Gluten-free pancake smackdown...Pamela's vs. Bisquick

So after a couple of weeks of searching, this Examiner was able to locate a box of gluten-free Bisquick at a local grocery store.  It was right next to the regular Bisquick on the aisle and the box is quite small        (16 oz.), so it is easy to over look. 

We really weren't expecting that much from the mix, but at $4.19 for a 16 oz. box it was quite expensive for what amounted to 3 cups of mix.  Here are the positives: it ismade in a gluten-free processing facility, it is Kosher, it is dairy free and it is gluten free.  The negatives, other than price and size of the box, it contains soy, sugar and it is made with rice flour, so no fiberful lflour is present resulting in not much of a nutritional content.

OK...first up is Bisquick. The instructions on Bisquick are easy enough to follow and only required you to add milk (we used coconut milk, one egg and vegetable oil) and the pancakes were easy to make.   They tasted much more like cake than pancakes and had a thick, heavy texture that made them almost hard to swallow and they were grainy.

So, we wanted to give the mix another shot and decided to make the biscuit recipe on the back of the box, which used up the last of the mix.  After adding shortening, coconut milk and eggs to create a batter onto the baking sheet they went and into the oven for 13-16 minutes.  The biscuits were heavy, grainy and pretty tasteless.  We topped them with butter, which added some flavor, but they were quite crumbly and my daughter didn't even finish hers.

Now for Pamela's Products Pancake and Baking Mix.  We have been using this product for more than a decade and we have successfully used it as gluten-free bisquick.  Pamela's mix also requires you to add very few ingredients, but it contains Almond Meal resulting in 4 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein per serving.  Their mix doesn't contain sugar like bisquick which is a definite plus.  This mix comes in a four pound bag and it makes just perfect pancakes, biscuits, scones, etc. that are flavorful with a great texture and taste  The mix contains buttermilk, so it won't work for those who are intolerant to dairy.

The result is Pamela's Products won hands down and gluten-free Bisquick was disappointing and something we won't be purchasing again.  We have read several positive reviews of gluten-free bisquick, but after having been gluten-free for more than a decade, we were expecting much more from the product and we just can't settle for mediocre.

While it is great that General Mills has started producing gluten-free products one really wishes that they would have tried a bit harder to make the mixes less grainy and heavy and more affordable.  We applaud their efforts, but we would love to see them reformulate and hope for better results.