gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free
These are flatbreads similar to the Quinoa Dinner Cakes with Sweet Potato, only these don’t require sweet potato puree and they call for an additional flour — corn flour. We eat them as bread along with main dishes such as chicken, chicken salad, hummus, or wild salmon salad.
Our favorite way to eat them is in flatbread melts — toasted; spread with chicken salad, wild salmon salad, or pinto bean spread; topped with shredded goat cheese; and then put under the broiler for the cheese to melt.
Makes about 20 cakes
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 cup corn flour (soaked by the manufacturer in lime water)
- 1 cup quinoa flakes
- 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 cups filtered water
- 4 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar, whey, or lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons non-gmo and aluminum free baking powder (gluten-free if desired)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- coconut oil for the pan
Combine flours and quinoa flakes, apple cider vinegar, and water in mixing bowl. Mix well. Cover and let soak at room temperature for a minimum of 7 hours, or overnight.
The next day, the batter may be thick. Add water to achieve a pancake batter consistency.
Pre-heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat.
Add a smidge of oil to the pan and spread it out. Pour batter into prepared pan using a 1/4-cup scoop. Let cook on that side until bubbles appear in the center and bottom is golden brown, then turn over with spatula. Allow to cook on second side for about 30 seconds, or until browned. Repeat for all the remaining dinner cakes, adding more oil as needed.
Transfer each cooked cake to a cooling rack. If put in a covered container, the breads will get mushy from condensation.
Serve soon after cooking, while they are still warm. Or, toast to use for melts. Refrigerate completely cooled leftovers in an airtight container. Toast leftover cakes or use cold for sandwiches.
© Copyright 2008 by Wardeh Harmon
About Wardeh
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I think you forgot to take the sweet potatoes out of the directions?
Oh, thank you! I did forget that!
I love the Quinoa Dinner Cakes, so I’m excited to try these! I have to say that when I tried the Quinoa Dinner Cakes recipe in my cast-iron skillet, I had a real problem with sticking. But I have since seen your post with links to directions for seasoning cast-iron (I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to use soap to clean it!), so I’m preparing to follow those directions and then try it again. The melts you made with this new flatbread recipe look really delicious!
I don’t know if you’ll remember, but I had posted a comment a long time ago asking whether you had a gluten-free recipe for tortillas or wraps. At the time, you didn’t have one, and I have since run across a link to one that I thought you might like to try. It’s on the Living Without magazine Web site (www.livingwithout.com). Click on the Recipes link, and you will see Gluten-free Tortillas under the Appetizers category. I tried the recipe, and it is really good. The dough closely resembles regular wheat-flour tortilla dough in texture, and the taste is great, too. I still need to master the cooking time, though. It seems like they cook really fast and get too crispy if you don’t remove them from the heat source pretty quickly. Could be because I rolled mine pretty thin (I wanted them to be fairly pliable). And here’s where the plastic issue stares me right in the face again: Because the dough is sticky, I rolled each tortilla out between two sheets of plastic wrap. Maybe waxed paper would be a good substitute? Let me know if you try the recipe and how it turns out!
Sonya
Sonya –
Yes, I remember you asking about tortillas! I’m so happy you’ve found a recipe you like and it looks very good. Did you use the potato starch or something else as a sub? I am wondering if I could use arrowroot powder instead? Otherwise, I have everything else.
I think you should try seasoning up your cast-iron really well and then you shouldn’t have sticking problems.
And yes, waxed paper would be the way to go, or slightly greased unbleached parchment paper. I’ll try both and let you know, if you’d like.
Wardeh—
When I tried the recipe, I didn’t have any potato starch, so I doubled up on the tapioca starch without any problems. Arrowroot might work, too, though. Also, I didn’t have any plain fava bean flour on hand, so I used a garbanzo/fava combination from Bob’s Red Mill. Yes, let me know how it works for you to roll out the tortillas with waxed paper or parchment paper! And share the thickness you roll them out to as well as the cooking times, too.
I’ll do the same when I get a minute to experiment with the recipe again. Cast-iron seasoning is on my to-do list. 
Sonya
Wardeh—
I tried this recipe again today, only I used the requisite potato starch instead of double the tapioca starch like last time (still used the garbanzo/fava flour, though). The potato starch seemed to do two really good things: First, it helped the tortillas not look so starkly white, but gave them a slightly warmer cast. And second, it greatly increased the pliability of the tortillas. I must confess that I did roll them out between two pieces of plastic wrap (I just can’t bring myself to throw out what I have. I’ll have to make the switch to waxed/parchment paper when I’ve used up the plastic wrap.) I rolled them out pretty thin again, and this time I cooked them in my (newly seasoned and working perfectly!) cast-iron skillet (no sticking!), and I noticed that as it cooks, the dough tends to kind of shrink in and make the tortillas thicker than the rolled-out dough. I would say that I cooked each tortilla about 30 seconds on the first side (over medium-high heat) and about 15 or 20 seconds on the second side. They have stayed nice and pliable even after refrigeration today in (what else?) a plastic Ziploc bag.
Looking forward to reading your comments after you try the recipe.
Love,
Sonya
Sonya, that is fantastic! I so appreciate you working out all the kinks for me!
I have the recipe printed and on the top in my recipe binder, but haven’t had the intiative to try it yet. I am going to the store today and will see if they have the potato starch in the Bob’s Red Mill section. It is not a great store with many health foods, but they have some.
I am glad to hear your cast-iron is working well! A cast-iron skillet is such a blessing when working well! (And a pain when it is not.)
What is the difference between corn flour and corn meal? Are they the same?
Jessica
Jessica,
The difference is how finely they are ground. For the flour, it is a fine flour grind, while the meal is coarser.
I made this the other day but found that I don’t care for the texture that the quinoa flakes give it. Is there anything I can substitute them with?
Renee – You could use rolled oats, but they are more thirsty than quinoa flakes, so be prepared to use more water or less oats. If you need gluten-free, use certified gluten-free oats. Otherwise, leave out the quinoa flakes and probably use less water.
I just made these with oats and I was pleased with the results! My boys will be thrilled to discover these in their lunchboxes tomorrow!
Do you need to rinse the quinoa flakes?
Rachel – I’m not sure. We would have to check with the producer to see if they were rinsed and dried before they were rolled. I remember looking into this at one point, and I don’t remember the answer.
I went ahead and did not rinse them and the flatbread was great.
I made them for dinner tonight with hummus, garlic chicken, and cheddar cheese. I soaked the garbanzo beans and then cooked them up with some leftover chicken stock in the pressure cooker. It was the creamiest hummus I have ever made. Super yummo! I love this flatbread.
They were a little more like pancakes than bread but great to eat. I can imagine eating them with some Indian food to mop things up with.
Also, I had a problem with them sticking to the pan. I even reverted – gasp – to my non-stick griddle to make more of them at a time and they stuck to that as well.
After watching your video on cast iron skillets, I probably had the heat up too high.
Have you ever substituted the corn flour for more buckwheat or rice flour? (I’m not sure what kind of corn flour I have and if it was soaked in lime, etc.)