francisco sourdough bread.  For this recipe, I did some research to see what kinds of things sourdough pancakes and waffles contained and the recipe below is a mixture of all the recipes I researched.  I came up with a basic formula that I’ve been tweaking.  The recipe uses my Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter, which has to be created at least a week before it’s used (you can’t make this recipe without the starter).  Also, I found that it’s best to start the sponge the night before so it has time to ferment overnight and develop more flavor.  If you are strapped for time, I have started the sponge 2-4 hours before I made the pancakes/waffles, and that worked OK, too.  Once the batter is mixed, the cooking of the pancakes and waffles are the same as you would use for any other pancake or waffle recipe.

This recipe creates fluffy pancakes and waffles with a sophisticated sourdough taste.  They are excellent with butter and good pure maple syrup.  I’m going to be honest: Girlfriend isn’t that keen on them.  But dAhub and I love them.  There is a depth of flavor to them that you don’t get with regular pancakes and waffles.  I have found that I like them with a little sugar in the batter, while dAhub likes them without sugar–so I’ve made the sugar in the recipe “optional.”  Since this recipe makes a lot, I cool the extras and froze them in Ziploc bags.  I then pop them into the toaster oven to defrost and heat up for breakfast on mornings that I don’t have time to make things from scratch.

Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles, Gluten-Free

Yield: 8 cups of batter (8 waffles or 32 pancakes)

Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles, Gluten-Free

2 cups (235 ml) Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
2 cups (235 ml) milk
2 cups (290 g) Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour mix, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (optional)
2 tablespoons neutral flavored oil (I like Rice Bran oil)
2 extra-large eggs

The night before you want to make the pancakes/waffles, make your sponge. In a large bowl, mix together the starter, milk, and 1 cup of the flour. Stir together until combined. The mixture should be lumpy.

The next morning (or at least 2 hours later), add the remaining flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar if using, oil, and eggs. Stir well until the mixture is combined. You want everything to be mixed together well, but it should be lumpy. As you watch it, the batter will start to be bubbly.

To make pancakes
Heat a griddle over medium high heat until water sprinkled on it skitters across the surface. I use a non-stick griddle, so I don’t need to grease it. Pour ¼ cup measures of batter onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the pancakes and start to pop. Check to see if the bottom is a nice brown. Flip over and cook for a couple of minutes more.

To make waffles
Heat iron. Even though my waffle iron is non-stick and is seasoned, I found that the waffle batter stuck to it, so I lightly greased it with vegetable oil before making each waffle. Follow your iron’s directions for use. My iron makes a 6 inch deep pocket, Belgian-style waffle, which required about 1 cup of batter and 5 minutes of cooking time.

Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Note:  If you use a different gluten-free flour mix, alter the amount of or eliminate the xanthan gum or use a different gluten-replacer, use dairy-free or egg-free substitutes, or change any other ingredients in this recipe, your results may not match my results.

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