Wild blueberry pancakes

We went to a little house in the woods in Sweden, and hardly saw any other people for a week. We did however find wild boar evidence and moose poo and tons of chanterelles, blueberries, wild raspberries, strawberries and lingonberries. Especially blueberries.

s and I had been getting into a good weekend pancake swing - the English kind, rolled up. I convinced him to try some thicker ones with wild blueberries in. We used this recipe, and they were great. This is our current favourite pancake recipe. I brought some blueberries back and froze them, we still have enough for one more round - then I will try with the frozen wild blueberries from the store.

(Makes about 10)

3/4 cups (c 175 ml) milk (used oat milk)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup flour (or 1/4 cornstarch & 3/4 plain flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg (note: I tried with flax egg - 1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water - when we ran out of eggs and they were also great)

1 tsp maple syrup (or sugar) (optional)

1/2 tbsp lemon zest

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup wild blueberries

Butter for cooking

Mix milk and lemon juice and let sit 5 min to curdle.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a medium bowl.

Beat eggs into the milk mixture, then add to the dry mixture gradually, beating in well. Mix in the blueberries with the final strokes.

Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Drop in batter about a 1/4 cup at a time - I could fit 3 in the pan at a time. Cook a few min on the first side, until there are bubbles and the edges are set, then flip and cook on the other side. Keep going, adding more butter when needed. Keep them warm in a low oven if relevant.

Eat with maple syrup. Or, if you have plenty of wild blueberries, try putting a handful in a small bowl, adding a little lemon zest and juice, and drops of sugar, flour, and water, and blasting for around 30-60 sec to make a delicious jam-syrup (this would be just as good with frozen blueberries). Or, if you are sage, slather with Nutella and jam and maybe some berries on top.

Berry pancakes

Another small S and me Sunday morning cooking adventure - thought it was about time he tried pancakes again (he dissed them pretty hard the last time, but aren't all kids supposed to like pancakes? Thought berries should sweeten the deal; these ones seemed to have a good lot of berries in them.

200 g self-raising flour (c. 190g / 7.5 oz plain flour + 2.5 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
300 ml milk (used oat)
knob butter
75 g / 2.5 oz berries (used frozen mixture) (plus extra for eating)

sunflower oil or a little butter for cooking
golden or maple syrup for eating

Mix together flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the milk, then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk mixture gradually to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in a knob of melted butter, and gently stir in the berries.

Heat a teaspoon of sunflower oil or small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 7.5cm across. Make three or four pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter.

Serve with golden or maple syrup and more berries.


Just realized I used 2X as much berries in the pancakes as the recipe - that'll be why they were so berry-y... Which was delicious, although perhaps a little excessive. Should try again with the right amount of berries... coincidentally it's pancake day tomorrow...

Banana pancakes

The small one is obsessed with bananas. I guess most small ones are. He can spot them a mile off - was standing and staring at a small boy eating one on the train the other day...

It being Easter, a combination of egg and banana seemed like exactly the right thing this morning. I never tried making pancakes with only egg and banana before (I'd say the vanilla and bicarb are optional), but I came across the idea when looking for banana pancake recipe inspiration, and it worked!

(makes approx 3 large medium (ie somewhere in between uk and us thickness) pancakes)

1 large banana, mashed with a fork
2 eggs, beaten
pinch of bicarb
1/2 tsp vanilla
oil for the pan

Mash the banana in a medium bowl, add the beaten eggs and mix well together, incorporating the bicarb and vanilla. Heat a little oil in a non stick frying pan and then fry the pancakes, flipping when one side is done. Watch they don't burn, the banana sweetness can speed that up.


Good with maple syrup, greek yoghurt, raspberries, pecans, that kind of thing. Small S ate a whole one, so I guess he was a fan.

Fastelavn / Pancake Day

I like discovering new national events I never knew about before. The weirder the better. The more I can collect to celebrate, the funner a year becomes. I just discovered Fastelavn. It is a Danish holiday (also celebrated in Norway, but not so much in Sweden, oddly), timing-wise similar to Pancake Day. Also similar to Pancake Day in that there is a special, rich food associated with it. In this case it is buns: the Danish ones are cream-filled puff buns, all different fillings and toppings, called Fastelavnboller. The Swedish equivalent is called Semla, more bready, with cardamom. But there the similarity to Pancake Day ends. Children get dressed up in all sorts of costumes, and go out asking for buns or money, similar to Halloween. There is also a thing with barrel breaking. Apparently this originally involved putting a black cat in a barrel and smashing it up (perhaps for luck, since black cats are supposed to be unlucky?). But now it is more like a pinata, with kids bashing at a barrel strung up and full of sweets until it breaks.

So anyway, we ate one bun, with some sort of mildly almondy filling and a blob of chocolate icing on top. Mixing it up, we also had pancakes for breakfast yesterday. Since I am being vegetarian at the moment they were fully rounded dairy and egg -full pancakes - I used Delia's foolproof recipe, which I have used many times before. And our current place has a dreamy induction hob and nice non-stick pans, so there was none of the disastrousness of last year's attempts...

(makes about a dozen)

110g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200 ml milk mixed with 75 ml water
butter, about 50 g

Sieve flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the middle and whisk in the eggs, adding milk gradually when it starts to thicken. It should whisk up nicely without lumps if you keep it gradual - just keep whisking if it seems lumpy and it should sort itself out. This batter will keep in the fridge overnight if desired, or can be used straight away.

When ready to make pancakes, melt butter in a small nonstick frying pan. Pour a couple tbsp melted butter into the batter and whisk. Put about 3/4 ladleful into hot pan at a time, tip to distribute, and then cook for a few minutes on each side until done.


We ate some with lemon and sugar, and some breakfasty ones with banana, yoghurt, honey, dried fruit and seeds.

If you have too much batter, you can either keep the batter til later, or you can make more pancakes and keep them in the fridge or freezer - they reheat very easily in a frying pan.

Creamy mushroom sauce (pancake day fail)

This is a basic white sauce made with vegan ingredients and intensified with mushroom powder. Then mixed with sauteed mushrooms, walnuts (and optional artichokes). The sauce comes out nice and thick and creamy, and the mushroom powder makes up for any flavour lost due to not using real milk or butter. My intention was to wrap pancakes around it (we attempted pancake day yesterday, one day late as I had no time on the day), but my pancakes completely failed and I don't understand why - they just kept sticking to the pan. I've used both pans and batter recipe many times before, am stumped. So anyway, we gave up and ate the sauce with noodles instead, which worked just as well - I guess pancake day this year was not meant to be.

For the sauce:
5/8 cup fake milk (used almond, soy might be better), heated
1 tbsp fake butter
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp mushroom powder
salt and pepper

For mushroom fry:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
~5 medium-large mushrooms
1-2 tbsp chopped walnuts
1-2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper

Heat the milk. In a separate, small pan melt the butter. Add the flour to the butter and stir / let bubble for a few minutes (do not colour). Add the hot milk and mix well for a few minutes, until smooth and starting to thicken. Keep stirring and heating gently for a minute or two more, then add mushroom powder, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

In a medium frying pan, heat the olive oil, then add the garlic and sizzle for a minute or so before adding the mushrooms and walnuts. Cook for a few more minutes, until the mushrooms are lightly browned. Finally add the parsley, stir for a minute or so more, add salt and pepper to taste and turn off heat.

Mix the mushroom fry into the sauce, toss and then serve, either as a pancake filling or mixed through pasta.

Blueberry pancakes

This was breakfast on Sunday. They were good. The blueberries made them much more exciting, and the crabapple sauce was thick and sweet and cinnamon-y.

(makes 4 large, fat pancakes - about right for 2 people)

2 cups plain flour
1-2 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 cups fake milk
2 tbsp veg oil
~4 tbsp blueberries (smaller ones better, used frozen but fresh should also work)
more veg oil (used sunflower) to fry

crabapple sauce and maple syrup to serve

Mix flours, baking powder and bicarb in a medium bowl with a fork. Add fake milk and veg oil and mix until just combined. Heat ~1 tbsp of veg oil in a frying pan. Scoop or pour ~1/2 cup of mixture (about a quarter of it) into the hot pan. Spread it out into a circle approx 1 cm deep. Sprinkle ~1 tbsp blueberries over the top. Cook for ~ 3 min on the first side, perhaps a little longer, until the mixture starts to bubble on top. Then flip. Cook on the other side til it is lightly browned. Transfer to a plate and eat with maple syrup and/or crabapple sauce (or keep them under a folder teatowel until they are all ready to go). Repeat until you've used all the mixture (should make 4).

Buckwheat pancakes

New Year's Day breakfast. Had been thinking about grinding up some buckwheat to make flour / wanted to make something slightly fancy to start off the year... Used this recipe.

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1¼ cups fake milk mixed with 1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence
coconut oil (or other veg oil) for frying
banana, maple syrup, sour cherries in simple syrup, shredded marzipan

Mix buckwheat flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a bowl. In a measuring jug, beat together milk mixture, egg and vanilla. Add wet to dry, mix lightly and let sit for five minutes. Heat 1-2 tsp of oil in a frying pan then add a few tbsp of mixture and encourage into a pancake shape. Cook for a few minutes, until browned, on each side. Flip carefully: they are quite delicate.


We ate these with preserved sour cherries (from LUrC preserve swap - had been saving for a special occasion), maple syrup, sliced banana and, for the most decadent ones, shredded marzipan.

Buckwheat-coconut-blueberry pancakes

I woke up this morning and this pancake idea kept me awake: S really deserved a fancy Saturday morning breakfast - last night I was feeling a bit crappy and he went out to get Yoma (= one of our favourite food places) takeaway to try and sort me out.

This is another experiment with buckwheat: buckwheat flour crepes are obviously a classic, but I got into the idea of a thick, lumpy pancake full of whole buckwheat groats and other exciting, tasty bits and pieces.

(makes 5-6 medium size, thick pancakes)

1 banana, mashed with a fork
2 tsp coconut oil
3 tbsp plain flour*
3 tbsp wholewheat flour*
1 1/2 tbsp chickpea (gram) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cooked buckwheat groats
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded dried coconut
1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup water
pinch salt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

coconut oil for cooking
maple syrup to serve

Mash the banana and coconut oil together in a bowl with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients except the blueberries and mix together until well combined, adding a little more or less water until you get a good (American-style) pancake consistency (ie fairly thick). Add the blueberries, mix lightly and let sit for 5 min.

Heat some (~1 tsp) coconut oil in a frying pan. Add a big spoonful of pancake batter and spread it out to make a ~8mm thick pancake about 10cm across. Cook on the first side until it starts to look done at the edges, lift the edge to check it is brown underneath, then flip and cook on the other side until browned. Serve with maple syrup on the side.


I really liked these, and they went down well with S too: the buckwheat / coconut / cinnamon / blueberry go great together, and the texture is really sound (quite a dense kind of a pancake, but with so much texture that's fine). You only need a little maple syrup, but it really brings it all together.

*I like the idea of making these gluten free by subbing the plain and wholewheat flours with GF oat flour - I didn't feel like grinding the oat flour, otherwise I would have made them that way.

Pancake Day Pudding: 'Nutella' pancakes

I consider it necessary, every Pancake Day, to eat an entire pancake-based meal: both savoury and sweet. This year I hit upon scallion pancakes for the savoury round, but still felt the need for a traditional / pudding pancake. I was considering Nutella, when it occurred to me that perhaps an even more delicious option would be to break Nutella apart and have pancakes with hazelnuts and chocolate sauce. So that's what we did.

Weirdly, I'd never really made chocolate sauce before. My initial thought was just to melt some chocolate mixed with a little almond milk and maybe a little sugar, but I found this recipe and was convinced enough by the description to give it a try.

For the pancakes:
-use this basic recipe - you will never miss the eggs and milk

For the chocolate sauce:
1/2 cup water
80g / 1/4 cup light corn syrup, agave or liquid glucose (used golden syrup)
50g / 1/4 cup sugar
38g / 3/8 cup cocoa powder (ideally Dutch Process)
1 oz / 30g dark (~60%) chocolate, chopped*

Additional:
~20 toasted hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 a banana, sliced (optional)

Make the chocolate sauce a little in advance as it will need time (1-2 hours at least) to cool. Mix the water, syrup, sugar and cocoa in a small pan and bring to the boil, whisking steadily. Once just boiling, remove from the heat and mix in the chopped chocolate. When the chocolate is melted, set the pan aside at room temperature and allow to cool and thicken.

While the sauce cools, you can make the pancake batter and cook up the pancakes (keep them warm on a plate covered with a folded teatowel, or in the oven on a covered plate if you need to wait longer), and chop the hazelnuts.

When you're ready to eat them, drizzle a pancake with chocolate sauce, sprinkle with hazelnuts (and chopped banana if you fancy that), roll up and eat as delicately or as uncouthly as you wish.


This combination was great, and worked really well with banana too. The sauce kind of separated as it cooled - tasted great but the texture wasn't right. Perhaps I cooled it too quickly (I put it next to an open window)? Or perhaps the golden syrup was not an appropriate substitution? It is worth another attempt! As well as these I of course had to have a classic one with lemon and sugar.

*I made this recipe again, being very careful to stick to the recipe, not cool the sauce too fast etc, and still found that it separated. A review of the comments on the original site indicated that the chocolate may be the issue - although 70% is nowhere near 100%, perhaps it is still too intense and acidic and caused the separation. I rarely have anything less than 70% in the house, so to continue with this recipe may need to work out a way of neutralising it?

Chinese Spring Festival meets Pancake Day: Scallion Pancakes

With all the snow and the pre-Valentines baking I got distracted from the fact it was Chinese New Year at the weekend: happy new Year of the Snake!

And then Pancake Day was already upon us (yesterday), demanding a pancake feast... Scallion pancakes seemed to be the perfect way to celebrate both at once, in food form (of course... both celebrations seem to be mainly about food, perhaps that's why I like them so much...).

I mainly referred to this recipe, also this one.

(makes 4 fairly large pancakes)

For pancakes:
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup scallions (aka spring onions aka green onions - about 4), sliced
1/2 cup veg oil mixed with 1 tbsp sesame oil
salt+white pepper

For dipping sauce:
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sliced scallions (about 2)
1 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp chopped root ginger
1 tsp sugar

Mix flour and baking powder together in a bowl with a fork. Dribble in the boiling water gradually and steadily, mixing with a wooden spoon the whole time. Bring together into a ball of dough and then let rest (covered with a damp cloth) for 30 min or so.

While the dough rests, chop the scallions and prepare the dipping sauce by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

To make the pancakes, roll the dough out on a floured surface into a large rectangle about 8 mm thick. Brush the rectangle with the oil mixture, sprinkle the chopped scallions all over, then season with salt and ground white pepper. Next, carefully roll the rectangle up as if rolling up a swiss roll, going from a long side, so you end up with a long sausage shape. Cut the sausage into four. Take one piece, pull it out and squish it a little, twist it three times, then wrap it round into a flattened spiral. Roll it out into a thick (~8 mm thick), round pancake, about 5-6 inches diameter. Repeat with the other three pieces.

Heat any remaining oil mixture (or additional veg oil) in a frying pan. When hot, place a pancake in it and cook on one side until browned, then flip and brown the other side. Eat hot, cut into wedges and dipped in the dipping sauce.


Wow. These were quite delicious. I probably won't get around to making them again til some Pancake Day in the distant future, but damn they were good. The dipping sauce was a great idea: its spicy / salty / sour / sweet ness really cut through the greasy, stodgy (in a good way) pancake beautifully. Despite the large quantity of scallions used, there was no lingering onion taste.

Apple cinnamon cornmeal pancakes

This recipe is from How It All Vegan! vegan cookbook.

I made them as a Saturday morning breakfast, before we headed out to beach and punkinfiddle.

1/2 cup oats (used wheat flakes as ran out of oats)
3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground linseed plus 6 tbsp hot water, mixed)
2 cups soy milk

Mix dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients separately, then add the wet to the dry and mix.  Put about 1 cup into a frying pan and cook til bubbly, solidifying in the middle and golden (~5min).  Turn over and cook on the other side.  Repeat until batter all gone.  Made 4 big pancakes.  Eat with maple syrup.


These were OK.  The cinnamony-ness saved them but they were pretty stodgy.  Won't make the same again.

Socca / farinata

A recipe I'd cut out of the Guardian a few years ago but never got around to making...  Was flicking through my recipe folder and noticed it, partly as I just bought some chickpea flour and partly as I'd just noted down another, different recipe for socca (I think from the NY Times).  I went with the Guardian version, mainly because the cooking method of the other involved an ovenproof frying pan which I don't have...

Guardian recipe

Serves four.
300g cherry tomatoes, halved
Salt and ground black pepper
Olive oil
800g white onions, peeled and cut into rings
2 tbsp picked thyme leaves
½ tsp white-wine vinegar
200g chickpea flour (aka gram flour)
450ml water
Crème fraîche to serve
Preheat the oven to 130C/250F/gas mark ½. Spread the tomatoes, cut side up, over a small baking tray, sprinkle over some salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil, and bake for 25 minutes - they are not supposed to dry out completely, just semi-cook.
Next, heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and thyme, season and sauté, stirring all the while, over a high heat for about a minute. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking the onions for another 20 minutes, stirring them occasionally. You want them soft, sweet and golden brown, but not very dark. At the end, stir in the vinegar, taste and adjust the seasoning.
Increase the oven temperature to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. In a bowl, use a hand whisk to mix together the chickpea flour, water, one and a half tablespoons of olive oil, half a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. The batter should be totally smooth. Line two oven trays with greaseproof paper, brush this with a little oil and set aside. Take a small nonstick frying pan, roughly 14cm in diameter at its base, and brush very lightly with oil. Place the pan over a high heat for a couple of minutes, then reduce to medium-high and pour in a quarter of the socca batter - it should be about 0.5cm thick. After two minutes or so, air bubbles will appear as it sets. Use a palette knife to release the pancake's edges from the pan, then carefully lift and turn over. Cook for two more minutes, then transfer to the lined oven tray. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Put the pancakes in the warm oven for eight minutes, then remove and set aside until ready to serve.
Spread the pancakes with plenty of onion - they need to be covered all over - then top with tomato halves and return to the oven to heat up, for about seven minutes or so. Serve warm with crème fraîche on the side.

It was good, like an oniony, vegan pizza / pissaladiere.  Lots of potential for varying the topping etc.  Also, the chickpea pancake for some reason reminded me of egg - was a bit like an omelette.  This could be the basis of some vegan pseudo-omelette experimentation...


NY Times recipe


Time: 45 minutes
1 cup chickpea flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon, at least, ground black pepper
4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil
½ large onion, thinly sliced, optional
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, optional.
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a well-seasoned or nonstick 12-inch pizza pan or cast-iron skillet in oven. Sift chickpea flour into a bowl; add salt and pepper; then slowly add 1 cup lukewarm water, whisking to eliminate lumps. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover, and let sit while oven heats, or as long as 12 hours. Batter should be about the consistency of heavy cream.
2. If using onion and rosemary, stir them into batter. Pour 2 tablespoons oil into heated pan, and swirl to cover pan evenly. Pour in batter, and bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until pancake is firm and edges set. Heat broiler, and brush top of socca with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil if it looks dry.
3. Set socca a few inches away from broiler for a few minutes, just long enough to brown it spottily. Cut it into wedges, and serve hot, or at least warm.

Pancake Day! Dosa and normal pancakes

I love pancake day - one of my favourite annual foodfests...  I had eggless pancakes in India so was pretty confident they'd work out...  And seem to be in the mood for Indian food at the moment (perhaps compensating since Jilly is there now). Both these recipes are the result of some Googling: dosa.

Rava dosa

1 cup semolina / rava
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp coriander leaves
few curry leaves (optional)
1/2-1 finely chopped green chilli
salt to taste
water - 3 cups (approx)
veg oil as required

Whisk together all the ingredients (except oil) and leave the batter to stand for half an hour to an hour.  It should thicken up a bit as the rava swells.

When ready it should be a good pouring consistency.  Heat a frying pan on high until it sizzles when water splashed.  Reduce to medium heat.  Pour a ladle of well-mixed batter around the outside and then fill in the middle.  Pour 1-2 tsp oil in drops around the edge of the dosa.  Increase heat to a medium flame and cook for 3min.  Increase flame to high and cook for ~2min.  Flip and cook another 30sec.  Dosa done.

We ate these with dry yellow potatoes.  It was super tasty and really tasted like dosa we've eaten out / in India - soooo good!

Pancakes (British style)

(makes about 20)

225ml fake milk
225ml water
6oz / 175ml plain flour
2 tbsp chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp veg oil
pinch of salt
additional oil for frying

Whisk all the ingredients except the oil for frying together.  Heat a little oil in a frying pan and then pour in a ladle of batter, tipping the pan to spread it out thin.  Cook for about 3 min on the first side, flip and cook a minute or so on the other side.

They were really good too!  We couldn't figure out the point of animal products in pancakes at all...  We ate them variously with maple syrup and fresh blueberries, lemon and sugar (classic - can't go a pancake day without one of those), and blueberry jam.

Happy pancake day!

Banana pancakes

From here.

Makes 2 or more servings
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 banana, mashed
1 1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbsp sugar
sliced fruit (garnish)
maple syrup (garnish)
In a medium bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork and add 1/4 cup of milk, mixing together until there are no lumps. Add the banana, sugar, and the remaining milk to the dry mix and stir together until "just mixed". Portion out about 3/4 to 1 cup of batter onto a hot non-stick pan or a lightly oiled fry pan and cover with lid. Let sit on medium heat until the center starts to bubble and become sturdy. Flip pancake over and cook other side until golden brown. Repeat process until batter is gone. Garnish with fruit and maple syrup.

I made a blueberry compote (frozen berries heated with a little maple syrup and maybe cinnamon too) and maple syrup.  Maybe good with thinner batter for less American pancakes...