Vegan Oat & Cardamom Pancakes

I love having guests for breakfast, there is something so special about sitting down to the first meal of the day with a table full of people. We had a much bigger group for breakfast than usual recently so I took the opportunity to experiment with some new pancakes. It's great to have an excuse to cook something new and exciting for breakfast, and these pancakes were absolutely delicious! Serve with whatever toppings you like :)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 cup oat milk
1 cup soda water
7 tbsp non dairy margarine (such as nuttelex)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats

To Make
1. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and cardamom in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the soy milk and soda water. Stir with a whisk until batter is a smooth consistency (it doesn't matter if it's not completely smooth, as long as all the ingredients are combined). Stir through the oats.
2. Heat a large frypan over a medium heat and add 1 tbsp margarine.
3. Add about 1 ladleful of the batter to the pan at a time, you will need to cook them in a few batches. Flip the pancakes after about 2-3 minutes, or when bubbles appear all around the edge of the pancake and the bottom looks golden brown.
4. Add an extra tbsp of margarine to the pan as needed as you cook the batches. Eat straight away with any toppings you like - we had ours with stewed fruit and lingonberry jam. 

Vegan Orange Curd Swirl Yoghurt with Sunset Fruit Salad

Giving a loved one breakfast in bed is one of the nicest and simplest things you can do for someone, start their day with a wonderful surprise and let them know you're thinking of them. It's a lovely gesture for a partner, parent, best friend or even house mate. My partner's birthday was last month and I always like to make sure he starts it with breakfast in bed. But he's much keener on a lighter start to the day than a fry up, a big breakfast, waffles or even pancakes. After living together for about 3 years now, I'm glad to say I knew him well - his eyes lit up when he saw this beautiful, colourful and fresh breakfast.

That was a while ago, and I've had these photos in my file since. But it seemed like Valentines Day might be a good excuse to share it with you. I'm a firm believer in not indulging too much on Valentines Day (see my post from last year with this fun bouquet of melon hearts), we don't do anything together for it - plus I don't need any more excuses to eat lots of chocolate and drink more. But if you want to do something special and thoughtful for your partner, then this gorgeous breakfast in bed is just the ticket (without encouraging them to be unhealthy).

It's a bit of a cheat - the yoghurt isn't home made - but the delicious flavourful orange curd makes your plain vanilla yoghurt really, really special. Just use your favourite brand of vanilla yoghurt (vegan if you're vegan, of course). You can prepare the Orange Curd Swirl Yoghurt the night before so that it's ready to go in the morning.

I chose these fruits because they were beautifully seasonal, but also because of the vibrant hues that look so lovely together. Feel free to change up the fruits used - but try and stay in the orange and red spectrum because it gives the Sunset fruit salad it's name. :)

Ingredients:
1 tub your favourite vegan vanilla yoghurt
1 mango, seeded and chopped
3 apricots, seeded and chopped
1 punnet strawberries, washed and sliced in half
1 pomegranate, seeds only (you won't need a whole pomegranate, just use as many of the seeds as you like)
2 passion fruits

Vegan Orange Curd
Zest of 1 orange (hint: zest before juicing!)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice (should be about 1 naval orange)
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 heaped tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric (just for colour, if you make with blood oranges then leave this out)

To Make:
1. First make the curd: Combine all the curd ingredients in a small saucepan and whisk well to combine. The cornstarch will be lumpy at first, but if you keep whisking the lumps with go (it's ok if there are just a few remaining, they'll cook out). If you want to avoid all that whisking then I guess you could use a blender.
2. Place the small saucepan over a medium heat. Whisking constantly, heat it for about 2 minutes - or until the contents of the pan are hot but not simmering or boiling (if it starts to simmer, reduce the heat immediately!). Once hot, reduce the heat and continue stirring for another 3-5 minutes. The curd will thicken suddenly quite a lot. Once this happens remove from the heat (still stirring) and swirl through your bowls of vanilla yoghurt. Chill in the fridge while you make the fruit salad.
3. Place all the chopped fruit in a bowl and toss together. Serve with orange swirl yoghurt.

Serves 2.

{Healthy & Vegan} Blueberry & Mulberry Porridge

Since coming back from Europe where I stuffed myself with every delicious cake I came across (not to mention quite a lot of mashed potato and amazing breads), I'm very proud to say that I've managed to lose the extra kilos that I gained while I was travelling for 6 weeks. I've been on a conscious health kick, and I'm really glad that it has paid off! I feel good, look a lot better and have more energy from eating less of those incredibly tempting things which are just so bad for you.

Breakfasts are a big challenge for me, they always have been. I never feel that hungry in the mornings but I know that it's unhealthy to skip breakfast. But I don't want to eat anything too big or with too many calories for breakfast because then I have to limit what I eat during the rest of the day to make up for it (which is no fun at all!). 

Luckily, spring means that there are lots of delicious and healthy fruits and berries which you can use to make your healthy meals special. At the moment we're having a bit of a blueberry craze, because it's so nice that they have come down in price. Out the back our mulberry tree is producing lovely berries (although a lot less this year than usual because it has been viciously pruned by our next door neighbour!) which are getting incorporated into a lot of meals. This lovely porridge needs no sweeteners and is full of juicy berries. The recipe serves two people and each serving is filling, but only 194 calories plus it's about 20% of your recommended daily calcium intake. So it's the perfect way to start your day! If you can't find mulberries then use any berries you like, or leave them out and just have blueberries.

Healthy Blueberry & Mulberry Porridge

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened oat milk

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 punnet blueberries

1 punnet of mulberries

To Make

1. Place the oat milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.

2. Add the oats and simmer until they are cooked, and the porridge is nice and thick (if it gets too thick and dry, add water a little bit at a time and stir vigorously until you get the consistency you like).

3. When the oats are almost done, add the blueberries and mulberries.

4. Serve immediately. You can add fresh berries or other fruit on top if you like.

Serves 2

NOTE~ The berries will only be lightly cooked, if you like them cooked more then add them at the same time you add the oats. 

Toasted Coconut Pancakes with Roasted Strawberry Sauce (Guest Post by Big Fat Baker)

This gorgeous guest post comes from my friend Erin from Big Fat Baker. She's a fun and enthusiastic baker from the USA, and even though not a vegan has kindly cooked up this delicious vegan recipe to keep my blog from looking too bare while I'm away. What lovely people are out there in the blogging world! Like Erin, I'm not much of a breakfast person. But over the last year or so I've been making a solid effort to try and eat breakfast regularly. Part of that has been finding and developing new things to have for breakfast so that I'm not so bored by the normal breakfast foods. These pancakes look so delicious, that I think I will have no difficulty incorporating them into my repertoire!  As you read this post, I'll be strolling around in Lund in Sweden - but as soon as I get back I will be making some of these. Thanks Erin. 

I normally don’t partake in the daily ritual known as breakfast. But, while on Maui for two weeks I was always up early. Breakfast there is a necessity.

Lucky for me, breakfast is a big part of the food culture. There is anything and everything. From sweet breads and pancakes, to fried rice and noodle soup.

There is a restaurant close to the condo with some of the best pancakes on the island. White chocolate macadamia nut, banana, and pineapple are the choices. Your choice of passion fruit, coconut, or regular syrup - with homemade whipped cream.

Since I've been home, pancakes have been a way to infuse some island flavours into my mornings. These coconut pancakes are a new favourite for me, and they will be for you too!

{Vegan} Toasted Coconut Pancakes with Roasted Strawberry Sauce

Yield: 10 pancakes

Pancake Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp raw sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut, toasted

Strawberry Sauce Ingredients:

• 2 lbs strawberries, washed & quartered
• 2 tbsp raw sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2-3 tbsp corn syrup
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Spread all the shredded coconut into an even layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. When the oven is preheated, toast for 5-7 minutes then stir. Repeat until the coconut is golden brown and evenly toasted. Set aside.

*Be sure to watch the coconut closely during this process - it can burn very quickly!*

2. Adjust the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and spread the strawberries in an even layer on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle the strawberries with 2 tbsp raw sugar. When the oven is preheated, roast them for about 15 minutes.

3. Scoop all of the roasted strawberries (and the juicy stuff) into a blender, food processor, or whatever you use to puree stuff. Pour in the remaining strawberry sauce ingredients in with and puree until completely smooth. Set aside until pancakes are ready.

4. In a medium sized mixing bowl combine the flour, 2 tbsp raw sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt. Mix together with a fork.

5. Mix in the coconut oil until the flour looks crumbly. Place the mixture in the fridge for about 10 minutes, then whisk in the coconut milk & vanilla until the batter is smooth.

6. Fold in the toasted coconut until evenly distributed and place batter in the fridge until ready to use.

7. Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. When the skillet is hot, pour in about 1/3 cup of the batter per pancake. Cook on the first side until you can see bubbles and the edges look done (3-5 minutes). Carefully flip and cook for another 3-5 minutes. The pancakes should be fluffy, firm, and easy to move.

8. Hold the cooked pancakes on a cookie sheet in a 225 degree F (110 degrees C) oven until all batter has been used. I was about to make about 10 pancakes. Serve the pancakes hot with the strawberry sauce.

Grapefruit Waffles with Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (for someone you love!)

I'm coming up to my anniversary soon, so I thought I'd bring a little romance onto the blog. After being with someone for many years and living together for most of that time, it's easy to feel like the romance is dead sometimes. After all, you don't often tend to make a special effort with someone when you spend every evening and every morning with them anyway. There are fewer romantic dates, fewer mushy text messages going back and forth and, sometimes, a lack of spontaneous romantic gestures. We always try and do small unexpected nice things for one another though, because it is a really lovely feeling to make somebody that you love smile.

Special breakfast is a nice way to remind someone that you love them. My partner gets up stupidly early to go to work almost every day, though, so I don't really get many opportunities. We've both been incredibly busy lately but the other day we had a fluke day that we were both home from work and we had deliberately made no other plans for the day. So, I felt I should seize the occasion to get up and make him breakfast in bed. Not just any breakfast either - grapefruit waffles with chocolate coated strawberries! I ask you - is romance dead?! :)

Yes, a decadent and sweet breakfast - I don't advise having this one for breakfast too often. I've used yellow grapefruit because I had a big bag of them bequeathed to me from someone's tree. You can also use pink grapefruit. The grapefruit adds a fantastic fresh zingy aspect to the sweet waffles, so I recommend try it. If, however, you're making these for someone who hates grapefruit, you can substitute some freshly squeezes orange juice in it's place. 

All in all they take about 15 minutes to make, which is not very long for someone you love! Try these for birthdays, anniversaries, mothers or fathers day, Valentines day or (my favourite) any day of the week because nobody needs an occasion to tell someone you love them. Or just make them for yourself - because it's also important to love yourself, right? 

Vegan Grapefruit Waffles with Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Ingredients

150g dark chocolate

6 strawberries, washed and dried completely

1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (with the pulp!)

2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil

Maple Syrup (fo' drizzlin')

To Make:

1.  Mix the dry ingredients for the waffles together in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and gently stir in the soy milk, grapefruit juice and oil.

2. Melt you chocolate by chopping it up and placing it in a completely dry metal mixing bowl (glass or ceramic is ok too, it just will take longer to melt). Fill a separate bowl with boiling hot water and suspend the metal bowl over the top so that the steam from the hot water heats the metal. This will melt the chocolate evenly. Stir as it melts. 

3. Make sure your strawberries are completely dry. Once the chocolate is melted, coat the strawberries in it and then place them on a non stick baking sheet on a plate. Continue with your remaining strawberries and then place the plate in the fridge while you cook the waffles so they can set. You'll have some chocolate left over, keep it suspended over the hot water to that is stays melted while you cook your waffles.

4.  Heat up your waffle iron (be sure to spray with oil to prevent sticking) and make the waffles according to the instructions of your waffle maker. Make sure you re spray the waffle maker between each waffle.

5. Once the waffles are cooked, get 2 plates and place 1 waffle on each plate then drizzle maply syrup over the waffles. Top with another waffle and drizzle the remaining melted chocolate over the top. Place the chocolate dipped strawberries on top and eat it straight away!

Makes 2 servings (because you deserve some too, right?)

This recipe makes enough for 4 waffles (this may vary depending on the size of your waffle maker) and 6 chocolate dipped strawberries. 

Dutch Lazybones Buns (Luilakbollen)

Good morning all! I hope you will forgive my long stretch without posting, I have gotten into a rather bad habit lately of leaving all my posts 'til the end of the month and then being sick of writing posts by the end of the month and then taking the first week or two of the next month off the blog completely. Which, of course is a vicious cycle, because it means that all my posts get left until the end of the month again. Oh dear, what a convoluted mess. I'm going to try and break that habit next month!

So, as it happens I'm posting my first April post up today. Did you all enjoy March's Samoan food? I hope so! Unless of course you hate coconut in which case it probably wasn't your month! This month we're travelling pretty far away from Samoa, back into Europe. This month we're having.... drumroll.....

The Netherlands Month!

This month Dutch food will be happening big time at Gormandize! I hope you're ready for a really delicious month (silly sentence really, as you're obviously not hoping for a really disgusting food month).

Although a few Dutch dishes have made it big internationally (like Speculaas!), overall their cuisine is relatively unknown on the world stage and doesn't tend to get a lot of hype from foodies. Infact, the Netherlands seems to be mostly famous for drugs and it's red light district. Oh, as well as windmills and clogs. I visited the Netherlands with my family when I was about 10 years old and, needless to say, didn't experience any of it's (in)famous drug culture. I did, however, learn what a red light district was and have a ball at the windmills and clog shops.

Enough gibber-jabbering now though, it's time to talk about food! Dutch food is probably best known for it's spiced biscuits, cakes and breads and so that is exactly where we're starting. These are called Lazybones Buns, and the cute name isn't the only reason I picked them to try first out of all the Dutch recipes I googled. Having, just had Easter, I've been having a lot of delicious Hot Cross Buns. To me, Easter is all about Hot Cross Buns, and then suddenly (literally overnight), they're not available any more :( So, I sometimes have some withdrawal cravings.

These Lazybones Buns remind me quite a bit of hot cross buns (minus the cross on top of course), so they were perfect for my withdrawal. They're a bit like a cross between a hot cross bun and a fruit scone, either way they made a pretty sensational breakfast or afternoon tea snack. 

There is a lovely tradition behind these buns, and as I'm not Dutch I'm going to refer you to another source to explain it:

"Luilak these days is a very localized custom - Amsterdam and surroundings - on the Saturday morning before Pentecost. Children and teens rise very early to play pranks on those considered to be ‘lazybones,’ by ringing their doorbell and then run away. Before ringing the bell they tie the doorknob to another fixed object, and make all kinds of noises to awake people. In earlier times they would chant and parade noisily through the streets, bang on pots and pans, use rattles and sticks. The person in the family who slept in the longest that Saturday morning, by tradition was expected to treat with these buns" 

~Extract from www.godutch.com

Ok, we're almost there! I know I've been banging on a bit in this post, but I promise you there is a recipe coming soon! One more thing that I should mention is this: these buns are traditionally made with raisins and currants as the fruit. When I set out to make them I was sure there was a box of currants in my cupboard - but turns out I was wrong! So instead I've made mine with dried cranberries and raisins, and it was delicious so I recommend it :)

Luilakbollen Recipe

Adapted from the Hairy Bikers' Recipe 

Ingredients

50g vegan butter or margarine

1/2 cup non dairy milk (I used rice milk, but any will do fine)

2 tsp dried yeast

300g plain white flour

100g wholemeal flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Zest of 1 lemon

75g raisins

50g dried cranberries (or currants)

To Make

1. Place the butter small saucepan and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and then the dried yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes, a slight foam should form on the top (if it doesn't, check the expiry date on your yeast!).

2. In a large bowl combine all the remaining ingredients. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast.

3. Mix well until it forms a ball and then turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes (set your oven timer otherwise you'll invariably do it for too short a time!).

4. Sprinkle some flour (or brush some oil) over the bowl and then return the ball of dough to the bowl and cover with a tea towel or some cling wrap. Leave in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours to rise. 

5. Turn it out onto your bench again and knead briefly, then divide into eight equal portions and roll them into balls. Place on a large baking tray lined with baking paper.

6. Cover and leave in the warm spot again for a further 45 minutes (while this is happening, heat up your oven to 180 degrees).

7. Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove and allow to cool slightly and then heat warm with a generous smear of vegan margarine or butter. 

Makes 8 buns.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from The Netherlands.

Check out my other Dutch recipe posts:

Naked Babies in the Grass

Speculaas (Spice Biscuits)

Hollandse Stroopkoek (Syrup & Beer Cake)

Gevulde Speculaas

Vegan Kaiserschmarrn (German Torn Pancakes)

I have been particularly enjoying the excuse to make lots of pancakes for breakfast during German month. Even though in countries such as Germany pancakes are served more as a dessert than a breakfast, I still can't help making these recipes for my breakfast. Earlier in the month I made some German Apple Pancakes which were a bit of an eye opener to me - because they made me realise I should have been experimenting with putting fruits in my pancakes, but for some reason I wasn't! Well, I've learnt my lesson now and I think you will be seeing a lot more fun and fruity pancake variations from me, I'll call it the Germany Month legacy.

These pancakes were inspired by a recipe in one of my older editions of SBS Feast magazine. If SBS was a person then I think we would be awesome friends. Why? Because we have so much in common! We both love world things -
~different cultures - history and stories,
~wonderful food - where it comes from, how it is made
~AND most importantly the love child of those two things: world + food = world food!

Sometimes I dream that SBS will give me a job travelling the world presenting a food show. Then I wake up and realise that this is the real world - but hey, I can dream. That's my dream job - what's yours?

Vegan Kaiserschmarrn

Adapted from Feast Magazine Issue 11 (July 2012)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup soy milk
1 cup soda water
7 tbsp non dairy margarine (such as nuttelex)
2 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (don't do this too far in advance though, or the apples will go brown)
Icing sugar for sprinkling

To Make
1. Combine the flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the soy milk and soda water. Stir with a whisk until batter is a smooth consistency (it doesn't matter if it's not completely smooth, as long as all the ingredients are combined).
2. Heat a large frypan over a medium heat and add 1 tbsp margarine.
3. Add about 1/4 of the batter to the pan at a time, you will need to cook them in 2 batches. Flip the pancakes after about 2-3 minutes, or when bubbles appear all around the edge of the pancake and the bottom looks golden brown.
4. Add an extra tbsp of margarine to the pan and cook the second batch. Once cooked set the pancakes aside.

5. Return the saucepan to the heat and add 2 tbsp of the margarine. Add the sliced apples and cook for about 4 minutes over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until slightly softened. 

6. Tear the pancake into pieces - if they're not too hot then you can use your hands, if they are still very hot then you can use 2 forks.

7. Increase the heat to high and add an additional 3 tbsp margarine along with the torn pancake pieces.

8. Cook, stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes or until the pancake pieces are golden.

9. Transfer to a serving plate and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Serves 2-3.

NOTES

~ This recipe doesn't have any sweeteners added (except the dusting of sugar at the end) so it main sweetening element are the delicious apples. If you have a crazy sweet tooth then you can add a touch of sugar to the batter or a drizzle of maple syrup at the end - but I recommend trying them without first, because they are perfectly balanced as they are!

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

Frankfurter Kranz (Bundt Cake Layered with Cherry Jam & Rum Buttercream)

German Potato Salad

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

Vegan Chai Banana Bread

Can you believe it's been snowing in some places near me today?! Snow in October! 

Today has been windy and stormy and rainy. The kind of rain which soaks all of your "covered" outdoor areas as well. It's the kind of day for staying late in bed, drinking lots of tea, having hot soup for lunch and baking. Baking is a lovely thing to do on a cold windy day. The oven helps warm up the house and at the end you get a nice still-warm baked treat to devour. Preferably with a cup of tea.

I recently did a clean out of my cupboard and found that I had 48 different types of tea, I'm serious - 48! I decided that I had better not buy any more tea until I had consumed some of what I already have. I am pretty crazy about tea, but even to me 48 seemed excessive. Even though I drink several cups of tea a day, I decided that it would take me too long to work through them just by drinking. So I decided that it was time to do more baking with tea and to experiment with some new fresh iced tea drinks (if the weather ever warms up enough!).

One of my 48 types of tea was this beautiful Tulsi Chai Masala, which my friend brought back from India as a gift for me. It's quite different to other Chai Masala that I've had, it's a blend which is very strong on cinnamon. So I thought that this strong spice would make it perfect for baking. If you've read much of this blog before then you'll also know that I really don't get into breakfast. So I settled on Chai Banana Loaf - to serve the joint purpose of using up some of my teas and getting me excited about breakfast. It didn't disappoint. 

Ingredients

2-3 heaped tsp chai masala (this depends on how strong your chai is)

2/3 cup boiling hot water

1 banana, mashed well (should make about 1/2 cup, a bit more or a bit less is fine)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil (to make a healthier loaf you can substitute 1/3 cup apple sauce and 1 tbsp canola oil)

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (if your oven is fan forced then reduce to 170).

2. Steep the chai masala in the boiling hot water for at least 10 minutes. You can leave for longer if you want a stronger flavour. Strain and allow the tea to cool.

3. Combine the banana, sugar, oil, tea and spices in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarb into the batter and mix well. You'll have lots of little wholemeal husks left in your strainer after sifting, but you can just throw those in too.

5. Line a 22cm/9inch long loaf tin and line with greaseproof baking paper. Pour in the batter and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Makes 1 loaf.

German Apple Pancakes (Pfannkuchen)

Guten Tag! I'm very, very happy to tell you that October will be German Food month on Gormandize with A-dizzle & K-bobo! Are you excited? I sure am! All of October (or should I say Oktober?) there will be vegan recipes for tasty German treats being posted as I try out my hand at some German food. Guess what? I've already made a start and have chopped up some cabbage which is fermenting now to give me some lovely (I hope!) sauerkraut. I'll definitely report back on how this goes later in the month. Thanks to reader Zane who requested Germany, if you'd like to request a country to be featured then jump here and do so.

But I'm starting us off with something nice and easy. Pfannkuchen (pancakes) are not traditionally eaten for breakfast in Germany, but are considered more of a sweet or dessert. I however, being in Australia, made these for breakfast. Not because I was snubbing a German custom, but because I really felt like eating these for breakfast this morning. I made a variation on traditional German pancakes, which are usually made without the apple and are served with apple sauce, jam or canned fruit. These apple pancakes use thinly sliced pieces of apple cooked into the pancake which was a lovely variation in texture and flavour to the pancakes. I'm sold on the idea, as it is nice to have pancakes which aren't exactly the same with every bite. I think I will start putting fruit in my pancakes more often now!

German Apple Pancakes

Adapted from Seitan is my Motor

1 cup wholemeal plain flour

1/2 cup plain white flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup soy milk

1 cup soda water (unflavoured)

2 apples, cored

1 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp non dairy butter or margarine

To Serve: 

Granulated Sugar

Lemon Juice

Your favourite non dairy margarine or butter

To Make
1. Combine the flours, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add the soy milk and mix through to form a thick and stick batter.
2. Thinly slice the apples and place in a bowl with the lemon juice.
3. Get everything ready and at hand to cook (frypan, ladle, spatula, margarine, apple slices).
4. Add the soda water to the pancake batter and mix through, it should make quite a thin and runny batter. There may be some lumps, but don't worry about those.
5. Heat 1 tbsp margarine in the frypan at a medium heat. Add about 2 ladles of batter to the pan. Place the thin slices of apple on top of the batter in the pan.

6. Cook over a medium to low heat until the edges look crispy and bubbles appear in the pancake. Carefully flip over and cook on the other side. You want to cook them for a bit longer than you would cook regular pancakes, as you want the apple to be tender, so do it on a slightly lower heat than you would normally cook pancakes. 

7. After 4-5 mins cooking the apple side, flip it back the other way and serve. I recommend serving with margarine, sugar and lemon juice.

8. Continue with the remaining batter and apples, adding 1 tbsp margarine to the pan before cooking each pancake.

Makes 4 large pancakes, serves 2.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

Frankfurter Kranz (Bundt Cake Layered with Cherry Jam & Rum Buttercream)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

Sri Lankan Food - A Photographic Diary

As you may know, I have just spent three blissful weeks exploring the beautiful country of Sri Lanka! Beautiful scenery, wonderful people and delicious food! But of course, this is a food blog - so lets get to the food!! I took a few pics along the way so that I could share with you the great curries, I also took a cooking class in Unawatuna so that now I can make these delicious curries at home!

Pollonaruwa

You won't be surprised to hear that Sri Lankan food is centrally curry and rice. Finding vegan food is very easy in Sri Lanka, as "Vegetable Curries and Rice" are on every menu and they are naturally dairy free - often using coconut milk and cream as their base. When you order vegetable curry and rice, you don't pick your curries, they just bring out a selection of vegetable curries, chutneys, sambals, papadums and rice.

Clockwise from top: dhal, chokoe curry, cabbage and kunlun, whole cooked garlic cloves, beetroot sambal, papadums

L-R: papadums, dhal, tomato curry, potato curry

Clockwise from top: okra curry, rice, chicken curry, tomato and cucumber salad, pumpkin curry, manioc curry

The above vegie curries on my plate.

Fried noodles with pineapple chutney and chilli paste

Unsurprisingly, Sri Lankans also eat curry for breakfast as well as lunch and dinner. Most of the guest houses we stayed in offered an option of ordering Western Breakfast (eggs, toast, jam, tea/coffee) or Sri Lankan Breakfast (curry, hoppers of some kind, curries, tea/coffee). I've always been a fan of eating savoury foods for breakfast, as I just don't really like many of the breakfasts typical of Western countries, so I actually loved the curry for breakfast - although we didn't manage to do it every day for three weeks! I admit we had to go for toast some mornings.

A Sri Lankan breakfast of rice & coconut milk squares, hot onion sambal and bananas.

A Sri Lankan Breakfast of potato curry, chicken curry and string hoppers

A Sri Lankan breakfast of string hoppers, rotti, hoppers, coconut sambal and an egg hopper (with 2 curries in the background)

Egg curry and dhal

My friend's Western Breakfast - for those who don't feel like curry first thing in the morning!

A rare opportunity to get "moosly"

You could also buy King Coconuts on the side of the road anywhere in Sri Lanka, to drink and eat the small amount of soft flesh inside.

(not me)

The spoils of our amazing Sri Lankan cooking class in Unawatuna, for more details check out this post here!