A Leisurely Breakfast

You hear a lot in this day and age about families having dinner in front of the tv or not sitting down together at all for their meals.  Now there could be lots of reasons for this, the main and most common being busy lives and different schedules, but it doesn't have to be like that every day of the week.  For us it is breakfast times.  I am a commuter and to avoid the traffic I leave the house without breakfast and eat when I get to work.  This often makes breakfast a tiresome and perfunctory event for me in my day and just a necessary task rather than something to enjoy.  I find myself longing to have cereal instead of grabbing an unhealthy muffin or a bland yoghurt, but I make up for it at the weekends.

I am very much a sweet person and very rarely can I face an English Breakfast in the morning but I always have room for something sweet.  In the December Good Food magazine there was a recipe for apple and cranberry pancakes that I never got the chance to try at the time but I recently had a go and wow they were delicious.  I thought they may be stodgy but I didn't find that, they were light and a real treat, great if you are treating yourself or guests and well worth the effort.

Ingredients

300g/11oz self-raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda                                 

2 medium eggs

284ml carton buttermilk

4 tblsp milk

85g/3oz melted butter

2 small-medium eating apples, peeled, cored and grated

50g/2oz dried cranberries

A little more butter/oil for frying

Method

·         This recipe serves 4-5 and makes about 15 pancakes.

·         Put all dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the eggs.

·         Gradually whisk in the eggs followed by the buttermilk, milk and melted butter, then stir in the apple and cranberries.

·         Melt a little butter or drizzle a little oil in a frying pan and when hot, add small ladles of the mixture, you can fit about 3 to a pan. 

·         Leave to cook for 3 mins on one side then flip and cook for a further 2.  Put the cooked pancakes into the oven to keep warm on about 50-100 degrees centigrade whilst you make the rest.

Serve

The actual recipe says to serve with cinnamon butter and maple syrup but I served mine with a fruit compote and plain yoghurt with a drizzle of honey. If you want the cinnamon butter recipe, just click on the "apple and cranberry pancakes" link above.

To make the compote I took a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries (or any fresh fruit would be fine) and placed in a pan to boil with about a table spoon of water and a couple of teaspoons of caster sugar.  Once the mixture starts bubbling take off the heat and carefully taste, if too sour, add more sugar as required and if too sweet, add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Tips

Buttermilk can be found near the cream and crème fraiche in most supermarkets, but if you don't have any yoghurt is a superb alternative and is what I used.

This recipe is a favourite and brings the enjoyment back to breakfast time, give it a go and see what you think.