Millet - Rice Cakes

Felt like something substantial for breakfast, but still trying to avoid the gluten. My white (1975) Joy of Cooking had a recipe for rice flour "pancakes" but I wanted something a little bit more robust, and I thought I could improve things with some xanthan gum. I was right. While these look a lot like pancakes they are made differently and they taste like their own thing (see Eating Notes below)

Recipe:

Millet-Rice Cakes
Makes 10 cakes; recipe can be doubled

1/2 c white or brown rice flour
1/2 c millet flour
2-1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t xanthan gum
1/2 t salt (really! It will not taste too salty)
1 t light brown sugar or maple sugar (not syrup)

1 c milk
1 md - lg egg
1 T butter

fat as needed for frying

Melt the butter. Beat the egg in a small bowl.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and then sift. Do not skip the sifting step.

Using an electric hand beater, beat the dry ingredients while slowly adding the milk. Be sure everything is well mixed. Beat in the egg and melted butter. The batter may look a little thin. Do not worry.

Using a large spoon, pour the pancakes onto a hot, greased griddle. Mix the batter in a folding motion as you do this, as it may start to separate slightly. Flip when bubbly on top. Serve hot with topping of your choice.

Eating Notes: A success. While they can stand in for pancakes, they didn't taste at all like fake wheat pancakes. The texture was fluffy and a little crisp, and the inside had the distinct warm grain taste of millet. The cakes were perfect for breakfast with a bit of syrup or jam. Because of the millet, they also would be good as a foil to creamed shrimp or seafood or something similar. I would still add the small amount of brown/maple sugar; it added overtones but wasn't enough to make the cakes noticeably sweet.

Courtney's Standard Breakfast

I'm often asked what my standard breakfast is. So here it is:

Non-homogenized whole milk (sometimes have 1 oz. cheese instead)
Coffee (always)
Miso soup (always with seaweed. This also has shiitake and the little curled breadlike things I don' t know the name of)
Tomatoes (almost always)
Sliced cucumber (may have pepper or celery or something else)
1/4 - 1/3 cup grain (today's is brown rice with a few vegetables)
Natto (twice a week or so)
Sometimes I'll have a half a glass of juice, which I usually need to water down or it's too sweet for me. Also if for some reason I don't get around to making grain we will have a gluten-free toaster waffle instead.
My husband augments this with yogurt topped with muesli he soaks a bit overnight.

So that's how I start my day. I must confess it took me a while to get used to natto. When I first tried it I wanted to gag. But I did my best and kept trying, and now I really like it. Someone recommended mixing it with rice or toasted sesame to cut the slime, but I find that I like it just mixed up with the sauce they give you.