Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix

September means pumpkin. It also means something old or something new. In this case, Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix is something returning. And if it returns, it must be a customer favorite. And like pumpkin bread, it is sold in two varieties: regular and gluten-free.

Taste

The earliest gluten-free products on most store shelves were not good. However, since I started noticing gluten-free products there has been a leap in the quality of these products. There are even somewhere I believe that they are better than the originals, like Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Brownies. To me, I expect any gluten-free item needs to be an equal substitute to the original where I don't feel like I was missing out. That is the case here.

In preparing this, there is nothing really out of the ordinary that this requires: egg, oil, and water. This results in the same orange-hued batter. Even looking at the mix, it doesn't look anything out of the ordinary. The final result is pancakes that have a subtle pumpkin flavor. They also have the familiar pumpkin spice blend, but nothing that overwhelms the flavor here.

As a batter, it bakes just as you would expect from regular pancakes and the final result is a strikingly similar taste. There is a subtle textural difference perhaps from the rice/potato here in place of the more familiar wheat flour. It's nothing that will make you not want to eat these. In fact, if someone put them in front of me and didn't tell me that they were gluten-free, I would assume they are just plain pumpkin pancakes.

Now, that is a huge compliment when I tell you these were pretty close to their regular counterparts. So gluten-free peeps rejoice as you won't feel like you are missing out on anything with this product. The taste here is spot on for pancakes.

I was wishing for directions on how to make waffles with these to see how they crisp up. But alas, no directions are available for that.

For $4.49 this is a smaller package and priced higher than Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix. I found the quality to be pretty equal, just the price was a premium. So while I wouldn't reach for this again because of the price difference, I would recommend it for those where gluten-free is a must.

Overall

Would I buy this again?  For me, Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix isn't a necessity. I would personally stick with the regular variety. However, if I couldn't have gluten then I would absolutely reach for this mix.

Here is the visual rundown of what you get if you buy this product:

The box of Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix:

The nutritional information:

The ingredients:

How to prepare:

After being prepared you get:

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

The Bottom Line

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