Category: Recipes

Pancakes and parkrun go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or some other excellent combo. Today was a parkrun day for me.

I was sent a lovely breakfast hamper recently from Streamline, and then found this amazing looking recipe for using greek yoghurt in pancakes.

The granola has been delicious on its own, and my friends and I enjoyed some of the jam on scones for an afternoon tea.

But I saved the greek yoghurt for the pancakes, and today was the perfect day to try them out. I could not decide about parkrun as I had a late night last night, but I woke up early so decided to head on out. Once I got home, I showered and then got on with breakfast.

The batter was easy to make- I whisked up the egg a lot before I stirred in the yoghurt. I added some freeze dried raspberry powder and a few frozen ones to the mix too. I used the buckwheat pancake mix instead of plain flour and baking powder, but I have found loads of recipes on-line just like that one and all sorts of flour seems to be OK.

The batter was very thick, but seemed to cook OK- slow was the way to go.

They still had a pink tint but it didn’t come out in the photo very well!

The recipe made 9 little pancakes, plenty to fill me up, and I added a splodge of yoghurt with some of the reduced sugar jam, plus some almond butter as I think that goes well with raspberries.

These turned out really well, especially for a first go. While I was eating them the parkrun text came through- 27.12 was my official time, the third time I have run that exact time! At least I am fairly consistent I suppose. Plus it was a royal flush negative split (yes easier to achieve on a shorter course, but still impressive that I kept on speeding up the whole time).

The breakfast gave me loads of energy to power through a lot of housework, then we popped out to the shops to look at a new laptop and some paint tester pots, before getting home at about half 3 and realising I was hungry. They did me well!

The Streamline website has some lovely looking recipes on there, I quite fancy trying the strawberry breakfast bars at some point.

Any other good recipes that use jam?

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago, on a fab blog (if you love weight lifting then check it out as she is awesome), and I knew I would have to try it.

It is grain free and gluten free, and to make it free from refined sugar you could miss off the icing, but where is the fun in that?

Cake in the making- a mess in my little kitchen

The recipe said 3 large carrots, but mine were huge so I think I could have used 2 of them! I needed a bigger bowl to mix it all. I added some sultanas, and I used pecan nuts as I love them.

Also it took around an hour to cook, but of course all ovens vary.

I made a lemon cream cheese icing, with some lemon juice, icing sugar, cream cheese, and lemon zest on the top.

It was fab! It didn’t taste super sweet like most cakes do, and I bet it would make lovely breakfast muffins if you cooked them in individual cases.

I also found this in the chiller section of Waitrose at the weekend (and apparently Tesco stock it too)- I used to love the Kara coconut milk, but when they changed to the Koko stuff for some reason I went off it, they must have changed the recipe. Anyway, this is scrumptious.

Are you an icing fan? I normally prefer the cake (which is why despite the blog name I prefer normal cake to cupcakes), but when something has a lemon icing I am won over!

So here is my other recipe to help you use up any left over Easter eggs.

I fancied using up some white chocolate, as I prefer it in baking to eating it. I think that coconut really goes with white chocolate, so here is the recipe for coconut and white chocolate brownies.

Ingredients:

100g butter

200g sugar (150g caster, 50g brown sugar)

125g dark or milk chocolate

1 tbs golden syrup

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp coconut extract (if you have it)

100g plain flour

35g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g dessicated coconut

Left over white chocolate- as much as you have!

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C

Line a brownie pan with baking paper

In a saucepan gently melt together the butter, sugar, dark/milk chocolate and syrup.

Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Beat the eggs together and add in the vanilla and coconut extract, then stir this into the melted chocolate mix- mix quickly to avoid the eggs scrambling. Then stir in the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and dessicated coconut.

Pour into the brownie pan, and sprinkle with pieces of white chocolate.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until there is just a slight wobble left to the brownie.

Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes before putting on a wire rack to cool.

If you have more white chocolate left, melt this and pipe over the top.

It is much easier to slice once it is completely cool.

Using up Easter eggs

The brownie with the white chocolate sprinkled over it ready for baking in the oven.

With the white chocolate piped over

All ready to enjoy!

So, this might be a rather belated Easter post. But then again, I was in Costa over the weekend and they were still selling little Easter nest cakes and fruity marzipan Easter loaves, so I am going with it!

As part of their blogger community, Sainsbury’s asked me to have a go at making an Easter recipe, and as they also sent me an Easter egg I thought I would make use of that. I based the cookie recipe on the Millie’s Cookie recipe that I love.

So here are my Hot Cross Bun cookies:

Ingredients:

125g butter/ margarine

225g sugar (mixture of caster and soft brown)

1 medium egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

225g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

100g dried fruit (I used a mixture of cherries and raisins)

A few pieces of candied orange peel, chopped

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

Optional- White chocolate for melting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C, line two baking trays with baking paper.

Optional- soak the cherries and raisins in a little boiling water- this plumps them up and makes them juicy.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg, vanilla and almond extract. Sift in the flour, baking powder and spices and bring gently together. Finally mix in the dried fruit (drain the water first if you soaked them) and candied orange peel.

Spoon onto the baking trays leaving space between them as they will spread.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until brown around the edges- they will continue to cook on the baking trays a little once they come out.

Leave on the trays for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

If adding the while chocolate cross, melt some white chocolate and pipe it over the cooled cookies.

I think they look rather pretty, and the dried fruits and spices create the hot cross bun flavour.

Soaking the dried fruits

Chopping the candied orange peel

Piping on the melted white chocolate

This made 20 big cookies!

I also made some brownies, but that will have to be in another post!

Do you have any Easter Eggs left?

*Sainsbury’s provided me with some of the ingredients.