Gluten Free Banana and Peanut Butter Pancakes

I hereby present to you something interesting, simple and quite yummy. You can make it with two ingredients, but I made it with four and then went right ahead and made it into a meal. I was totally inspired by Joy of Oh Joy! who has a little cutie called Ruby, she has good taste has Ruby. I made a more grown-up and (very slightly, perhaps) less healthy option.

Here’s my brunch for one. You could always make it a light breakfast and share between two (if you must). I got four small pancakes out of the following quantities.

Gluten Free Banana and Peanut Butter Pancakes, served with bacon and rocket

Ingredients | One each of the following:

• Ripe banana
• Generous teaspoon peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, you decide)
• Tablespoon Greek yoghurt
• Medium egg
• Rasher of bacon (optional)
• Handful of rocket (optional)

1. Mash the banana into as fine a pulp as you can. If it is ripe enough, a fork is sufficient for this. Mix in the peanut butter and then the yoghurt making sure the mixture is as smooth as you can get it. At this point, the mixture will be quite thick.

2. Mix in the egg. A small whisk may make it easier at this point, but I found it easy enough to fold in the egg carefully using the fork. Make sure you incorporate all the ingredients well.

3. If you are just planning on making the pancakes, then go right ahead and skip this step. Otherwise, fry the bacon in a preheated frying pan. I like to use a non-stick pan so that I don’t have to add extra oil. When the bacon is crisped and brown, remove and leave to rest on some kitchen paper to soak off any excess fat.

4. Turn the heat down and spoon the pancake mixture into the bacon fat (or preheated oil) before turning the heat back up. Fry the mixture until you see little bubbles appearing all over the mixture and a faint browning at the edges. This will cook more slowly than standard pancakes and if you try to turn them too quickly, they will collapse so be warned!

5. Serve immediately. I sandwiched the bacon and some rocket between the pancakes. The flavours of the salty bacon and nutty rocket worked really well with the peanut buttery pancakes to make a very satisfying meal!

I hope you give this a go. It’s simply a glorified fried egg so it’s really fun to make if you have the time, especially if you like bananas – the riper the better because the sweetness comes through perfectly 🙂 Do you have any favourite weekend treats in the kitchen? That idyllic weekend morning, when we all supposedly spend relaxing hours in the kitchen, making a fabulous breakfast or brunch…does that happen in your home? Well this was a real treat to make and to eat, and did not take much time either – my favourite bit 🙂

Advertisement

Tasty Toasties: Posh beans on toast

If you are French, or have a penchant for good French patisserie, you might want to look away now. If my telling you that my favourite place to buy croissant is Costco makes you feel all faint, this post is not for you. No, I have not found a local bakery I love yet (alright, Greggs excepted – sorry, I love sausage rolls) so if I find myself hanging out with my mum at Costco, I always come home with a lovely tray of their 12 huge croissants laid out on corrugated cardboard and wrapped in stretchy cellophane. I bag them up in 3’s or 4’s depending on my mood and put some in the freezer (if this shocks you, don’t blame me, I did warn you :P).

I’ll ramble on a little more, just in case one of you fainted before you managed to click away and have just come to. You won’t want to see the photo below. Although, if you are reading this on a large screen, I’m sorry, I hope you’ll forgive me this once.

I decided to start a little series and see how long it will run for. I’m calling it Tasty Toasties and it will nestle right in on my Tasty Tuesdays. I keep making grilled things on bread with whatever is in the fridge (usually there’s some cheese involved). I then take photos of them because I think I’m a bit obsessed. So I thought I’d share my obsession and start it with something fun.

I’d had this tin of beans sitting in the cupboard since I don’t know how long. All I know is that the best before date was end of last month. So I figured I’d better consume it. Not all in one go mind, because we all know that little ditty… beans, beans, they’re good for your heart……… I didn’t fancy sliced bread, but there were a couple of croissants from a recent defrost. And the following often happens when I am let loose in the kitchen.

Whilst the beans were cooking, I stared at them for a minute. I sliced open the croissant and stuck it under a gentle grill. Then I went to the fridge. I spotted some chorizo slices and cheese, but decided against the cheese because I could feel my stomach bursting already at the thought. Looking at the beans bubbling away, and then the fiery red chorizo, I was thinking the food would be all in one colour tone. I remembered I had some mushrooms, went to rummage, but instead found some rocket – aaah perfect. Strong flavour to match the chorizo. So that’s how this was born. The chorizo slices went into the pan with the beans and then I threw in the rocket and stirred it in at the end. ‘Twas pretty tasty if you ask me. And so easy. My favourite way to brunch 😉

Berry~licious French Toast

I didn’t have a lot of food at home today. I felt too busy on the brain to go out. But I was hungry…

There were a few eggs left in the fridge, bread in the freezer, some cheese I didn’t feel like eating…I felt like something sweet…

And this is what I made: eggy bread, served with wild blueberry conserve, some fresh blueberries and a sprinkling of brown sugar. It was yummy. (Although I was a bit mean with the egg.  I could have used another one for better coverage!)

Beat one egg per each slice of bread. Cut bread into smaller pieces - you can remove the crust if you like at this point. Put into bowl and pour beaten egg over it. Make sure egg gets onto all bread surfaces and leave to soak for a few minutes.

Heat a frying pan and melt a knob of butter to fry the bread until golden brown. (I only used one egg this time and thinned it with some milk, so you can see that my bread is not very eggy.)

Serve with anything you fancy. I was in a sweet mood today, but I was almost tempted to try the Colman's English mustard with some grated Emmental cheese on top when I looked into the fridge again.

When I started making this, I only had the blueberry conserve in mind. But then, I remembered the fresh blueberries I had in my fridge. They worked like magic. I have never combined unsweetened fresh fruit with jam like this before. I was worried the fruit would be too sour. However, the berries tasted really fresh against the sweetness of the jam, and the little pops of juicy tartness actually sharpened the lovely syrupy-ness. I added a little brown sugar purely for some texture as I love the crunch of the granules.

With the unusually intense blue skies and bright spring sunshine, this was a perfect light something for brunch. I hope you enjoy it too! (Don’t tell my mum…)