Today is National Waffle Day! It’s also National Flour Month so I decided to celebrate both events by making gluten-free waffles with different types of flour.
Flax-Coconut Pancakes are featured on the cover of the March Issue of Food and Wine. I thought they looked divine so I used the same ingredients for the batter, but added a good bit more milk to make these crispy, Gluten-Free Flax-Coconut Waffles. These delicious waffles are made with brown rice flour, white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, coconut flour and flaxseed meal.
Milling the Gluten-Free Grains
I went to the Asheville Bread Baking Festival this past weekend and attended a session on milling your own flour with Debi Thomas of Wildflour Bakery in Saluda, NC. She demonstrated milling different types of flour in different kinds of mills. I took photos of some of the mills, but forgot to get a photo of the beautiful Swedish mill. It was on the other end.
This one is a hand grinder.
This is a Kitchen Aid Mixer with a grain mill attachment. It actually worked pretty well.
I was still in the milling mindset when I decided to make these waffles. I didn’t have any tapioca starch and thought I was going to have to run to the store, but then I remembered I had an attachment for my WonderMill electric grain mill that allows me to grind smaller grains such as tapioca pearls. I had some tapioca pearls in the freezer so that saved me a trip to the store. I was able to use my new attachment to grind the tapioca pearls into tapioca starch. So cool!
Gluten-Free Flax-Coconut Waffles
A combination of brown rice flour, white rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch makes an excellent substitution for all-purpose flour. Adding coconut flour provides rich fiber and it’s a good source of protein.
You might enjoy some of these Gluten-free flours for baking.
Makes: About 10 –12 Waffles
Adapted from “Flax-Coconut Pancakes” Food and Wine, March 2011 Issue
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup brown rice flour
- 1/3 cup white rice flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons potato starch
- 3 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted, plus more for the griddle
- Fresh fruit and maple syrup, for serving
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Tapioca Pearls |
Tapioca Starch |
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I had coconut flour, white rice flour, potato starch and flax meal, but no brown rice flour. So I ground some brown rice into flour. It’s pretty cool to see brown rice kernels turn into flour.
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Brown Rice |
Brown Rice Flour |
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Directions:
1) In a large bowl, whisk the brown and white rice flours with the sugar, potato starch, tapioca starch, coconut flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder and salt.
2) In another bowl, whisk the eggs and milk with the 1/4 cup of coconut oil and mix into the dry ingredients just until the batter is moistened. Add more milk if the batter is very thick.
Note: Be sure the milk is room temperature. Otherwise, the coconut oil will harden when you add it to the other liquid ingredients. Ask me how I know…
3) Preheat a griddle and brush lightly with coconut oil. Follow the manufactures instructions for using your griddle. I used about 2 tablespoons of batter per waffle. I added a good bit more milk, but the first batch was still pretty thick so I added even more milk when I made the rest of the waffles.
4) Remove the waffles to serving plates and serve with fruit and real maple syrup.
As you can see, I enjoyed the bite that was just waiting to be eaten. The first batch made thick waffles, but the flavor was wonderful.
For the next batch, I added more milk and let the waffles cook a little bit longer on the griddle so they were slightly more browned and crispy. The coconut flour and coconut oil give these waffles a very unique flavor and the brown rice provides the crispiness. Deliciousness!
Happy Baking!
Cathy
They look delicious!