Tag: huffpostetaste

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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‘Broken-up’ Roll Cake with Strawberry-Apple Compote

Yesterday marked my mother’s birthday. That officially makes her 26 years older than me, the cumulative years brimming with untold betterness, wisdom, coolness. My solid, grounded, pretty momma, whose self-efficiency and absurd organisational skills combined with favourable wit and wackiness make her the paragon of cool. She probably cries at night over why I haven’t reached that particular degree of coolness.

Unsurprisingly, I made cake. Cake is just a little dot in the field of foodstuffs she likes, the carb fiend that she is. She’s the sort who can sit back, legs propped on the counter, cradling a baguette stuffed with salted butter and marmalade. Lunch=sorted. She’s of solid character with an even more solid appetite. Cake to her is either meh or MMPH; she knows exactly when something is good or not. Thankfully, this sufficed, and accompanied the night’s celebration perfectly. Tip#1: I imagine that this particular cake, what with all its strawberry and apple and light-heartedness, would go superbly with a tall, thin glass of champagne!

It’s funny to look at these pictures now. I didn’t intend to wax lyrical over anything, I never meant for it to work, this was supposed to be a fingers-crossed-I-hope-it’s-alright-and-thank-god-mummy-wont-give-a-damn sort of experiment. This broken-up roll cake, as I have termed it, is indeed meant to be broken up. I figured that if it resembled a monster slice of swiss roll from the top, it would be all too easy for the whole thing to unravel from a single, exposed ends. So the mind was made up; I decided to make a simple sponge, cut it into vertical strips, and roll each around one another. The best part is that if any breakage occurs (spot the slight one in the middle coil), you can slot in some cut strawberries to add to the theme, the whimsical grandeur. Rusticity doesn’t deserve any bashing.

Alone, it resembles a maze in action, but really is so easy to put together. The cake itself takes a mere 5 minutes, though the strawberry-apple compote of course takes a little while longer. Make the compote a day ahead if you wish, to ensure that it’s fully cool before using on the cake. The sponge is light, sweet, but with enough body to withstand the mild rolling, and I love how the compote moistens the tall sides, making everything ever so slightly tart.

‘Broken-up’ Roll Cake with Strawberry-Apple Compote and Strawberry Cream Cheese Buttercream (makes one 9-inch wide cake)

Ingredients for the cake:

120g (3/4 cup+ 1tbsp) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3 eggs

145g (2/3 cup) white sugar, and set aside 2 tablespoons of extra sugar in a small bowl

1/2 tbsp water

Ingredients for strawberry-apple compote:

220g apple, chopped into small pieces

120g strawberries, chopped into small pieces, and reserve a few whole strawberries for garnish.

100g (half cup) white caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp cornstarch mixed with a tablespoon of water in a small bowl.

Ingredients for strawberry cream cheese buttercream:

50g soft, unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

75g cream cheese, at room temperature (or just microwave on high for half a minute if cold from the fridge)

30g pureed strawberries (or take same mass of strawberries, microwave on high for a few minutes and then mash with a fork)

First, make the strawberry-apple compote. Put all the chopped fruit, vanilla extract and sugar in a a medium saucepan and place the pan on medium-high heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until you can see that the sugar has dissolved(no more visible crystals/lumps of the stuff). At this point, the juices from the strawberries will have started to leak. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the mixture cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally so the heat is spread out throughout the mass of fruit and sugar. Just before taking off the heat, pour in the cornstarch-water mixture and mix in thoroughly. The mixture will thicken and lighten slightly. Take off the heat and let cool completely by placing it in the fridge. If you’re making this a day ahead, cover with cling film and let rest in the fridge overnight.

Now for the roll cake. Preheat your oven to 250C (480F) (I tried my hand at the same method used for Linda L’s vertical roll cake!). Grease and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside. In another larger bowl and with an electrical whisk or beater, beat together the eggs and sugar until the mixture doubles in volume and is incredibly pale and fluffy. This will take around 7-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of where you live and how powerful your beaters are. The beating is done when you lift your beaters and the mixture is visibly more ‘sticky’ than how it first appeared, and leaves a ribbon-like trail before quickly dissolving into the rest of the mixture again. Once you reach this stage, tip in (or sift, if you’re anal like me) the dry mixture, add the water, and gently fold everything together using a rubber spatula. Make sure all the dry mix is evenly incorporated and you end up with a smooth, aerated, pale batter. Pour this onto your greased and lined pan and bake for 5 minutes, no more and no less, in the oven.

For the frosting, beat together the butter and half of the powdered sugar in a large bowl. then, beat in the cream cheese and pureed strawberries. The mixture will look too liquidy to handle. At this point, beat in the rest of the icing sugar, making sure to scrape down the sides with a spatula, combining everything nicely and evenly. Pop the bowl in the fridge for later usage.

Once the cake is finished, remove it from the oven and let the pan cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle the top with the 2 tablespoons of sugar you reserved at the start, and then sprinkle your counter with a little extra sugar. Once the cake is fully cool, carefully tip it onto your counter, so that the top is facing down. Remove the pan (it helps to tap the pan with a knife first) and the parchment paper. The underside of the cake should look slightly blotchy; pale and brown here and there. Spread the cooled strawberry-apple compote on the cake, using your fingers to place all the small bits of fruit evenly if you wish. Make sure all the juices soak into the cake’s entire surface. With a sharp knife, cut the cake into four strips, starting from the short side. Take one strip and start rolling normally from the top. Then, take the next strip and place one of its ends near the end of the first strip, as you can see from the picture above. Wrap it around the first strip. Repeat with the 3rd and 4th strips. Once you’re done with the last strip, wrap the sides of the cake with cling film and place in the fridge for at least an hour, or overnight if making a day ahead.

Once ready to serve, take an offset spatula and spread the strawberry cream cheese buttercream along the sides of the cake. This buttercream is softer and less malleable than your usual buttercream thanks to the puree and cream cheese, so it must be stored in the fridge (on your cake stand) right up until serving. Place a few fresh strawberries on top for extra garnish, if you wish.

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The Thickest, Fluffiest Pancakes You Will Make

‘A happy man has no past, whilst an unhappy man has nothing else.”

This is but one of the few memorable quotes I came across in my latest favourite read– The Narrow Road To the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, which won the Man Booker Prize last year. You know those books which leave you craving for more and more after each chapter, and the flipping action is speedy and excited? Yeah, this is one of them. War and Love are classic, usually overlapping literary themes, and Flanagan expertly weaves the two with arousing and intimate prose. Sometimes, I forget how mind-altering and rejuvenating fiction can be. It awakens, stirs something much deeper in the human soul.

Something else pretty mind-altering are…. These pancakes.

These, dear reader! By far the thickest, fluffiest ones I have ever made, and I sure as hell have made a lot of pancakes. Alright, before I proceed, I do wish to address the fact that I missed last week’s second post. Truth was that an unexpected outing stole the day’s limelight, and I hadn’t the time to do a write-up since then. Hopefully, this lazy-sunday-morning-recipe will make up for that. Goodness I’m excited, because trust me, they’re worth it. Definitely worth skipping a café line for.

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

Now it’s your turn.

Thick, ridiculous, sweet and slightly spongy. I feel as if a drab ‘fluffy’ will take the fun out of this adjective scrambling, but heck, they are. Unbelievably fluffy, light, soft. A slightly lighter version of the Mickey Dees stuff. You get the jam.

I’ve tried these twice– once with almond butter and maple syrup, the other time as if I were at a traditional American diner, with butter, maple syrup, and a whole lot of family.

Can I have them with anything? So fluffy I could die!! My sisters chimed and beamed and scarfed down two each in less the time it takes for me to politely do a knife-and-fork job with one.

Since these freeze so well, I kept a couple stashed away. When I went to look for them the next morning, they were gone. I don’t blame them.

Honey and buttermilk provide an extra layer of moisture without added weight. The first two I made received a little extra char (as you can see above!!) because I was fiddling with the toppings and wasn’t paying as much attention to the stove, but the dark, crusty edges played a good texture game with the warm, melting butter and maple syrup later on. Mmmmm. Happy mistakes. And look at how thick these guys are. I kid you not, each pancake is at least an inch thick. Tender fluff. Pillow fluff. Press on a hot one and you’ll leave a finger mark that disappears almost immediately.

Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pancakes (serves 4-5, makes around 11-12 medium pancakes)

*vegan substitution

Ingredients

188g all-purpose flour

3 tbsp white sugar

generous pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg (*one banana)

40 unsalted butter (slightly less than 4 tbsp, *vegan butter)

1 tsp vanilla extract or the insides of half a plump vanilla bean (or a skinny meek one)

240ml whole milk/ buttermilk; use store-bought or make your own by mixing 230ml whole milk with 1 tbsp white vinegar, and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes before using (*almond milk or any other plant-based milk)

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and leavening agents). In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter in a microwave and set it aside, letting it cool. In another medium bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, vanilla (or insides of a vanilla bean) and melted butter. Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and mix briefly with a wooden spoon or a normal dinner spoon. Continue to mix until everything is justt combined, which means there will still be a few lumps, but no more streaks of flour. The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy.

Preheat your pan on medium heat and ready some butter. You know the pan is hot enough when you flick a little water onto its surface and there’s a clear sizzle. At that point, generously butter the pan and ladle tablespoonfuls of batter. I didn’t have to wait for bubbles to pop before flipping; the batter is thicker than usual and there’s no need to wait. Flip the pancakes when you notice the edges stiffening a little, or when you can slide your spatula whole underneath the bottom of the pancake. It will rise a little upon flipping, as if that action gives it life, and hence, breath. The surface should have a brown mosaic thanks to the hot butter. Once the second side is done (will take no more than 20 seconds), let cool on a paper towel. As mentioned above, these freeze wonderfully, so you can make a whole batch, have a small stack and stash the rest in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Easy!

Serve with butter and maple syrup, or whatever you want. I particularly like them with banana, its moist sweetness adjoining arms with the maple. What a Sunday.

Posted on by alexcrumb 2