I personally am not on gluten-free diet but I have tasted some of the commercial gluten free products out there and it makes me feel sorry for those who need to abide by that type of diet. Because I feel this way I experiment into the Gluten-Free World from time to time to see if I can add a recipe that actually tastes good, plus I like oat flour and oats are so good for you.
I made some old-fashioned oat flour pancakes on my personal blog back in March that have been a huge hit and the most popular post on my blog. One thing I have noticed with baking gluten-free flour is that things tend to come out a tad dryer tasting. Because of this I decided the moistness of pumpkin would be a perfect fit for some great GF Pancakes, and I was right.
I grind my oats either on the pastry setting or just below the bread setting on my WonderMill grain mill. It is best to use oat groats or steel cut oats for oat flour, they are healthier and won’t clog your grain mill.
Pumpkin Oat Pancakes (gluten-free)
makes about 10 pancakes
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup milk
Instructions
Pre-heat electric griddle to 375 degrees..
Add all dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk together.
Add all wet ingredients to a 2nd mixing bowl and whisk together.
Once your griddle is pre-heated, add dry ingredient mix to wet ingredient mixing bowl and whisk till it just comes together.
Lightly spray your hot griddle with cooking spray.
Use a ¼ measuring cup to scoop the pancake batter onto the griddle.
I cook my pancakes 1 minute 45 seconds on the first side and 2 minutes 15 seconds on the second side for perfect pancakes, this may vary on your griddle.
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Hope you all enjoy these pancakes, me and the pancake princess enjoyed them. I like to put syrup under the pancake and whip cream on the top.
Gingerbread and pancakes were just bound to come together, what a great combination. Take those to and add some whole grain flour and we have a healthy treat for breakfast, or if you are like us we eat pancakes for lunch or dinner also.
I always grind my spelt wheat on the pastry fine setting on my WonderMill grain mill.
Spelt Gingerbread Pancakes
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup freshly milled Spelt Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ginger
1/8 Nutmeg
1/8 Cloves
1/4 All Spice
3 tablespoons Powdered Milk
1 1/4 cup Water
2 large Eggs
2 tablespoons Oil or Melted Butter
1 tablespoon Molasses
Instructions
Pre-heat electric griddle to 375 degrees..
Add all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk together.
Add all wet ingredients into a 2nd mixing bowl and whisk together.
Add dry ingredient mix to wet ingredient mixing bowl and whisk till it just comes together.
Lightly spray your hot griddle with cooking spray.
Use a 1/4 measuring cup to scoop the pancake batter onto the griddle.
I cook these pancakes 2 minutes per side, this may vary on your griddle.
Notes
You can use regular milk, instead of powdered milk, by substituting milk for the water.
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These are also great with syrup and a little whip cream on the top or even a caramel sauce.
Tortillas are a very convenient thing for preppers and survivalists because they are simple and only have a few ingredients. I store several types of wheat and grains in my food storage so I often substitute a small portion of the whole wheat flour in this recipe with Kamut, Spelt, oat, or another flour to add a different flavor and nutrition properties to the tortilla. I feel that it is good to have variety when you eat grains regularly, if you eat the same one all the time your tastes buds and body get tired of it.
I first started making tortillas by rolling them out on the counter top and cooking them in a pan. After doing this many times I got tired of the rolling out process and I did not like that I had to use flour to keep it from sticking to the roller and counter top, the extra flour detracted from the taste and texture in my opinion. I finally made the investment to purchase a 10 inch ChefPro tortilla press, and I am glad I did. No more extra flour taste and the tortillas come out perfect every time (OK, I’ve screwed a few up here and there). I like the 10 inch size because the 8 inch size is just to small for my preference.
I grind my Wheat in-between the PASTRY and BREAD setting of my WonderMill for making tortillas. I used to grind all my wheat with a Wonder Junior hand crank grain mill and it has been nice to have a WonderMill electric mill now for everyday use, I will keep my Wonder Junior Deluxe ready for power out SHTF situations that may come. I like to use a cup of Kamut flour for these tortillas because it adds nice flavor, almost a slight butter taste.
Whole Wheat Tortillas with My Tortilla Maker
Makes 9-10 tortillas at the 10 inch size.
Ingredients
4 cups Whole Wheat Flour (I swap in 1 cup Kamut Flour)
2 teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Sugar (or honey)
2 Tablespoons Powdered Milk
1/2 cup Oil (I usually use canola oil)
1 1/4 cup Luke-Warm Water
Instructions
Whisk together all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
In a separate mixing bowl mix together hot water and oil.
Stir wet ingredients into the flour mixture with a spatula until all the flour is sticking to the dough. If some of the flour is not sticking to the dough ball, just add a Tablespoon or 2 of water to get it to stick.
Spray the top of the dough with a little oil and cover with plastic wrap.
Leave it for about 5 minutes.
Hand knead the dough ball on an oiled surface for about 2 1/2 minutes.
Roll out dough to a long shape, like you were making french bread. Wrap the dough up in plastic wrap and let wrest for 20 to 30 minutes.
Pre-heat tortilla maker, mine takes about 9 minutes to pre-heat.
Cut dough into 10 pieces, depending on the size of your tortilla press or maker. I have a 10 inch tortilla maker and 9-10 pieces usually works out fine.
Press and cook tortillas. If your tortilla maker allows you to set the temperature, I find that the MEDIUM setting works well for me. If you are cooking them on the stove top pan, medium to medium-high usually works.
I have used these tortillas for making burritos, tacos, enchiladas, wraps, and several other things and they always work great. I most commonly use them for turkey spinach wraps for lunch, supper quick to make and the whole grains fill you up. Lately I have been making these tortillas twice a week because we go through them so fast.
NOTE: If you do not have a tortilla press, you can roll them out with a roller. I have some experience rolling them out with a roller and it is not the easiest process. A tortilla maker is definitely the best way to do tortillas.
‘I don’t like pancakes’ said no one ever! I just love to eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and for a snack. They good for any meal of the day. In 2012, I started getting into making whole grain pancakes and have found and created some great recipes for them. I have used several types of grains and they all seem to work great with pancakes. Whole grain pancakes have plenty of flavor and they fill you up longer and faster.
Lately I have been on a bit of a KAMUT kick, and these pumpkin pancakes are a product of that kick. The recipe uses 3 items that I have plenty of in my food storage: KAMUT, powdered milk, and canned pumpkin. I love using canned pumpkin in the things I bake, so much that I keep a stash of 30 cans in my pantry at all times because I use it so much.
I kept the ingredients and directions simple for this recipe, just like pancakes should be. I cook my pancakes on an electric pancake griddle, for about $20 – $30 they sure make easy and quick. These pancakes are great topped with maple syrup and whip cream.
Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes
This makes about 13 delicious healthy pumpkin pancakes.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups KAMUT Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
3 Tablespoons *Powdered Milk
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Large Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2/3 cup Pumpkin Puree
1 1/2 cups Water
Instructions
Pre-heat your electric griddle to 375 degrees.
Whisk all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
Whisk all wet ingredients together in a separate mixing bowl.
Combine the dry mix to the wet ingredients and whisk till it is just combined.
Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop and pour your pancakes onto the hot griddle (lightly greased).
Cook about 2 minutes per side.
Notes
* If you want to leave out the Powdered Milk, you can substitute 1 cup of the water for milk.
I follow a fellow MAN foodie, Kevin Lynch from Canada, who runs the blog ClosetCooking.com. While searching through Kevin’s website I found these awesome breakfast muffins. I first made them with white flour, as he directs, and they tasted great. I could put leftovers in the refrigerator and just pop one in the microwave for 17 seconds and eat them any time I want during the week.
One of my favorite flours is KAMUT and I felt this recipe was a good fit for it. Boy was I right, the freshly milled KAMUT flour made these taste great and they were also a little more muffin like in texture. I also doubled the chopped ham that Kevin used because I like ham with my eggs.
Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins
This makes 12 medium sized breakfast muffins.
Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup KAMUT flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped ham
1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese (or similar yellow cheese)
2 green onions, sliced
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 4oo degrees.
Add eggs and cottage cheese to a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
Add KAMUT flour, baking powder, and salt and stir together.
Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir together.
Spoon batter into a greased muffin pan, a muffin pan with 12 medium muffin slots works best.
Bake for 25+ minutes until the tops are slightly browning, poke with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.
Notes
You can also use other whole grain flours such as pearled barley flour, wonder flour mix, einkorn flour, or a gluten free flour mix.
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This recipe is about as quick and simple as it gets, just love them. If you want to change it up a bit, I’m sure you could add any ingredients that you would normally put in an omelet and it would taste great.
KAMUT, an Ancient Wheat
Just a note about KAMUT flour. It comes out a bit coarser feeling than whole wheat flour, so don’t worry about that. I grind KAMUT between the pastry and bread settings on the WonderMill grain mill. KAMUT flour is superior to whole wheat when it comes to protein and nutrients but it does lack in gluten. Since it is lower in gluten it is easier to digest. I like the almost buttery nutty taste that KAMUT has.
Spelt makes great flour for chocolate chip cookies, I have adjusted a recipe from Nature’s Legacy blog. I hate messing around with separating egg yokes and whites so we went with 2 whole large eggs. I also think chocolate chip cookies taste great with fresh ground spelt flour and doesn’t need to be white spelt flour. Added a little baking powder and the cookies came out great.
I have tried many whole grain cookie recipes in the past year but I believe that these have been the best I have made yet. I just love to make and share whole grain chocolate chip cookies with others, if I don’t share them I always eat to many of them because they are so good. OK, I still eat to many of them even when I share.
Spelt is an ancient grain with superior nutrition when compared to regular whole wheat. It is also lower in gluten and easier on the stomach. I grind my spelt on the pastry setting most of the time, like for cookies.
Enjoy the recipe below, you won’t believe they are whole grain.
Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies
Author: Food Prepper
Ingredients
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
2 cups freshly ground spelt flour (use pastry setting on your grain mill)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and butter in your mixer and mix till somewhat combined.
Add all remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips and mix till it is a smooth cookie dough.
Add chocolate chips and mix till they are evenly distributed into the cookie dough.
use a small cookie scoop and place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
bake for 11-12 minutes and let cool on hot baking pan for 6 minutes to finish baking.
Remove parchment paper of cookies from baking pan to allow cookies to cool completely.
ENJOY!
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My Wife took the pictures for this post, she is a much better photographer than I.
My wife is gluten sensitive so she was trying some gluten free breads and they are nasty and go bad fast. I was able to make some gluten free breads from scratch but they are not as good as real bread. One night I made up some experimental kamut bread (using whole grain kamut flour that I milled my self in the WonderMill grain mill) and she had some and it did not cause her issues like other wheat products did, spelt grain and Kamut grain still have gluten in them but they are much easier to digest than regular wheat. So I decided I needed to develop a really good kamut bread so my wife could have some real bread that is easy on her tummy.
I have used kamut grain a lot in the past but not much for breads. One problem I have had with spelt grain and Kamut grain is that the bread dough has less gluten than regular wheat so it tends to not rise as well and is prone to collapse. It can also tends to come out very dense, which is OK but not ideal.
I have found that using a narrow bread pan helps in supporting the frame of the rising bread better than the regular shape of bread pans commonly found at stores. The narrow width keeps the bread from collapsing while rising and it seems to rise better, giving you a better crumb in the finished bread. I also found that it helps in cooking the bread more evenly through to the middle if the pan is narrower.
I also like dark color bread pans better as well since they conduct heat fast and don’t take long to get hot. Do not use glass bread pans, they will fail you.
Get a good bread pan, it will make a big difference in your bread, especially whole grain breads. The bread pans I now use is the Norpro 8 inch bread pans as shown in the photo to the right. This pan is narrow, dark, a nice non-stick beveled sides, and is a great price too.
After quite a few experiments while my wife was on vacation in California I got the kamut bread close to the way I wanted it to turn out and got it nailed down over Thanksgiving vacation. My little 8 year old enjoyed eating all the experimental bread with me, especially with our homemade peach jam.
So here is the recipe for two 1 1/2 pound loves of 100% KAMUT grain bread, with no added dough enhancers or added gluten.
KAMUT Bread Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 cups hot water
1/3 oil (I use vegetable oil)
2 tablespoons agave (honey or sugar will work too)
Add water, shortening, sugar, and salt to the WonderMix mixer bowl.
Add 3 cups of the flour to the mixer bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour.
Add the egg on top of the flour.
Turn on the mixer and add the remaining flour (you may need a little more or a little less than 5 cups).
Mix for 5-6 minutes, just until the dough looks good.
Remove from mixer and place in a oiled container to let rise for 1 hour.
Punch down dough and form 3 loaves and place in 1 pound bread pans.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees while the dough rises in bread pans for about 30 minutes.
Put bread in the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees.
Bake for 26 minutes.
Remove from bread pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes (1 hour for best results but we all know how hard it is to resist bread right out of the oven).
*NOTE: you can use this dough recipe for rolls if you cut the KAMUT flour down to 4 1/5 cups so it is a stickier dough, which is better for rolls.
My Kitchen Mixer I use the WonderMix Revolution kitchen mixer for all my breads, it does an excellent job developing the dough’s gluten for a silky smooth elastic dough. For batches of dough smaller than 5 loaves I like to use the dough divider attachment, I do spray it with oil before I put it on the mixer so it works much better instead of dough sticking to it.
How to grind your own kamut flour I use the WonderMill electric grain mill for all my grain grinding, it does the job fast and it has a top brand motor in it that will last and perform. It is so awesome to pour 5 cups of grain in the WonderMill and it is done in a minute or so, and the flour is so fine and perfect.
Pumpkin french toast with buttermilk syrup tastes so good it is to die for, and if you eat it to often you might just do that. I love it when I make something and my picky 9 year old daughter (who is harder to feed than my autistic son at times) thinks it is the best thing she ever ate. I know it’s not healthy but hey, I got the major thumbs up from the little twerp and sometimes that is worth it.
You all know I am a PUMPKIN FREAK and this recipe makes a great addition to my pumpkin recipes but one thing that makes this recipe even better is using Italian bread (or even french bread) instead of loaf bread. You do not want an Italian bread with a very hard crust, you want one with a softer crust.
Italian bread just makes the flavor and texture over the top. I get a pre-sliced Italian Round bread from Fred Meyer. The other great thing about this bread is the slices are super wide so it makes a french toast slab that looks awesome and is big enough that my little ones only need one slice to fill them up. If you don’t want to be super cool well then just use plain old loaf bread blah blah blah. Why would you want a just a slice of french toast when you can have a slab of it?
You can use regular syrup with Pumpkin French Toast but buttermilk syrup (see recipe below) is going to make this dish OVER-THE-TOP, seriously SO GOOD!!!
OK, now stop reading my BLAH BLAH BLAH and start making this amazing french toast…
Pumpkin French Toast Recipe
Ingredients: 11-15 slices of bread 3 eggs
2/3 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup milk
Directions:
Add eggs, pumpkin puree, sugar, and cinnamon to a mixing bowl and whip together.
Add milk and vanilla and whip thoroughly.
Pre-heat pancake griddle to 350 degrees (or heat pan on medium heat for stove top).
Dip each side of the bread in the mixture letting it soak in a bit.
Cook on griddle for 4 minutes each side.
Repeat and eat.
Optionally garnish it with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or some whip cream if desired.
Buttermilk Syrup Recipe
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
In a large sauce pan on medium heat and add sugar, butter, buttermilk, and baking soda.
Continuously stir mixture until it starts to boil and foam up to 3 times its volume (hence the larger sauce pan).
Bring it to a boil for 2 minutes, continuously stirring the whole time.
Remove from heat and add vanilla and stir it in.
Ready to serve.
Gluten-FREE?
If eat gluten free you can still do pumpkin french toast. In fact it is one of the best ways to enjoy those blah tasting rice breads you buy at the stores, coat them with pumpkin french toast goodness and you will forget it’s gluten free.
Reheating French Toast
One great thing about french toast is that they make great leftover snacks for other days. Just put them in a toaster and the out side will come out nicely toasted and the inside will be warm and tender, way better than left over waffles and pancakes.
Have you ever bought rolled oats from the store and they had very little taste or a bitter taste? They lack taste because they have either been over processed or sat on the shelf for way to long. They may also become slightly rancid when they have been sitting way to long. These store bought rolled oats or flaked grains are also often void of most of their nutrition.
I love fresh rolled oats and other grains. They are full of wonderful flavor and packed with whole grain nutrition, say goodbye to the blah store bought rolled oats and flaked grains by making them fresh in your kitchen.
I have been rolling my own oats and flaking grains for about 8 years now and have learned that TWO simple things that make it MUCH BETTER.
Tip #1 Prep The Grains
When I first started I just poured the grains in the grain flaker mill and got brittle flaked oats. This worked alright but it was not what I really wanted, I wanted nice whole flaked grains that held together for use in breakfast cereals, deserts, breads, and so on… I did not want crumbs of flaked grains that easily fell apart.
To overcome this I found you need to pre-soak the grains with a little bit of water first, then the result will be real flaked grains and not flaked crumbs (see photo below to see the difference). The pre-soak with very little water makes the grain just soft enough for an effective flattening process that holds together.
Here is the Steps for Prepping Your Grains:
Put 2 cups of grains or oat groats (or mixture of grains) in a seal-able container.
Add 2-3 teaspoons of cold water (I use 3).
Seal the container and shake vigorously for 15 seconds to spread the water around to all the grains.
Let sit for 1 minute or so and shake again.
Let the sealed container sit overnight, at least 8 hours or more.
Now the grains are ready to be flaked.
This is probably the most important part of flaking your own grains. Not many people think to do it but it makes all the difference in grain flaking. Most commercial companies steam their oats before rolling them flat for best results.
Tip #2 The Right Grain Flaker Mill
The FGM Grain Flaker (by Family Grain Mill)
I have tried many grain flakers, expensive and cheap, and have settled on the FGM (Family Grain Mill) Grain Flaker (made in Germany). What I like most about this unit is it uses a rough roller to pull the grains through but the other side is a curved shaped flat surface (see photo to the right) that helps keep the grain from getting crushed to much so your end product is better. All of the other grain flakers use two rough rollers and do not provide as good of an end product as the FGM Grain Flaker.
Another thing I like about the FGM Grain Flaker mill is that it can be used as a kitchen mixer attachment for many brands of kitchen mixers (some require an additional attachment part) or it can be used as a hand cranked stand alone unit. I use it both ways. It fits directly on to my WonderMix Revolution Kitchen Mixer so I can roll oats and grains with no effort or when I want to be quiet I put it on the hand crank base which turns effortless to produced flaked grains (my kids like to do it this way). This hand crank base for the Family Grain Mill products is also great for preppers / off grid minded people and they have several other attachments.
(Family Grain Mill attachments can fit many different brands of mixers and even a hand base)
How it works
Just pour the grains (preferably prepped as mentioned above) into the grain flaker’s hopper and start cranking the handle and the grains come out flatted, it is as simple as that.
Storing Freshly Flaked Grains
I have found that freshly flaked grains keep most of their flavor (and probably their nutrition) for at least a month in a sealed container at room temperature. I would not store them for more than 3 months, if used with-in 3 months you will always get a better tasting product and more nutrition than any of the store bought brands or bulk bins.
You can also put the sealed container of flaked grains in the freezer to keep them fresh and preserved for even longer.
The Grains
The nice thing about whole grains is that they stay good for years and years. I buy grains in bulk and flake them or grind them into flour when I need them. I also pressure cooker the whole grains to add to recipes for a healthy filling accent to some foods. There are many grains that are gluten-free that you can flake, grind or use whole if that is needed in your diet like my wife does.
Grains I Flake
Oat Groats (whole oats), KAMUT, and Quinoa are the main grains I flake for cereals, deserts, and for adding to breads. You can also flake wheat, spelt, buckwheat, and many other grains. Some grains are too brittle such as einkorn for flaking at home.
Mix It Up
Most people just flake one kid of grain at a time, I find it best to flake a mixture of grains together. Each grain has its own certain health benefits that are sometimes more abundant in some grains than in others, for this reason I like to mix about 3 grains together to get the health benefits from all three grains in one meal.
My favorite grain mixture is 1 cup oat groats, 1/2 cup quiona, and 1/2 cup Kamut. you simply mix all the grains together before doing your pre-soak and running them through the grain flaker mill.
What Do You Do With Flaked Grains?
You can do many things with flaked grains, here are a few ideas:
Overnight Oats
Hot Cereal
Add to breads
Add to deserts and cookies
Granola mix or bars
Use in meatloaf
Risotto
Breakfast bars or power bars
Add to muffins
Add to casseroles
Add to soups
Apple Crumble
Overnight Oats My Favorite
My favorite thing to do with flaked grains and oats is overnight oats. There are hundreds of different recipes out there for overnight oats, which is great because if you do it the same all the time it get a bit blah so try lots of them and decide on a handful you like best. There are many reasons to do it, here is a few great articles:
I am a whole grain guy but there are some breads that just have to have the white bread taste, for example a whole wheat french bread is really a baguette bread not french bread. For breads like these I use a KAMUT mixed in with a quality white flour, such as King Arthur, that is un-bleached and un-abominated.
I usually only use 1/3 KAMUT flour and the rest white four for recipes that I want to taste like white flour, this ratio with KAMUT leaves it tasting like white bread. For some reason KAMUT does not have that whole grainy taste like most whole grain flours do. So it is white bread but it still has that whole grain goodness hidden in there, no one ever knows that there is whole grain in it unless I tell them. I highly recommend using KAMUT in your white breads.
Now on to the KAMUT french bread, it is so easy (as you can see in the video below). French bread is an oily dough but the WonderMix mixer did great with mixing it.
http://youtu.be/1l16dHrhdoE
Simple French Bread with KAMUT
Author: Food Prepper
Serves: 2 loaves
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups KAMUT flour
4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon Salt
Instructions
Add water, sugar, yeast, and olive oil to mixer bowl.
Turn the mixer on to speed 1
Add KAMUT flour.
Add half of the all purpose flour and salt.
Add the remaining all purpose flour and let it combine.
Turn the mixer up to speed 2 and let it mix for 6-7 minutes.
Turn dough out and cover and let it rise for 1 hour.
Cut dough in half and shape 2 french bread loaves
Cover, and let rise for 1 hour.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut angled slits in the top of the loaf (optional).
Bake for 35 minutes so that it is nicely browned on top.
