What to do with an $8.19 bag of amaranth flour

After making the Flour-Swap Pound Cake with amaranth flour and deciding that the amaranth wasn't a great fit, I had to figure out how to not let an $8 bag of amaranth go to waste. I had seen this recipe for amaranth pancakes and thought I'd give it a try, albeit with some trepidation. The recipe says you can substitute 100% amaranth flour for the all-purpose flour in the original recipe, but that seemed like it would be overpowering. So I went with a 50-50 mix of amaranth flour and Thai white rice flour, and Mom and I both liked these a lot.

Even if you're not avoiding gluten, the method is really simple and worth trying with all-purpose or spelt flour to see how you like it compared to our usual Buttermilk Pancakes. And I learned a new trick from King Arthur Flour's blog entry accompanying the recipe (it's not in the recipe itself): when adding the melted butter, wait until the wet and dry ingredients have already been combined. That warms the mixture up just enough that the butter doesn't congeal into nasty globules (like it does when you add warm butter to cold milk and eggs) that refuse to be incorporated into the batter. I already revised the other pancake recipe to make use of this neat trick.

Amaranth Pancakes

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

King Arthur says that most food-service (restaurant/diner/hotel) pancake mixes are sweetened with malt, rather than sugar. I haven't tried it; let me know if you do. You can use more milk if you prefer thinner pancakes, but you can't use less milk once you’ve already added it.

Dry ingredients
90 grams amaranth flour plus 90 grams white rice flour; or 180 grams (1½ cups) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons (25 grams) sugar; or ¼ cup (35 grams) malted milk powder (see note)
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

Wet ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup (242 grams) milk (see note)
3 tablespoons melted butter (43 grams) or neutral oil (40 grams)

a little oil for cooking

    1. In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
    2. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and milk together until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed.
    3. Gently and quickly stir the dry ingredients into the milk/egg mixture. Don’t beat; some lumps are okay. Gently stir in the butter or oil. Let the batter rest for about 15 minutes; it’ll thicken some.
    4. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat or an electric griddle set to 350°F. The pan or griddle is ready when a drop of water skitters across the surface, evaporating immediately. Gently wipe out the oil with a paper towel, leaving a thin film on the bottom of the pan or griddle.
    5. Drop ¼ cupfuls of batter onto the pan or griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break, about 2 minutes. Turn the pancakes over and cook on the other side until brown, about 1½ to 2 minutes more. Turn only once. Makes about 14 large (4-inch) pancakes.

Amaranth Waffles
Substitute 2 more tablespoons of melted butter or vegetable oil for 2 tablespoons of the milk.

Blueberry Pancakes
Sprinkle fresh or thawed frozen blueberries over the batter after you pour it onto the griddle.