American Style Pancakes
Hello my fellow foodies…and welcome to another bright and shiny edition of The Listing.
As Easter falls late this year Shrove Tuesday falls in March so I thought I would share with you a slightly different version of a pancake recipe. This one is not only simple and easy to make but it uses oats so it is naturally gluten free and also rather tasty!
American Style Breakfast Pancakes (Gluten free version)
• 2 eggs from happy free running hens
• 40g oats
• Finely grated zest of one orange
• 40g fat free natural yogurt
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 4 drops of vanilla essence
• 50g quark ( fat free soft cheese)
• 200g raspberries (I used frozen but fresh would work just as well)
• Sugar to taste
Let’s begin by blitzing the oats until they take on the consistency of wholemeal flour, then add them to the beaten eggs, yogurt, orange zest, vanilla essence and baking powder and stir until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Leave this to rest for 10 to 15 minutes. The oats will absorb some of the liquid making the batter thicker . While this is resting you can prepare the filling.
Choose the best whole raspberries and set them aside. Mix the broken pieces of raspberries into the quark adding a sprinkling of sugar to taste if you have a sweet tooth, but take care not to over mix – you are only aiming to combine the ingredients- over mixing may make the quark flatten and runny. Store this in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Now, just like traditional pancakes, heat up your best non stick pan. To test if it is ready pour a drop of the batter into the pan and it should “sizzle” and cook straight away.
Non stick pans shouldn’t need any additional oil but add a tiny amount if sticking occurs.
Simply pour the required amount of batter into the pan to give you the size pancakes you require. Top Tip- While pouring the batter, tilt the pan to move the batter around to encourage a thinner pancake. As the mixture cooks the base of the pancake will become less translucent and bubbles will form. Turn the pancake when they have a light golden browned colour on their base. I made 14 mini sized (5 cm) pancakes from this amount.
Once you have cooked all the batter simple construct your tower by smoothing a small dollop of raspberry quark onto a pancake, top with raspberries then another pancake and repeat as long as your nerve holds or until you run out of the components!
These are also delicious made with chopped peacan nuts and served with maple syrup, or substitute the orange zest for lemon zest and while the batter is cooking drop in a few blueberries. For those with a more savoury palette add some chopped herbs and/or a sprinkling of parmesan cheese to the batter and serve with garlic mushrooms and grilled tomatoes for an alternative breakfast. I’d love to hear about your creations.
Until next time dear reader…
Tallulah Le Fey x
