Making Pumpkin Pancakes Gluten-Free: A Friend Asks

My friend Claire, a gluten-free girl, filmmaker and amazing nurse, wrote:

"I found your pumpkin pancakes recipe in your Vegan Cooking For Dummies book and thought YUM!

Now I'm in major pumpkin craving mode, but I have a  couple of questions for the celiacs out there:

1. I have a few GF flour mixes at home but judging from the recipes I've looked at I'll probably have to go buy some xanthan gum and add a little bit of that. Not sure exactly what it does but it's in all the GF recipes I've looked at -  I used to have a collection of flours but they all expired - I don't bake often enough to make those purchases worthwhile, and there are some good GF flour mixes available (expensive, but available).

2. I have recently switched to almond milk from rice milk (tried hemp milk, not for me; I steer clear of soy milk).

Not sure if I'd still have to curdle it with apple cider vinegar, but I have that in the refrig too...

What should I do?"

Alex Answers: Really - pancakes are really forgiving, so I don't think you'll need the xanthan gum. I would try it with a  straight 1-to-1 switch for Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free mix.

If the recipe calls for 1 cup of flour, try 1 cup of Gluten-free mix.

If the batter looks normal after you've mixed everything together in this way, go for it. If it looks too thin, add a bit more flour. If it looks too thick or too dry, add a little more rice milk.

I would go ahead and curdle the rice milk with the vinegar ahead of time anyway. I'm not sure it will have the exact same effect as curdling soy milk because there is so much more protein in soy milk, but it can't hurt. The vinegar is also in the recipe to give the pancakes "lift."

Let me know how they turn out!