Product Review: Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Pancakes

Ah pancakes. When we first moved to Portland, I fell in love with pancakes. I had never really liked pancakes much, except for the silver dollar kind you could get at fancy restaurants. For about two months I was looking for work, and every couple of mornings I would get up and make pancakes for breakfast. For me, it became the thing to do when you don’t know what else to do: make pancakes.

Imagine my excitement after being sentenced to a world without wheat pancakes to find that Trader Joe’s had some gluten free ones.

While Trader Joe’s earns some points with my gluten-free self for making such a product available, they lose some points with my environmentally conscious self for packaging these pancakes in four individual plastic wrappers and a cardboard box. The box is sealed on the ends with round, clear plastic stickers, which kind of pushes it even further. I mean, when I’m opening a box of pancakes, the last thing I want to do is feel like I’m breaking the seal on a royal decree or something. The other thing they lose points for is 430 mg of salt per serving! That’s the kind of amounts I’m used to seeing in canned soups.

They do taste like pancakes, which is a good thing, and cook up well. They are light and fluffy like a good pancake should be, but they do suffer a bit from the dreaded gluten-free spongy texture.

On the plus side, however, these pancakes do what they are supposed to do: deliver butter, jam, and/or maple syrup in a no-nonsense fashion. Here’s a bonus recipe for those of you who made it this far.

ORANGE BUTTER

1/2 cup butter or trans fat free margarine
1 Tbsp orange juice concentrate
Grated zest of one lemon
Grated zest of one orange
1/2 tsp Triple Sec or your favorite orange brandy (optional)

Put all ingredients in a dish and mash them up until mixed. You may need to soften the butter first. If you need to use the orange butter soon, put in the freezer to re-solidify. Otherwise return to the refrigerator. This stuff is not sweet, so you and your celiac friends will probably want some maple syrup to go with.

Enjoy!