Ricotta Pancakes

I recently had the best pancakes of my life. They were served with passion fruit curd and they were EVERYTHING. I have eaten them twice in a week, no lie.

And, interestingly, they were ricotta pancakes, something I’ve never had before. I immediately had to try to recreate them. Ricotta pancakes aren't light and fluffy exactly, but they also aren't wet and crepe-y. They are also small and bitesize and pretty easy to make.

Now, I didn't have any passion fruit curd on hand (shame!) so I improvised with my boyfriend's favourite waffle toppings - whipped cream and strawberry jam!

But feel free to throw whatever toppings you want, nutella could be awesome, honey also would be super nice with chopped bananas on top.

Makes about 18 small pancakes, no judgement of how many that will serve – you do you

Coconut Flour (Gluten-Free) Pancakes!

I’m determined to get through this box of coconut flour! It's a frosty Sunday morning, and I know what I'm having for lunch (breakfast, since I woke up late?)..

The box of coconut flour came with a recipe on the back for pancakes,but it was a bit too “clean” for me – I smother my pancakes in sugar or Nutella, as a rule, so I’m just not about to make them with coconut oil and agave nectar. Coconut flour is a little tricky to work with given that it is just so good at soaking up liquid, so I used the box’s proportions of wet to dry, but subbed in my own preferred ingredients.

These are a lot denser than my preferred pancakes, they’re not fluffy, but not wet like a crepe either. The coconut flour adds a wonderful nutty flavour that really sets off the finished product. I was trying to be “good” (HAH!) so I didn’t have it with Nutella, but I can only imagine it would taste like some kind of Bounty Bar dream if you liberally coated it in Nutella. Next time!

Swedish Pancakes

I'm a little late for pancake day!! Sorry, guys. I was too busy eating pancakes to blog.

These are my take on the Swedish pancakes which my Scandinavian boyfriend loves, and says taste just like home!  Praise indeed. They are much more like a crepe than a pancake as I know it, fluffy and light, and these are best served folded in 4 or rolled up, and munched with cream and jam (and it would have to be lingonberry jam from IKEA for authentic Swedish-ness, but my boyfriend prefers regular strawberry).

I will hold my hands up and admit, there are a lot of things about Swedish cuisine that baffle me slightly. Their reliance on dill. The many types of fish, appearing everywhere.  Surströmming.  Also, they do eat Rudolph. But they really do have it right when it comes to breakfast foods. Waffles and sweet rice pudding to name a few of my personal favourites. And, while I'm not a crepe person, I am assured that these are excellent.

The other thing I want to make clear, these are a bit more fiddly than my other pancake recipe, and I want to assure you that the first one will probably turn out terribly. But that's ok. Offer it as a gift to the kitchen gods and move onto the second one.

My top tops for mastering this runny batter - use 1/4 a cup of batter (they need to be thin enough to cook quickly), use a small round pan so that it won't spread all over the place, and grease the pan thoroughly with olive oil or butter before you pour over the batter each time to allow the pancake to be flipped more easily.

Hungover Breakfast (Pancakes and Bacon)

Not the biggest stack in the world, but enjoyable nonetheless.

So, I woke up this morning feeling rotten, post staff party. I must have caught something..

Ahem. The only thing that got me out of bed was the thought of making something greasy and carbohydrate-loaded. I made this in a slightly zombie-like state, and it turned out to be quite restorative. It's the healing power of bacon!