At the Savoy Cafe and Deli in Santa Barbara, you'll find the best gluten-free pancakes ever. The Savoy is not dedicated GF, but offers lots of options. At first they provided a choice of pancakes -- those with wheat and those without. Turned out the GF version became so popular, the wheat alternative was eliminated. Now, GF is the only pancake on the menu.
One day I asked the owners, Paul and Kathy Shields, if they would share their recipe with me. Paul leaned in close and whispered, “Pamela’s.”
That’s the secret — Pamela’s Pancake Mix — simple as that, a product available at markets everywhere for the home cook or wholesale online for restaurateurs. You don't have to leave Bend to eat great GF food.
Twenty years ago, when I learned I was Celiac, the GF market was a wasteland. There was nothing GF available even remotely resembling food. Bread came in weighty bricks, so-called pasta became a gummy mess before even making it out of the pot, pizza = cardboard, baked goods were flat and forbidding as concrete or collapsed into a crumble at your fingertips. How things have changed! GF can now genuinely and easily be delicious.
Great GF products:
Pamela’s: Exceptional mixes for GF pancakes, waffles, crepes and more. You name it, Pamela’s probably has a mix for it. If I were young and ambitious here in Bend, I’d open a GF food truck offering gluten-free waffles, pancakes and crepes. I’m no chef, but I make delicious versions of these at home. It's easy. There’s no reason a professional couldn’t do the same or better. Think about it — even in an otherwise gluten-filled restaurant kitchen, what would it take to have a dedicated waffle iron? Voila! You’ve just added GF waffles to your menu. Celiacs and gluten-intolerant diners will notice, tell their friends and bring their families.
King Arthur: This just might be the gold standard in GF flours, cake, biscuit and cookie mixes. I've made everything from birthday cakes to cinnamon buns over the years, all to raves. I was even surprised while taking a bread-making course on MasterClass, when a French pastry chef recommended the brand.
Caputo: Just one word — Pizza. Don’t you just want to cry when you see people enjoying a steaming, crusty, buoyant pizza? Aren’t you tired of the stale, tomato-and-cheese slathered cracker you’re offered instead? Weep no more. Make a light, crunchy pizza with Caputo flour. It can be mixed stretched and baked just like a traditional Neapolitan pizza dough.
Ok, maybe two words -- pizza and focaccia. In our house, we more frequently use Caputo to make a ridiculously authentic one. My husband Ruben, an Italian native, bakes it, and even he says you can’t tell the difference. Also, if you're a bread maker, choose Caputo yeast and flour as your go-to.
Heads up — you’ll see "wheat starch" on the ingredient list. Don't be deterred. Mulino Caputo, who makes this flour, deglutinates the starch. Further, Caputo is continuously tested and certified by the FDA as GF.
(Does it seem weird that Italy, the pasta capital of the world, makes some of the best GF products around? This is because, even though its population of Celiacs is similar to most other countries, in Italy flour rules the kitchen, so Italians take gluten intolerance seriously. Check out this article at NPR.)
Look for my next post on how restaurants can take simple steps to include gluten-free options on their menus and how we can nudge them to, please, give us something good to eat!
Tell me the name of your favorite dedicated gluten-free eatery anywhere on the planet. I’ll put together a list and get the word out.
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