Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancake Coffee Cake

The first time I published this recipe, my reason was "I'm whacking away at finishing a new novel, which means I'm home and hungry. Also, it's January, cold, grey, and dismal when I poke my nose outdoors. Which means I don't feel like going grocery shopping. So I searched my cupboards for inspiration and found a packet of gluten free pumpkin spice pancake mix that I purchased by mistake. I meant to get the pumpkin bread mix sitting next to it on the shelf at Trader Joe's. Necessity being the mother of cooking experimentation, I searched online for things to do with my mix. Came up with a coffee cake recipe made with regular pancake mix and modified it."

Well it's December, I'm snowed in for at least a few days, but I have my emergency baking supplies well stocked. I now deliberately buy a box of TJ's pumpkin spice pancake mix for my "staples in case of emergency" shelf. I have experimented a little more since I first published this, and found that if you are out of eggs, you can substitute apple sauce. Also adding a little extra gluten free cake flour will make it a slightly fluffier version. 

Be aware that I'm not a cook. I'm a stone soup type of experimenter who keeps adding a bit of this and a bit of that until it seems edible to me. In other words, change this up as you like.

The results remain tasty with my coffee, so here it is again!

 
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RJ's TJ's GF Pumpkin Spice Apple Coffee Cake

1 egg or 1/4 cup applesauce

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup almond or soy milk**

1 cup of Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Pancake Mix

1/2 cup of gluten free cake flour

1/2 cup of sugar mixed liberally with cinnamon*

1 chopped apple 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix egg, oil, and milk together. Add pancake mix, cake flour, and sugar. Pour half into 8" x 8" pan and then spread sliced apple over mix. Pour rest of mix over apple slices.

Cook for 20 to 25 minutes (see note below). 

Nicely browned while I was editing!

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Cooking times are estimates due to baking while editing or what really happens in my kitchen:

After popping the pan in the oven, I started reading last chapter written before wandering off to bake. Ignored oven timer because I was puzzling over where my hero would go next. Realized something was starting to smell good in kitchen and pulled cake out of oven at more the half hour mark than 20 to 25 minutes recommended. It may have been a bit crispier on the edges than intended but it still went down well with a cup of coffee.

*I had a mix of white sugar and cinnamon left over from another coffee cake mix. It seemed to work fine. I'd estimate it was mostly sugar with a tablespoon or two of cinnamon. When using peaches or other sweet fruit, I often cut this down to 1/4 cup of sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon. 

**I generally use soy milk or almond milk at home, but I don't see why you couldn't use regular milk for this.And butter instead of olive oil.

For vegan cake: All the substitution tables that I have recommend about 1/4 cup of applesauce for the egg. I did this and it baked the same as with eggs. Feel free to experiment.