Spinach and Banana Pancakes

by Lou Robbie

St Patricks day is around the corner and we are very excited to cook and bake with all things green to celebrate! Spinach is a super food in so many ways. Great for fibre, vitamins K, C, A, iron and lots lots more. The flavour of baby spinach is subtle enough that it can be used in sweet recipes too and its perfect partner is the dominant flavour of a banana!

Tip: Use a powerful blender to mix the spinach along with the wet ingredients and you’ll get this lovely vibrant green colour through the pancakes.

We stock all the fresh and dry ingredients you need to make these fun green pancakes!

Lou 🙂

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Tip the cup of spinach into a blender along with the banana, egg, plain yoghurt, milk and blend until really smooth and bright green.
  2. Sieve the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sugar into a mixing bowl. Mix really well with a spoon.
  3. Pour in the green liquid mix and gently stir the batter until no flour remains.
  4. Warm a frying pan on a medium heat and lightly oil.
  5. Add 2 dessert spoons of batter per pancake to the frying pan and use the back of the spoon to make them round. Cook 3-4 pancakes at a time if they fit on the pan.
  6. Cook until little bubbles appear then flip and cook for a further minute or two until cooked through.
  7. Serve warm with your favourite toppings .

Lemon & Poppyseed Pancakes

by Liz Child

What kind of pancakes do you love to eat on pancake day? We enjoy them all! Thin crepes, fluffy American style and even savoury. This year we are going for a thick stack of lemon and poppyseed pancakes. We recommend always choosing organic citrus, especially if you are using the zest. Non-organic citrus fruits are treated post-harvest with all kinds of nasty waxes and chemicals to help them last longer on the supermarket shelves. You can be assured that all of our citrus fruit are organic, so it is totally safe to use the zest. Happy Pancake Day!

Liz x

Ingredients (makes around 10 large pancakes)

  • 1 large mug of flour
  • 2 tbsp poppyseeds
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
  • zest & juice of half a lemon
  • 1 mug of oat milk
  • butter for frying
  • to serve… whipped cream or natural yoghurt sweetened with icing sugar to taste, then lemon zest, juice and poppyseeds stirred through

Method

  1. Prepare your toppings and pancake pan first. Once you make your batter you want to cook it soon after before the raising agent starts to loose it’s oomph. Pre-heat your pan over a medium-low heat. Thick, fluffy pancakes cook low and slow so that they are golden brown on the outside and perfectly cooked through and fluffy on the inside.
  2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, poppyseeds, salt, sugar, lemon zest, oil and baking powder. Then squeeze the lemon half and pour it into the mug. Top up the mug with oat milk and stir to create a soured milk. Pour the sour milk into the dry ingredients and whisk to just combine into a thick, smooth batter. Careful not to over-mix.
  3. Melt a little butter in your pancake pan then add a generous serving spoon of the batter. Allow it to cook until golden brown on the bottom (this takes around 3 or 4 minutes on a low heat) then carefully flip and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes or until the pancake is cooked through. Place in a tray to keep warm in a low oven.
  4. Repeat with the rest of the pancake mixture. Stack up the pancakes on plates and top with the cream or yoghurt, extra icing sugar, lemon zest and poppyseeds. Enjoy!

Celebration Pancakes with Toffee Apple & Coconut Granola

by Lou Robbie

Pancakes are the best any time of year but make them extra special for new years day brunch! Make them large with sticky toffee apples, coconut granola and add your favourite ice cream plus a few sparklers if you wish!

Happy New Year to you, may 2023 be a healthy and happy one.

Lou x

Ingredients

  • For the toffee apples
  • 3 apples, peeled and diced
  • 1 knob of butter
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • For the coconut granola
  • 100g oats
  • 100g desiccated coconut 
  • 50g butter
  • 50g honey
  • For the pancakes
  • 2 tablespoons of butter – melted 
  • 250g self raising flour 
  • 1 flat teaspoon bicarb of soda
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 280ml milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
  • 1 egg – at room temperature 
  • 1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar or lemon juice
  • oil to fry 
  • vanilla ice cream to serve

Method

For the toffee apples.

  1. Warm a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the knob of butter, and warm through to melt. Tip in the diced apples and cook to soften for a couple of minutes. Add the cinnamon and maple syrup. Cook for a further few minutes until you get a toffee consistency, then pour into a bowl.

For the coconut granola

  1. Preheat the oven to 170c.
  2. Add the coconut, oats, honey and melted butter to a bowl, mix well. Transfer to a lined baking tray.
  3. Toast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until nice and golden. Keep a close eye so it does not burn. When its cooled pour into a serving bowl.

For the pancakes

  1. Add the flour, sugar, bicarb of soda to a mixing bowl, give it a good stir.
  2. Measure the milk into a jug, crack in the egg, add the vinegar and vanilla and whisk well. Pour into the mixing bowl withe the flour and mix the batter with a fork.
  3. Add the melted butter and gently fold in.
  4. Warm a frying pan on a medium heat, add a drizzle of oil.
  5. To make big pancakes add 4 tablespoons of batter to the pan. Cook until you see bubbles, then flip. Repeat with all the batter.
  6. To serve, stack the pancakes on a plate, add the toffee apples, a few scoops of ice cream, top with coconut granola and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Pumpkin Pancakes

by Liz Child

If you’ve made my autumn flavour kit from the blog and now you are wondering what to do with it, make these pumpkin spiced pancakes. They are fluffy, warmly spiced, sweet and so delicious! Even my pumpkin-hating kids like them! The trick with cooking really thick, soft, fluffy pancakes it to cook them low and slow, otherwise they’ll burn on the outside and be raw in the middle. Patience is key here! The other trick is to make the batter shortly before frying, you want the raising agent to work in the pan, not in the mixing bowl. Enjoy!

Liz x

Ingredients (makes around 9 pancakes)

  • 150g flour
  • 150g pumpkin puree (from a roasted pumpkin or butternut squash)
  • 150ml milk (any milk you prefer, I use oat milk)
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup (plus extra for serving)
  • 1 heaped tsp of pumpkin spice mix (plus extra for serving) – check out the blog for our formula
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • butter for frying and serving (we use the vegan naturli butter blocks, they are delicious, made from great ingredients and palm oil free)

Method

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk to evenly spread the raising agents and spices. Then add the maple syrup, pumpkin purée and milk and mix to just combine. Careful not to over-mix!
  2. Warm a pancake pan over a medium-low heat and melt a tsp of butter. Fry spoons of the batter in small batches. The batter will grow quite a lot so space the pancakes out. I like to cook just 3 at a time.
  3. Fry on low until risen and golden brown underneath then carefully flip and fry the other side. You may wish to turn them a few times to ensure they are evenly cooked and no longer raw in the middle.
  4. Serve warm with a smear of butter, a generous drizzle of maple syrup and a dusting of pumpkin spice mix. Enjoy!

Fluffy Blueberry Pancakes with Curd

by Liz Child

You can’t beat a simple stack of fluffy pancakes for breakfast sometimes. My recipe is plant based and so easy. I’m putting my kumquat curd on absolutely everything at the moment, but actually it’s the perfect thing for pancakes being buttery, sweet and zingy, I think I’ll be making another batch or two before the season is over!

What are your favourite pancake toppings? Are you a classic butter and maple syrup person? Or do you like to go nutty with peanut butter and banana slices?

Liz x

*as always, click on the words in bold to be taken to the ingredients or other blog posts

Ingredients (makes 12 pancakes)

Method

Whisk the flour, milk, salt, sugar, baking powder and oil in a mixing bowl. You should be left with a thick, fluffy batter.

heat a non-stick pancake pan to medium high and add a tsp of butter to the pan.

Fry dollops of the batter in small batches of 3 pancakes in the pan (if your pan is small, just do 1 or 2 at a time).

Flip when golden brown underneath and thick and fluffy on top. I like to drop a few blueberries into the wet batter just before flipping them.

Once cooked on both sides, stack up on a plate and top with some curd and a few more blueberries.