The Accidental Vegan... Pancakes

One of my friends took over my house last weekend to make a short film.  I think it's going to be really hilarious, but I'm definitely happy to have my house back.  I spent the weekend helping another one of my friends cook for everyone in the cast and crew and it was a lot of fun.  Perhaps my calling is actually to run a family-style catering business for small events.  Or maybe I'm supposed to be an astronomer.  The two jobs are so very close in description that it's really hard to distinguish the two.  Right.

So I've been ogling this Mark Bittman recipe since last Thursday, with no room to make it.  Once everyone left, I was planning on making it, but I had no milk or pine nuts, so I put off making it until tonight when I finally caved because I was really craving something carb-y and sweet.

Veganized Bittman Cornmeal Pancakes

1.5 c cornmeal

1.5 c boiling water

0.5 c soy milk

0.5 t kosher salt

1 T sugar or honey or maple syrup

1 t vanilla extract

2 T grapeseed oil

1/2 c chopped almonds

Whisk together cornmeal and salt.  Add in the boiling water and let sit for 5ish minutes or so to let the cornmeal really absorb the water.  Stir in soy milk, oil, sugar, vanilla extract, and almonds until smooth.  Don't worry about over mixing because there isn't any gluten or chemical leaveners in these pancakes.  Cook in a hot nonstick pan until golden brown on one side and then flip.  Since there aren't any leaveners, there won't be bubbles, so you sort of just need to let the pancakes sit there for awhile (perhaps 3-5 minutes).

nomcakes

The results?  Dense, delicious pancakes that also happen to be gluten free.  Bittman suggests to serve with honey, but I really liked my version straight from the pan.