My New Year's Resolution to clear out everything that's been lurking at the back of my food cupboards is still under way and at the weekend, I pulled out this packet of Orgran Gluten Free Buckwheat Pancake Mix. You may remember that we've reviewed their tinned and dried pasta, dinosaur cookies and farm animals pasta in the past. The pancake mix has been waiting for us to review it for quite some time but, to be honest, I wasn't sure what we'd think of it. With Madhouse Daddy hailing from Brittany, we often eat proper pancakes in crêperies when we go to visit the family and whenever they have the choice of the classic buckwheat (sarrasin) galettes with savoury fillings and durum wheat flour (froment) crêpes with sweet fillings, both Madhouse Daddy and Sophie throw tradition out of the window and go for froment with both sweet and savoury fillings. Would they like the buckwheat version ? Only one way to find out !
The back of the box shows the ingredients that you need to add to the mix - water, milk and three eggs. That sounded like a lot to me - surely you're just buying a box of flour then ?! - but if you need a gluten-free option, it does take out all the hassle.
Each serving contains 125 calories according to the back of the box but this is also totally dependent on the size of the pancakes you make as well as which toppings you use.
The pancake mix created a lump-free batter within seconds. It seemed much finer than regular flour and was pure white, which surprised me as I was expecting something more brown, resembling the colour of wholemeal bread.
I used my pancake maker because the kids love the fact that the pancakes come out with smiley faces on them ! I was surprised at how much they rose - much more so than with my usual pancake batter. They had a lighter, almost sponge-like consistency, presumably because they use gluten-free flour.
The kids excitedly starting adding toppings to their pancakes. Juliette went for traditional lemon juice and sugar.
I opted for the classic American maple syrup.
While Pierre went for chocolate sauce and hundreds and thousands and looked very proud of his creation !
They're not bad but we found them slightly bland and a bit dry. Which led us on to our next idea.
Once we'd eaten our fill of sweet pancakes, I decided to add grated cheese and finely chopped ham into the remaining mix and made some savoury pancakes.
These were eaten for tea topped with cherry tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and chorizo (all mixed together and quickly fried in a frying pan). They are also lovely dunked in a bowl of soup and keep for a few days in an airtight tin.
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £2.95
for more information : http://www.orgran.com/products/154/
Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.
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Pancakes are delicious. It will soon be Pancake Day. I have heard quite a number of people mention that they have a gluten allergy. So this seems a very relevant review.
ReplyDeleteRachel Craig