Pancakes

Needed a hearty breakfast after my run this morning. My standard pancake mix includes oats and either banana or apple - and I normally cook them in butter. Always butter - despite the saturated fat it's all about the taste. And I understand the ingredients list and how it's made. Unlike some other spreads which I avoid. I try to follow Michael Pollan's 'In Defense of Food' guidelines and eat real food - not industrialised food-like products. And the 80/20 rule - I don't stress if I eat processed food, I just don't do it every day. Nor do I eat butter every day.

Today's pancakes were apple, couldn't figure out quite what was wrong until I had eaten 3/4 of them - I forgot the sugar! I don't use much, more as a seasoning, and like salt, it's noticeable when it's missing.

Oat pancakes

½ cup rolled oats
¾ cup milk (or water and a heaped tablespoon of plain yogurt)
1 egg
1 tsp oil (I use rice bran oil)
1 tsp sugar
½ cup plain flour (white or wholemeal)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Optional:
One mashed banana or one grated apple;
¼ tsp Cinnamon
Butter for frying

Soak oats in liquid for about ½ hour.
Add egg, sugar, salt and oil (and fruit) and mix well.
Sift in flour, baking powder and salt (and cinnamon); mix well, add more water if required.
Heat frypan and melt a small amount of butter (about ½ cm cube) or non-stick frypan if you prefer to not use butter.
Drop tablespoons (or more if you want larger pancakes) into pan and cook until bubbles form; flip pancake with a spatula and cook for a minute or so more.
Wipe pan out with kitchen towel; add another cube of butter and continue with the remaining mixture.
I like these with jam and yogurt or just lemon juice (or straight out of the pan as they are). This might be enough to serve two - I usually eat them all myself!

Carrot Muffins - A variation on a theme...

Another muffin experiment. Same basic ingredients just different flavourings and a neutral flavoured oil instead of butter. The photo is last years’ apple version. I made mini muffins this week with banana instead – both are good. The larger size freeze quite well – I haven’t tried freezing the mini muffins. This mixture makes about a dozen medium muffins or approx 40 mini-muffins.

• Preheat oven to 180°C and grease muffin tins (or line with cases)

½ cup sugar (brown or white)
1/3 cup rice bran oil
1 egg
1 medium carrot - grated
1 medium banana – mashed (or ½ appled – grated)
½ cup crushed pineapple including juice
½ cup walnuts – chopped fine

• Mix all above ingredients together
• Sift the following ingredients together:

1 ½ cups plain flour (can be part white and wholemeal)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice

• Add dry ingredients to wet and mix briefly until just combined.
• Bake in small or medium muffin tins.
• Medium muffins take about 20 minutes.
• Small muffins take about 12 minutes.

Chocolate Muffins

I've been working on my muffin recipe for years now. They are so easy to make and adapt to sweet or savoury ingredients. Here's my latest variation, I made them this week as mini muffins for morning tea at work and was asked to share the recipe. My gas oven is a bit dodgy - the thermostat doesn't work so I bought a thermometer but the oven temp is approximate and cooking time will depend on your oven.

Chocolate Muffins

• Preheat oven to 180°C

½ cup sugar (brown or white)
85g butter – melted
1 egg
½ cup plain yogurt whisked into ½ cup water

• Mix all above ingredients together

• Sift the following ingredients together:

1 ½ cups plain flour (can be a blend of white and wholemeal)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 – 3 tbsp cocoa
Optional: approx ½ cup chocolate chips or dried fruit (cranberries or cherries etc)

• Add dry ingredients to wet and mix briefly until just combined - do not overmix!

• Bake in small or medium muffin tins – well greased or use muffin cases.

• Medium muffins take about 20 minutes

• Small muffins take about 12 minutes

Yum Yums aka Kahlua Balls

This is a recipe from my childhood to which I add a little bit of grown up flavour. Fun to make and yummy to eat. I have seen other variations on the interwebs, this is my version.

YUM YUMS

1 x 250g packet of Marie biscuits – crushed (I put them in a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin – but whatever works for you)

1 cup desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons cocoa (heaped tablespoons for me)

1 x 395ml can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons of flavouring of choice, I use Kahlua (optional)

1 cup desiccated coconut extra for rolling

Mix first five ingredients together. Shape into balls and roll in the extra coconut. Chill overnight.

Enjoy!