Spelt Pancakes

I was talking to my husband the other day about why I never get to sleep in on Saturdays.  Apparently it’s because he doesn’t know how to make the pancakes that we have every week as a special treat. Well now there’s no excuse

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus approximately 2-3 tablespoons white spelt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1  egg
• 1 cup milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tbsp cooking oil

Directions

1. Beat egg and milk together and set aside
2. Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and give it a good mix 
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg/milk mixture
4. Stir until combined (it’s ok for this to still be a bit lumpy)
5. Leave to rest for around 20 – 30 minutes
6. Check the consistency and add a dash more milk if you need to
7. Cook over a medium heat
8. Serve with bananas and maple syrup

Chai spiced apple granola

A couple of us from Mamabake Out West have friends who have just had babies, so we had a Milky Mama’s Mega Meal Makin’ session.

We made mounds of lactation cookies, sausage rolls, quiche and cheesecake.  All food that can be frozen and reheated by a time-pressed new mama.  And my new favorite breakfast – Chai spiced apple granola.  As the main ingredient is oats it is great for a breastfeeding mum.  We made this using a Thermomix, but it would be easy to do by hand.

Ingredients (wet)

• 1/2 cup  honey
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Ingredients (Dry)

• 5 cups rolled oat flakes
• 1 cup flaked almonds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup quinoa flakes or wheat germ
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup of sesame seeds
• 1 cup diced dried apples
• 1 cup dried cranberries/craisins

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees.
2. Line two large baking trays with a sheet of baking paper, or oil the tray a little
3. Put honey, sugar, water, oil, and spices into the Thermomix.
4. Cook at 90 degrees for 7 minutes on speed 4.  If you are cooking on the stove try not to let the mix boil.
5. Stir together dry ingredients, except for the coconut, craisins and apples, which will be added later.  Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Split between the two sheets.
6. Bake at 150 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 125 degrees and rotate pans. Use a spatula to turn the granola. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden.
7. Add the dried fruit and coconut, turn off the oven and leave granola in oven until completely cool.
8. Store in an airtight container.
9. This makes around 8 cups.

Brioche french toast with caramelised banana

This breakfast definitely doesn’t fit into my low-carb, low-sugar, high protein way of life, but sometimes you just need a break.  And what better way to do it that an irresistably, sugary rich breakfast like this.  Teamed up with a steaming coffee, a newspaper (or the virtual iPad equivilent) and a sunny Winter morning overlooking a river and you have a perfect start to a long weekend.

One of the secrets to a great french toast is to use a great bread and this brioche definitely fits into that category.  It’s best done with day old bread, but there’s no need to worry if you are making it fresh – it’ll still be delicious.

Brioche (to be made the day before)

Ingredients

• 300 g milk
• 60 g olive oil
• 20-30 g sugar , to taste
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 egg
• 14 grams dried yeast
• 550 g baker’s flour

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. Place milk into mixing bowl and heat for 1 minute at speed 1 on 37 degrees
3. Add the remaining ingredients and knead for 3 minutes
4. Remove dough and place into a well floured bowl.  Set aside to prove for 30 – 40 minutes, or until mixture has doubled in size.
5. Knock down dough and place into a large, greased bread tin.  Set aside to prove again, or until dough fills the entire tin.
6. Once risen, brush with egg wash and put in the oven to bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Caramelised banana

Ingredients

• Bananas
• Sugar

Directions

1. Cut the banana into thickish slices
2. Sprinkle with sugar
3. Blowtorch until golden and bruléed

French Toast

Ingredients

• 4 thick slices of brioche loaf (recipe below if you wish to make it yourself)
• 2 eggs
• 60ml milk

• butter

Directions

1. Whisk the eggs and milk until frothy
2. Dip each slice of bread, both sides, into the egg until soaked
3. Heat up the butter in a pan then fry each side of the eggy brioche slices until golden then set aside.

And a crappy picture to go with the post.  After already making 2 serves for the others I just couldn’t take the time to make this look pretty.  Bacon and maple syrup are optional.

English Muffins? Don’t mind if I do

I’d never really thought about making english muffins before, but when I found a recipe for crumpets (which is on my to-do list) I thought I’d have a look for english muffins, and I am so glad I did. These muffins are lighter and fluffier than store bought, and they are amazing with melted cheese, or just warm on their own (according to DH).

I read quite a few recipes and put them together to come up with this:

Ingredients

• 235 grams milk
• 750 grams plain flour
• 25 grams white sugar
• 7 grams active dry yeast
• 235 grams water
• 50 grams melted copha/shortening
• 1 teaspoons salt
• polenta/cornmeal

Heat milk in Thermomix for 3 minutes at 90 degrees, speed 1. Add the sugar and mix for 10 seconds at speed 4 for 5 seconds. Set aside to cool

Heat water in Thermomix for 3 minutes at 50 degrees, speed 1 to warm it up. Stop mixing and sprinkle the yeast over the top of the water to activate it. Leave for 10 minutes

Add milk mixture, melted copha and half of the flour (375 grams) to the yeast/water mix and mix for 20 seconds on speed 6 – the texture should be smooth.

Add the rest of the flour and the salt and mix for 10 seconds on speed 4. Then knead for 3 minutes.

Put the bowl somewhere warm until the dough doubles in size

Punch down the dough and roll it out to around 1.5cm thick. It will still be pretty sticky, so it’s best done on a Thermomat, or other silicone baking mat.

Cut out circles using a cookie cutter or glass and place the rounds on a piece of waxed paper sprinkled with polenta/cornmeal. Sprinkle the tops of your muffins with more polenta and cover with another piece of waxed paper and leave to rise for 30-45 minutes

Heat a heavy based frying pan with lid to a very low temperature. Add oil to the pan and put in your muffins – leave the lid on for the first 5 minutes to help control the rise. You’ll need to experiment a bit with the cooking time, depending on the temperature and the frying pan that you use – it took about 15-20 minutes to cook mine – I kept flipping them until the outside color was correct.