maple syrup

Pancake Day 2015

- Michael 10 Comments
Cheese & Bacon Pancakes

I meant to do 2-3 different Pancake posts over the last week or so. Annoyingly I got stinkingly ill on Monday and it wrote off pretty much the whole week. Then I didn’t want to has all the pancaking making into a day and eat too many pancakes to myself in one go. So it took getting a couple of friends over for pancakes to happen. But below are two pretty awesome recipes. One sweet and one Savoury, both American style. I did a very poor job with my post last year, so to make up for it I wanted to go a bit further.


Cheese & Bacon Pancakes

Pancakes

Ingredients:
100g Mature Cheddar, Grated (extra for garnish)
2 Spring Onions, roughly chopped (one for the mixture, one for garnish)
8 Rashers Streaky Bacon, Fried until Crispy
135g/4¾oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
Maple Syrup (optional)
Sriracha (Optional)
Cheese Sauce (Optional)

Instructions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar).
2. Whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Pour in to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the cheese and one of the spring onions.
3. Using a ladel dollop into a prepared hot pan. Frying until golden on one side and flipping over. Fry until both sides are golden and it’s cooked through.
4. Stack up on the plate, topping with the bacon, extra cheese and spring onion. Add any of the optional toppings (I just went with sriracha and allowed some bacon to get extra crispy to sprinkle on top).

Pancakes

Double Choc Pancakes

Pancakes

Ingredients:
135g/4¾oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
100g White Choc Chips (reserve some for garnish)
100ml Double Cream, Whipped (optional)
Maple Syrup (optional)
Ice Cream (Optional)

Instructions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and sugar).
2. Whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Pour in to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Using a ladel dollop into a prepared hot pan. Frying until golden on one side and flipping over. Fry until both sides are golden and it’s cooked through.
4. Stack up on a plate, topping with whatever you are using (I used whipped cream).

Pancakes

Maple Pecan Pie Bars

- Michael Leave a comment
Maple Pecan Bars

Our oven is fixed. This is the best thing that has happened since I moved to London (OK, that’s a lie, but what you gonna do about it?). I can now bake things to my heart’s content. And by bake things, I mean cook pizza. To say it’s been broken I’ve still managed ok, once I got the hang of the temperature. I managed to make a Pumpkin Spiced Loaf and a Victoria Sponge for my flatmates birthdays. The sponge came out better as I’d had the practise with the Pumpkin Loaf. After the loaf I had a large amount of pecans left over. So spent some time flicking through some suggestions on Tastespotting (I spend far too much time on that site, it’s brilliant/it makes me hungry). I eventually landed on this recipe, for Maple & Caramel Pecan Pie Bars.

Maple Pecan Bars

Maple Pecan Bars

Proper Pecan Pie has been on my list for a very long while, but to do it properly I’ll need to do it when I’ve got more time as I want to make sure the pastry is absolutely spot on. These bars use a very, very, basic base that isn’t quite pastry, so it can be thrown together quickly and doesn’t need chilling etc. In fact I chucked all of this together despite getting in from a burger place with my workmates at about 8.45.

Maple Pecan Bars

Make sure you don’t overbake the base. You are going to be putting the whole thing back in the oven once you’ve added the topping so the last thing you want is for it to be overcooked or burnt. Another thing I must confess is that I bought the Salted Caramel from the shop. I wouldn’t usually, for instance you can find my recipe for caramel here. But as I explained, due to time constraints and doing this on a bit of a whim I didn’t have time.

Maple Pecan Bars

 

Maple Pecan Pie Bars
 
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Author:
Serves: 16 Bars
Ingredients
  • Crust
  • 128g all-purpose flour
  • 75g brown sugar, packed (light or dark)
  • 115g unsalted butter, very soft
  • Filling
  • 1 large egg
  • 75g brown sugar, packed (light or dark)
  • 80ml maple
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • pinch salt, optional and to taste (consider omitting if nuts are well-salted)
  • 200g pecans (I used raw, unsalted, whole pecans; use halves and pieces, salted and roasted, or your favorite type)
  • about ¼ cup salted caramel sauce (homemade or storebought), for drizzling
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C(160°C fan assisted). Line an 8x8 tin with greaseproof paper. These get sticky.
  2. For the crust, rub the butter into the flour and sugar, rubbing/cutting in until there are no large lumps.
  3. Turn the mixture, which will have started forming in a dough, into the base of the prepared tin and, using a spatula, flatten it out evenly across the base.
  4. Place in the center of the pre-heated oven and bake for around 15 minutes, until it has coloured slightly. Don’t overbake as it’ll be going back in the oven.
  5. While it’s baking make the topping. In a large bowl combine the sugar, syrup, vanilla and egg. Mix in the pecans and set aside.
  6. Once the crust has baked gently spread the topping over the top and place back in the oven. Make sure they are spread evenly.
  7. Bake for between 16-19 minutes. When you try gently shaking the pan the mixture should be set.
  8. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before you drizzle the salted caramel over the top.
  9. Slice and serve.
 

American Style Pancakes

- Michael Leave a comment

Pancake Day! Everyone’s favourite thing about lent, and when everyone momentarily acts half religious again. The other being Christmas, or when they want to get married in a church. Aaaaanyway, Andy (my housemate) has requested American style pancakes this year so that’s what he’s getting. Topped with Maple Syrup and crispy fried bacon. I still remember a few years ago when the idea of this completely disgusted me, but these days the sweet/savoury combo is just down right salivating. PASS ME THE BACON.

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Also, I’m doing this before actually making the pancakes… so I’m relying on an old picture of ones I made when some friends came round last year and I made Sunday morning hangover pancakes. I will get some proper snaps tonight, but the recipe is the same.

American Style Pancakes
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • For the pancakes:
  • 135g/4¾oz plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 130ml/4½fl oz milk
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
  • For the toppings:
  • Streaky bacon, fried until crispy
  • Maple Syrup
Instructions
  1. Sift the flour in to a large bowl along with the baking powder, salt and caster sugar. In a separate bowl whisk the milk with the egg. Mix in the melted butter.
  2. Pour the milk/egg mixture into the flour mix and beat with a fork until the lumps have all disappeared. Leave it to stand for a few minutes.
  3. Heat a non-stick frying pan and melt a knob of butter. Drop one ladle full (two if your pan is big enough for two separate pancakes) and fry until the top starts to bubble. Flip and cook both sides until they are golden brown and the pancake has risen by about 1cm.
  4. Serve warm topped with bacon and covered in maple syrup.