Tag: #breakfast

Chocolate and Banana Mug Cake

It’s a big one, literally and metaphorically.

Above you may observe chocolate in one of its natural habitats (for it has many, obviously), with a cashew butter topping and chocolate shavings.

A moist, fudgy-in-the-centre mug cake, with mashed banana in the centre for optimal gooeyness. A little firmer on the surface, but easy to break into to reveal a tender, soft belly. I don’t think there’s anything much that beats a piping hot, warm, fudgy chocolate treat first thing in the morning, especially if the whole mixing and microwaving process is this easy. Maybe I should spill the beans upfront– I’ve never made a mug cake before. I always felt as if doing so is a total, embarrassing cop-out; why microwave (does that word chill you to the bone and bring to mind grease-framed images of ready-made meals or bad takeout?) when you can put to good use your lovely and probably very expensive oven?

Although I appreciate and prefer a traditional fudge cake made in the oven, all 50’s aprons and 30-minute labours, this sort of recipe is perfect for one those mornings when you want to feel indulgent, but just… Don’t want to spend all that long being a princess.

Chocolate and Banana Mug Cake (serves 1 very hungry person)

Ingredients

25g all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder

2 tbsp white sugar (I used coconut date sugar)

1 egg

3 tbsp milk (any sort; I used almond here)

2 tbsp veg or coconut oil, or melted butter

small handful of mini chocolate chips

half a banana, mashed

Directions

In a bowl (not the mug you’re making the cake in), whisk together the flour, sugar and cocoa/cacao powder. Take a tablespoon of this dry mix and toss it with the chocolate chips in a separate saucer, just so they’re coated with the flour mix. Mix in the rest of the ingredients except for the mashed banana (egg, milk and oil, then the chocolate chip and flour mix).

Grease your mug and pour in half of the chocolatey mix. Put the mashed banana on top, then add the rest of the chocolate mix. Microwave this on high for a minute, or check the doneness with a spoon at the 45-second mark. Poke and prod to see if it’s done to your liking; take it out a little earlier if you like that little extra fudge! Keep in mind that you must watch it like a hawk because this cake does rise a little, and if you’re not careful, it might collapse or overflow, especially if your microwave is on a particularly high heat setting.

Top with whipped cream, or nut butter, and enjoy with iced coffee or a glass of cold milk. Alternatively, douse the entire thing in cold milk and enjoy as a sort of bread pudding! It’s perfect for breakfast. Or have some as a small snack and keep the rest for later, for some things are never too late to microwave.

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London Breakfast Diary

After a week with the family in London, I spent almost 4 whole days traipsing around town with a good friend searching out breakfast and brunch spots. Though we didn’t manage to eat our way through the city entirely, I was satisfied after each little adventure, assured of accomplishment, eager for new sunlight to signal another stomach-filling session.

Ozone Coffee Roasters' flat white and gluten-free orange almond cake
Ozone Coffee Roasters’ flat white and gluten-free orange almond cake

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A personal favourite. Sitting in the corner of the wood-tiled, pseudo-industrial interior, I sipped on a delicious, creamy flat white, and nibbled on an unexpectedly pleasing orange and almond cake, grainless at that, although the white frosting got a little sickening after a while. Expect only the hippest coffee customers here, and ready your laptop or a good book.

Granger and Co's ricotta hot cakes
Granger and Co’s ricotta hot cakes and bircher muesli

Only the fluffiest in London, with pockets of ricotta, honeycomb butter and lashings of maple syrup to make it all the more carnal. My flat white was on the more bland and milky side, and it’s hard to hear yourself sometimes, with a few tables nuzzled up against one another. It might even be a little hard to call over a waiter, what with the gazillion Hermes bags swishing everywhere, dangled off the thin arms of the blonde and beautiful. But these pancakes, right?? Come on. They’ve got heart and soul and rhythm. This bircher muesli was also a star in its own right– sweet, tangy, and creamy.

SUNDAY Café: Foreground– French toast with bruleed banana, creme fraiche and caramel Background– Portobello and poached egg on homemade sourdough
SUNDAY Café: Foreground– French toast with bruleed banana, creme fraiche and caramel
Background– Portobello mushroom and poached egg on homemade sourdough

Sunday is one of those places which you just don’t want to leave because it’s so darn pretty, with the cosiest outdoor garden dining area and a lush, warm interior. The cook on everything was sublime, although I have had better French toast; this one wasn’t sufficiently saturated and the caramel was rendered glass-like and brittle. That aside, I can definitely see myself here a lot in the future, because the staff make it feel like you’ve known them long before, and their cakes (we tried the lemon iced pound cake) are stupendous. They’re the sort of the people you want to see, and the sort you want to see improve, if need be the case.

Piccolo and the best ever lemon pistachio cake from APPESTAT Café in Islington
Piccolo and the best ever lemon pistachio cake from APPESTAT Café in Islington

Ah, Appestat. And how fitting a name, because it did readily whet my appetite. The white nook full of surprises, and thankfully where you will most probably get a space to think, with lovely artisan brews and produce. I was stunned by the lemon pistachio cake we had, which was bursting with a full, dense pistachio flavour, pardon the lack of lemon tang. They may be excused. The most perfect accompaniment ever to a well-made cuppa joe (P.S. They stock nut butters and tahini!).

Flat white and raspberry custard tart from Shoreditch Grind
Flat white and raspberry custard tart from Shoreditch Grind

My second last stop was Shoreditch Grind, a stand-alone café where I had probably the best flat white, and a crusty, flake-to-bits custard tart, smaller than my palm but moreish all the same. Read, write, lose yourself a little.

Kinako french toast with matcha soft serve; aka the best french toast you will have in your life, from Bone Daddies at Shackfuyu
Kinako french toast with matcha soft serve; aka the best french toast you will have in your life, from Bone Daddies at Shackfuyu

Because I’ve tried too many french toasts to lift your hopes up for no good reason. Soft, slightly spongy and perfectly saturated in the middle. Eggy, sweet matcha batter. The crust will make your heart melt, and the matcha soft serve makes everything a dreamworld. Your senses will thank you. Un-be-lie-va-ble.

Bread Ahead's salted caramel and honeycomb doughnut
Bread Ahead’s salted caramel and honeycomb doughnut
Duck and waffle; bruleed banana with ice cream from Duck and Waffle
Duck and waffle; bruleed banana with ice cream from Duck and Waffle

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Other notable spots:

– TAP Coffee No. 193

– Kaffeine

– Timberyard Seven Dials

– Prufrock Coffee

– The Breakfast Club

I have yet to travel the entire of Europe, to learn more and grow in so many ways, but London has and always will be my second home. I remember prancing around town when I used to live there as a little girl, some sort of flaky pastry in one hand, my mother’s fingers in the other. Cold winter streets and cobblestones. There’s something irreplaceable about its erratic weather, everyone’s eccentric outfits and the anticipation of something, anything, the feeling of exciting possibility.

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Tahini Oat Pillow Pancakes

Time has unleashed a spawn of ideas and fresh inspiration.

Though I’m happy to finally get back into the groove of food photography and recipe development, the past couple of weeks were much needed respite. The days fuelled anticipation for Fall in London, and although I know I won’t ever be able to bake or create anything much after that time, I feel as if this blog has really grown to become a part of me, a part I can’t and never will forsake. It’s shed new meaning upon my life; I don’t feel more alive or myself when in the kitchen, fiddling with and tweaking jottings in my notebook. I have my other passions, but this will always be an inherent part of me, like a child I must help grow and nurture. Therefore, I have keenly decided that I will continue updates here, though of course much less frequently!

The plan now will be to post once or twice a week, and the focus will be shifted to creating more breakfast-type recipes. I’ve always had an inappropriate obsession with breakfast culture, and adore that combination of simple, sweet and healthy. No, my recipes are not always the healthiest, but that’s only because I don’t believe in any modern fad. Go gluten-free if you have coeliac disease, by all means, or maybe even just for fun, but don’t impose the juicing monster (which is, literally, quite green) on anyone who doesn’t feel as if tip-top wellness is a necessary factor for emotional, spiritual or intellectual growth. Or for life in general, for that matter. I recently read this article which I readily relate to and agree with, discussing the modern health obsession and its ironic correspondence with young ‘health foodies’ found everywhere online and on social media (go on, read it!). The mixing of health and science must be monitored, and diet cannot be wholly dictated by a few paragraphs you may read online written by a young pretty lady in a sports bra. Let’s just be real. One will not die eating pancakes every Sunday, and some choose not to, which is totally ok. We all know we need ‘balance’, but the point of middle ground is different for everyone, is it not?

Anyways. Despite my passion for eating and making French pastry, some varieties of which I have yet to attempt (but shall do so in due time!), I know that doing so isn’t feasible in the near future. Sometimes, practicality is sacrifice, but it’s also a means for exposure and pushing creative boundaries.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pancake time.

A few days ago in London, I came across the most charming café in Islington, and my good friend (hey Celeste!) and I simply couldn’t resist strolling in even after our heavy brunch (now that I recall, we had pancakes, which is so de rigueur… Then again, when is it not?). Nut butters, pre-made sandwiches and bottles of tahini lined the shelves, alongside other bits and bobs of artisan produce. I felt it a bit of a sin if I didn’t walk out with something, so tahini it was, and tahini I’m glad. A short aside here–we also enjoyed delicious coffee, tea, and the best lemon pistachio cake slice ever. I’m thinking of it now, and the thinking is pain.

Having never properly experimented with the mildly salty sesame paste before, I decided to incorporate it into my favourite base pancake recipe, which yields the fluffiest, moreish, pillow-like texture ever. Thick and fluffy aside, a soft and tender surface may be easily broken with a fork to reveal a pale interior studded with oats. The mildly salty tahini lends perfect contrast to the sweet batter, and it also means no additional salt is needed in the recipe. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy.

With tahini, maple syrup and chunks of homemade banana bread

Tahini Oat Pancakes (makes 8 3-inch pancakes)

Ingredients

125g (1 cup) all-purpose flour, or half whole wheat and half all-purpose

40g (1/2 cup) whole rolled oats

3/4 cup milk of choice (I played with soy this time round)

10g unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp honey

2 tbsp white sugar

1 egg

splash vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat a medium saucepan on low-medium heat, and ready some butter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients– flour, two leavening agents and sugar. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, honey, tahini, melted butter and vanilla extract. Pour most of the ingredients into the dry mix; I say most because you may not need all the liquid. I used all of mine and yielded a nice, thick batter, but just exercise a teensy bit of caution. You want it to be thick and slightly lumpy after mixing briefly with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Butter the preheated pan. There should be a sizzle when you flick a bit of water onto the pan. Using a tablespoon measurement (for 3-inch pancakes), ladle the batter into the pan. Once you see a few bubbles spread throughout the surface, go ahead and flip to cook the other side. Serve a couple warm on a plate, topped with more tahini, maple syrup, and whatever else your heart desires.

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Strawberry, Chocolate and Marzipan Hand Pies

On the spur of the moment, I pie-d my way through yesterday. I have a knack for fishing out completely random things from the pantry and thrusting them all together in some wacky ingredient spin-off (or should I say dance-off in the oven), but this one isn’t all too unorthodox, and well heck it yielded something far more pleasurable than what I envisioned during the process.

So that was this morning’s breakfast.

An incredibly flaky pastry, my new favourite recipe after modifying a wonderful one I found on Saveur (details later), drizzled with chocolate and almond glaze and topped with fresh vanilla bean ice cream, encasing the baked and glorious juices of roasted strawberry, melting chocolate, and what turned out to be the highlight for me– marzipan.

I used to hate the stuff, believe it or not. Marzipan, I mean. When I was a kid and invited to a party with cakes neatly dressed in marzipan, I would feel all too inclined to turn away an otherwise perfect plate of cake. The smell of ground almonds pressed with sugar somehow made me feel sick to the stomach. Now, I can’t see how this could be half as special without the addition of sweet, fudgy marzipan. Coarse, yet chewy, the density upping the indulgence that much more.

Yes, this was all before a little bit of the filling overflowed. I liked that quite a lot, actually; picking all the crusty bits from the parchment paper, simultaneously enforcing neatness and deriving gross pleasure from picking up the dejected trails the oven always leaves in its wake. Other things I liked about making this beautiful delicious mess was rubbing lots of butter into flour and stirring the strawberries as they cooked and bubbled in the pan. Sauce thickened, excitement grew.

Cut into one, and you get a jammy, fudgy mess. The hot, crusty, flaky-as-ever pastry works too well with a nice scoop of cold vanilla bean ice cream or cold cream. The almond and chocolate glazes up the ante with their showgirl effect, reflecting the filling’s personality. The strong hint of almond essence in the former may be left out if one isn’t too keen on that flavour. I haven’t been this excited about a recipe in a long while. I’d say 11/10.

Strawberry, Chocolate and Marzipan Hand Pies with Almond and Chocolate Glaze (makes 6-7 3×4-inch hand pies)

Ingredients 

For the pastry dough, lightly adapted from here:

252g (around 2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting your counter later on

1 tbsp white sugar

large pinch of salt

226g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled for 5 minutes in the freezer before using

1 egg, beaten in a bowl

1 egg for brushing the pastry edges later on

For the filling:

10g unsalted butter

400g strawberries, hulled and chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp white sugar

1 tbsp white vinegar (any white is good; I used a local brand of diluted cane vinegar)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

40g ready-roll marzipan (which can be easily broken up into pea-sized chunks with your fingers)

half cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

For the almond glaze:

100g icing sugar

1/2 tsp almond essence (very strong, so I shall leave this to your own discretion)

4-5 tsp whole milk

For the chocolate glaze:

40g baking coverture chocolate (or any regular brand of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips), melted in 30-second increments in the microwave

Directions:

Make the dough. Ready some cling film. You can put all the ingredients in a food processor but I personally think rubbing butter into flour is ludicrously therapeutic, so I do that instead. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Rub the butter into the flour until you get pea-size crumbles and maybe a few larger bits of butter. The dough will briefly hold together if you squeeze some of the mix together in your palm. At this point, mix in half the beaten egg. If the mix does not hold together well upon squeezing at this point, then add a little more egg, bit by bit. Flour your hands, flatten the dough into a shallow disc, wrap with cling film and let the dough chill in the fridge for at least 45 minutes (that’s how long I waited for mine, though the original recipe states at least an hour for good measure).

Make the filling. In a medium-sized saucepan and with a wooden spoon, mix together the strawberries, butter, sugar and vinegar. Cook for 5-6 minutes or until very soft, and the juices have leaked but thickened a little. Mix in the black pepper, then taste. If it’s not as tangy as you would like, add a splash more of vinegar. Using the edge of your wooden spoon, mash a few chunks of strawberry against the side of the bowl. This will help thicken the cooked mass of ingredients and yield a more jam-like texture at the end. Let the mix cool on the counter for half an hour before using.

After the pastry has chilled, it can be rolled out and then filled. Preheat your oven to 200C (400F). Lightly flour your counter and rolling pin, then roll out your dough till it’s approximately 1/3 of an inch thick. Cut the dough into 3×4-inch rectangles, then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roll up the dough scraps, roll out again with the rolling pin, then do the same. On one rectangle, place a teaspoon of strawberry filling in the centre, then add a few chocolate chips and a few mini chunks of marzipan (you can break it up yourself). Use the other beaten egg to brush the edges of all the pastry rectangles, then fold one edge of dough onto the other half. Use a small fork to crimp the edges. Prick the tops using the same fork, then brush the tops with any remaining egg. bake for 20-22 minutes (mine took 20). Leave to cool for 10 minutes on the counter before drizzling with the glazes.

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Double Chocolate Banana Pillow Pancakes

I do like chocolate. And in the parlance unique to all chocolate lovers… um… What about double chocolate? Yesterday morning, there was a lapse in self-control. These pancakes aren’t exactly the healthiest, but they sure are the most Sunday morning-esque, and that’s the most important thing, because a certain rainy day and time on your hands demands a lush, thick stack. Sometimes I’m partial to the whole almond-milk-and-oats sort of thing, but this particular lapse in the system of fairytale strength made me put whole milk, whole eggs, and good, rich chocolate on the counter at 6am in the morning.

Didn’t look back. Can’t look back. I keep swooning over my favouritest thick, fluffy buttermilk pillow pancakes, and ever since I can’t bear to experiment with any other pancake recipe. I can’t bring myself to attempt anything off-standard. They’re magical and fluffy and pillowy; the best ones you will attempt in your lifetime. And life is so incredibly short. These are a double chocolate and banana version, with cocoa in the dry ingredients, banana in the wet, and stuffed with dark chocolate chips (use chunks if you will for full-on pleasure). The picture above shows a sweet little stack of 4 crowned with glorious, gooey, sticky cashew butter, maple syrup, and topped with a king-sized piece of dark chocolate, which melts along with the cashew butter and makes the whole bloody breakfast a fudgy and delectable brown-and-white mess. Any sort of nut butter is highly recommended, for its rich stickiness clings to the tender surface of each pancake and ups the goo-and-fudge factor considerably. Mmmm. Rich yet soft, sporadically studded with pockets of melting chocolate. Mandatory maple syrup. Double Chocolate Banana Pancakes (makes around 10 medium, or 8 large pancakes)

Ingredients

175g (slightly less than 1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

30g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder

3 tbsp white sugar

pinch salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

240ml (1 cup) milk of choice (I used whole)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 banana, mashed

50g unsalted butter, melted in the microwave (in 30-second increments), and a little more for the pan

large handful of chocolate chips or chunks (to your own discretion)

Directions

Sift the flour, cocoa, salt, sugar and both leavening agents into a large bowl. Whisk everything together well to ensure proper dispersion. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla extract, mashed banana, honey and melted buttter. Pour the wet mix into the dry and slowly mix together until just combined. The mix will be thick and lumpy.

Heat your pan or griddle on medium heat. It’s hot enough when you add a little butter and it sizzles audibly. Using a tablespoon measurement or a light hand with a quarter-cup measurement, pour circles of batter into the pan. Make sure there’s at least an inch of space between each dollop, because these enlarge significantly after flipping. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly on the surface of each pancake (my own pan can only take 2 pancakes at a go), then take your spoon again and spoon more batter on top. The thickness of the batter means the bubbles won’t show up as quickly, so after 2 minutes check the bottom doneness with a spatula, and if it can slide easily underneath, give the pancakes a flip. The second side takes hardly any time at all, so wait less than a minute before removing and placing on a towel (to absorb condensation). Serve with nut butter, maple syrup and fruit, or whipped cream and maple syrup, or whatever the hell you want, really.

You can make all 8-10 pancakes before everyone is up for breakfast, just make sure to microwave them or place them in a warm oven for a while before serving. Place uneaten pancakes in a ziploc bag and into the fridge. They reheat beautifully, and are there whenever you want.

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