Hoping this is not too late! My husband Crow's gluten free riceflour recipes for pancakes, crepes, cookies and biscuits (drop and rolled).
CROW'S RICE FLOUR GOODIES
Can't eat those lovely gluten flour products? Tired of substitutes with really weird textures? (I mean, rice flour can make pancakes as gritty as sand and cookies as dry as the desert.) Here are several gluten free, rice flour recipes for pancakes, crepes (yum!), biscuits and cookies.
PANCAKES In blender make smooth: one egg, one ripe banana, one cup of milk (dairy, soy, rice, nut), two teaspoons of arrowroot powder.
In a bowl mix 2/3ds cup of fine rice flour (white is less gritty) and 2 teaspoons of non-aluminum baking powder.
Add the liquid to the dry, stirring gently with a spoon. You want a smooth, not lumpy but not beaten batter about the texture of thin custard. Thinner makes lighter pancakes, thicker makes heavier, thicker, dryer pancakes. I like them lighter myself.
Cook as you usually do any other pancake.
And add blueberries, etc. Yum, Yum.
CREPES In a blender make smooth: 2 eggs, 1 ripe banana, 1 cup of milk (dairy, soy, rice, nut), 3 teaspoons of arrowroot powder. Up to a tablespoon of your favourite vegetable oil - even melted butter - may be added but it does not seem to add much besides calories to the product. The same goes for using cream instead of milk.
Slowly add white rice flour to the batter in the blender. It will take up to one cup of flour to produce a batter the consistency of heavy cream. Thinner won't stick together, thicker won't cook well.
Pour just enough batter to coat the bottom of a well-oiled, pre-heated pan the size you want your crepes to be. Tilt and roll the pan so the batter evenly coats it and spreads out to fill the bottom of the pan. I use two 8 inch well seasoned cast iron pans for a nice production line. A scant 1/4 cup of batter does this size just about right.
Cook until bubbles form and set firmly, flip and brown the other side.
DROP BISCUITS In blender make smooth: one egg, one ripe banana, 3/4 cup of milk (dairy, soy, rice, nut).
In a bowl mix 1 cup of fine white rice flour, 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder and one teaspoon of non-aluminum baking powder.
Add liquid to dry and stir gently until thoroughly mixed but don't beat it up. Add a bit more milk or rice flour to assure that the texture is quite thick and the biscuits stand up on the cookie sheet when dropped from a spoon.
Drop in heaping tablespoons (more or less depending on how big you like your biscuits) onto cookie sheet. They don't spread out much and should keep their shape. Bake in very hot oven until nicely browned. This will probably take about 10 minutes with one turn of the pan, if needed, to assure even browning.
ROLLED BISCUITS Using the same exact recipe but making the batter just dry enough to handle (with oiled or floured hands) you can lift the lump of batter from the bowl and hand flatten - or roll - it to the desired thickness, cut with biscuit cutter or glass, and bake as above.
No, neither one of these biscuits are exactly flaky but they are not too bad, they look and smell like biscuits and hot out of the oven with real butter and honey they will pass, especially if you have not had biscuits recently.
FLAKY BISCUITS? I don't think so. So far, no reasonable proportion of bananas or starch or oil or butter gives enough gluten-like texture to allow the layering and rising quality which made my grandmother's flaky lard, butter, wheat flour biscuits worth waking up for. Cutting butter into rice flour with a pastry blender or hand rubbing it looks great but it just does not make flakes when it is baked.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES Hand cream until smoothly mixed, one egg, 1/2 cup of real butter (I like Amish roll butter) and 1/2 cup of brown sugar (try sucanat or other natural dried cane juice for a flavor and nutritional boost).
In a bowl mix 1 cup of fine white rice flour , 2 teaspoons of arrowroot starch, one teaspoon of non-aluminum baking powder and a pinch of salt (ok, ok, but it does make the cookies sweeter).
Blend 1/2 banana and 1/2 cup of milk (dairy, soy, rice, nut) until smooth. Add to dry mix and stir with spoon until completely combined and smooth, but don't beat it.
Add 3/4 cup of chocolate chips, stir in.
Slowly add butter/egg/sugar mix. Adjust with flour or milk to a texture thick enough to stand up on the cookie sheet when dropped from spoon.
Drop by heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Space well, they melt and spread and look just like the real chocolate chip cookies they are. Bake in hot oven about 10 minutes until nicely browned, turning pan once if needed for even browning.
PECAN SANDIES Butter and sugar, as they melt and blend, are the secret texture and flavor behind many cookies. You can use butter and sugar in this recipe, doing it just like the chocolate chip one above, or you can try it with honey and your favourite cooking oil, as below.
In blender make smooth: one egg, one ripe banana, one half cup of milk (dairy, soy, rice, nut), 1/2 cup of honey, 1/2 cup of oil and two teaspoons of arrowroot powder.
In a bowl mix 1 cup of fine white rice flour, 3/4 cup of pecan pieces, 1 teaspoon of non-aluminum baking powder and a large pinch of salt since there is no salty butter here (ok, ok, but it does make the cookies sweeter).
Slowly pour wet into dry and mix together with a spoon aiming for smooth, not lumpy and not beaten. This batter may be fairly thin so thicken it by slowly adding more flour if needed. You can make it thick enough for drop cookies or a bit thinner if you don't want them to stand up.
Drop by heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheet. These keep their shape and don't melt down very much. Thinner batter allows thinner cookies, or you can flatten them with the back of the spoon to the desired thickness. Bake in hot oven about 10 minutes until nicely browned, turning pan once if needed for even browning.
BANANAS have a lot to do with the smooth, not too gritty texture of these items. The flavor is not too intense, even at first, and you do get used to it. The STARCH helps hold them together and also improves texture. Arrowroot works well and is easily tolerated by most diet types. I strongly recommend it for any cooking starch use, especially if you are avoiding corn. None of my crepe or pancake recipes use added oil, salt or sugar. These ingredients are not very health for many of us and, in my opinion, really don't add to the final results. Try the recipes with and without and see for yourself.