Easy Amaranth or Cassava Flour Pancakes

Incorporating Amaranth Flour in Recipes
This one is for Cathy who requested amaranth based recipes. My research showed that one can substitute up to 25% of the flour in a cookie, bread, or cake recipe with amaranth flour. So for instance, if a sponge cake calls for 225g flour, a good substitute would be 45g amaranth flour, and 180g all purpose flour.

What Is Amaranth Flour
Amaranth is a plant native to Mexico and Central America. It is now quite international and has many local names such as mchicha or terere. The majority of us are used to eating the leaves but it is also cultivated for its seeds. Toasted amaranth seeds are quite nutritious and can be used instead of oats in muesli or granola. Amaranth flour is made from ground seeds and does not contain gluten.

Armed with knowledge about amaranth, I was ready to test out a recipe but sadly realised I had no amaranth flour. What I did have was cassava flour. King Arthur Baking had an easy amaranth pancake recipe that I decided to make with cassava flour instead.

Easy Pancake Recipe
These pancakes are fluffy and light. Their texture is quite similar to gluten. The only thing that bothered me though, was you could taste the baking powder—so I masked it with syrup. However, the interesting thing was, the next day, the baking powder taste was gone. So these would be great to make ahead and have ready in the fridge for a quick breakfast during the week.

Solving the Baking Powder’s Aftertaste
Baking powder’s job is to create lift and lightness. (Talking of lift, something to note about these pancakes is they are not thick (like American pancakes) or thin (like crepes). They are perfectly in between.)

Back to baking powder’s purpose in life: to create lift. Baking powder is a mix of an acid and alkali. 1.So reducing the baking powder by half and then adding a teaspoon of vinegar (acid) and adding half a teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (alkali).
2.Or alternatively separating the egg whites from the yolks and whipping the whites to stiff peaks so as to trap air.
3.Or simply use 2 teaspoons of baking powder (as it is in the original recipe) and drizzle more honey on the pancakes and call it a day  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

• Difficulty: very easy
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Ingredients

2 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk (almond/soy/coconut milk or water)
3 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup (156g) cassava or amaranth flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar or honey
1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice

Directions

(If you want extra lightness, separate the egg yolks from the whites. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the yolk, and leave the batter to rest. Fold in the egg white when about ready to cook. But these pancakes are still quite light even without this step.)

Whisk the 2 eggs until foamy. To the eggs, add in 1 1/4 cups milk, 3 Tablespoons oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla and whisk.

In a separate bowl, measure 1 1/4 cup cassava flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 2 Tablespoons sugar. Mix well. Make a well in the centre of the bowl with the flour. Pour the wet ingredients in.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients until well incorporated. The batter is watery. Let the pancake batter rest for 15 minutes.

Heat a pan, and lightly grease it with oil. Keep the heat on medium.

Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and mix in the batter. Measure 1/3 cup of batter and pour in the hot pan. Wait until bubbles form and then carefully flip it over. This batter makes about 7 pancakes.

Enjoy!