Blueberry Pancakes with maple syrup

Happy weekend everyone! I love weekends for many reasons and I'm sure most of you will agree that generally it represents time to relax and unwind and if you're lucky to have a lie in. Most of all it's about the food. When we have a free weekend at home, we like to cook our own brunch and our favourites are waffles, pancakes or poached eggs on muffins. Easter seems like such a long time ago now but I still remember these pancakes which we had on Easter Monday. J wanted blueberry pancakes so I found a recipe online from Sally's Baking Addiction and it turned out beautifully. It was light, fluffy and full of blueberries. I served it with more fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries and lashings of maple syrup.  It made for a really filling brunch and I'm pretty sure there's at least one of my five a day in there! 

                                       

     

 wet ingredients, dry ingredients and fresh blueberries 

 adding the fresh blueberries 

 serve with maple syrup 

Recipe adapted slightly from Sally's Baking Addiction

250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
250g low fat natural yoghurt
300ml milk
60ml Clarks Carob fruit syrup
2 eggs
45g melted butter
300g fresh blueberries

• In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients - plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ground cinnamon. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, carob fruit syrup, yoghurt and melted butter. 
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently until it forms a smooth batter. 
• Finally stir in the blueberries. 
• Heat a frying pan with cooking spray or oil or butter. 
• Add a ladleful of batter to the hot pan and cook until the edges look dry and there are bubbles in the mixture.
• Flip the pancake in one go and cook until it is browned on both sides. 
• Keep the pancakes warm in a pre-heated oven about 150C until all the pancakes are cooked.
• Serve with fresh berries and maple syrup. 

Blueberry Pancakes with spelt and buttermilk

I've been on a pancake phase recently. I can't believe I've never made pancakes until recently. It's so easy to make and does not require any special ingredients or equipment.  I saw this recipe on What I Baked This Weekend.  It looked really good and I decided to give it a go but modified it to use up all my leftovers.  I had spelt flour and buttermilk leftover from baking my honey and spelt cake and some blueberries that needed to be eaten. I made half the original recipe as I didn't want to end up with stacks of pancakes! 

The pancakes were delicious and I really like the texture of the spelt flour here. I'm sending this to Frugal Food Fridays hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. 

Recipe adapted from What I baked this weekend 
Makes 4 pancakes of the size shown

120g spelt flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon honey
150ml buttermilk
75ml milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
75g blueberries

• Mix the flour and baking powder in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the honey, buttermilk, milk, egg and oil until smooth. 
• Make a well in the flour mixture and add in the wet ingredients. 
• Whisk until just combined. 
• Fold in the blueberries, saving a handful to sprinkle on top. 
• Heat a small amount of oil in a non stick frying pan. 
• Add a small amount of batter (depends on what size you want your pancakes!) and cook until the surface starts bubbling. 
• Flip the pancake over and cook until light golden brown.
• Serve with the remaining blueberries and a drizzle of honey.

Banana, cinnamon and honey pancakes

It has been hard to focus and concentrate on what I need to do this week- writing my dissertation. I am so easily distracted and all I want to do is bake particularly Christmas baking.  So I decided to treat myself to some pancakes as an extra incentive.  I looked around my kitchen to see what I could use and came up with this creation. I had quite a few ripe bananas that needed to be used and leftover cinnamon sugar from making cinnamon sugar palmiers. I didnt have any nice bananas that I could slice to put on top so I sprinkled a few dried cranberries (again leftover from baking chocolate, orange and cranberry cookies). I also thought it made the pancakes look slightly festive and therefore added a sprinkling of icing sugar which you can't really see in the photo. This would make a great Christmas or Boxing day breakfast.

By my calculations this only cost less than £1 to make. It's simple, tasty, healthy-ish and satisfying! So I'm sending it on to Frugal Food Fridays hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. Do click on her blog for more details about this exciting challenge and feel free to join in! 

Makes 5 pancakes of the size shown

125g self raising flour
1.5 tablespoon cinnamon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
180mls milk
20g butter, melted
2 ripe bananas, mashed

To decorate (optional)
Sprinkling of icing sugar
drizzle of honey
small handful of dried cranberries

• Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the milk and melted butter. 
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
• Mix well and finally add in the mashed bananas. 
• Put a small amount of butter in a non stick frying pan. 
• Pour the batter into the pan until it forms a small circle. 
• Once the edges are cooked, flip the pancake over - it should be lightly browned.
• Continue cooking until golden brown. 
• Serve immediately with optional toppings suggested - drizzle of honey, sprinkling of icing sugar and a few dried cranberries. Alternatively, slice half a banana for added nutritional value. 

American Style Pancakes

I made these on a whim recently.  I've been super busy and then horribly ill. I decided I needed something to make me feel better. I saw my bottle of maple syrup in the fridge and thought I would like some pancakes to go with them. I've never made my own pancakes so I looked up a recipe on the internet and voila! Luckily I had some berries to hand (almost always in my fridge currently) and had a very delicious brunch which made me feel miles better.  They are really quick and easy to whip up and does not require specialist ingredients or equipment. 

 stack of pancakes with butter and maple syrup

 added some berries as I thought it looked a little plain plus I could get my 5 a day in! 

Recipe from bbc good food online

135g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons caster sugar

130mls milk

1 large egg, beaten

2 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil (I used butter) 

• Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl. 
• In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the milk and egg and then whisk in the melted butter. 
• Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. 
• Let the batter stand for a few minutes. 
• Heat a non stick frying pan over medium heat and add a knob of butter. 
• When the butter is melted, add a ladle of batter.
• Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown. 
• Best served warm. 
• Add a knob of butter and drizzle with maple syrup.
• Garnish with berries if desired.