Bourbon Berry Pancakes

Yay for Pancake day, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, which ever you prefer. Pancakes are such a wonderful vessel for experimentation, sweet or savory, breakfast or dessert, healthy or indulgent.

This is my little nod to the Mardi Gras festivities on Bourbon street. Not one for the kids, blackberries bathed in bourbon are a perfect combination nestled inside fluffy pancake envelopes and topped with a sugar crackling.

I have a nostalgic soft spot for Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix, so that is the batter I have used here. Feel free to tut and disapprove, and use your favourite batter or recipe. If you have a great from scratch recipe I’d love to try it.

Makes about 6

Ingredients

8 oz fresh blackberries

1 apple, you can omit the apple and double the blackberries or add in 8 oz of raspberries

Pancake mix

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

2-3 tbsp bourbon

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup sugar

cooking oil

butane torch

8 inch frying pan

Peel and core the apple, dice it into 1/4 inch pieces. Place the apple and 1 tbsp of water into a saucepan on a medium heat, put the lid on and gently cook until just tender, about 7 minutes.

Remove from the heat and drain any liquid, add the washed blackberries and pour over the bourbon, replace the lid and leave to macerate while you prepare the batter.

In a jug or bowl, mix together 1 cup of pancake mix, 1 egg and 3/4 cup of milk. Beat until all the lumps are gone. You may need to add a splash more milk, this recipe works best the batter is a little runnier and the pancakes aren’t overly thick.

Heat a little oil in the pan over a medium flame, coat the entire surface, I pour out any excess. Ladle in some of the batter, roughly 1/4 cup and swirl it around so it covers the bottom of the pan in a nice even thinnish layer. Watch and wait for the bubbles to form and pop before flipping the pancake over. You want it to be cooked, but still rather pale. Cook for a few more minutes on the other side. Slide onto a plate and fold in half. Repeat until the batter is gone.

Pour half of the bourbon from the fruit into a glass, and some apple juice and ice if you like, and you have a tasty cocktail!

Douse the fruit in maple syrup, spoon the mixture into the each of the folded pancakes. Sprinkle with sugar and use the  torch to caramalise it. Repeat the sugar/ carmaelisation until you have the desired crust.

Enjoy F.

Bourbon berry pancakes pdf

Sappin’

I’ve been so excited to collect the sap from tapping the maple trees, I’ve been checking every day and after about a week I figured there was enough to have a go a boil it down.

The sap

The sap is just like water; clear, thin and fairly tasteless.

Frozen sap on top of the cheese cloth filter

Cheese cloth over a measuring jug acts a filter.I pour filtered sap into a steralised  gallon milk container

Not bad for a weeks waiting

This is from one tree, about a gallon and a half. I thing the sap to syrup ratio is about 40:1, but I’m excited.

I had a tiny sip of sap and it tasted like very lightly sweetened water, but it had a freshness and purity to it. The sap can be used as it is, to make tea or coffee or to drink as is, but I want syrup.

In the little instruction booklet I got with the tree tapping equipment, they recommend that you build a fire and boil the sap outside as it takes a while and generates a lot of steam. Yeah, I’m not going to do that. It’s freezing cold and I have a Tiny Terror to watch. So inside it is.

The time is 12.26pm

I start with a the saucepan about 2/3 full.

The time is 12.38

A good rolling boil

The time is 12.46pm

Time to top up

The time is 12.52pm

The faintest of colour change is happening, I add more sap and  let it come back to a rolling boil

The time is 1.13pm

The colour is coming along, another top up

The time now is 2.09pm

My windows are dripping with condensation, and I feel like I’m inside a a humidifier. The sap has begun to thicken, not long now.

The time is now 3.03pm

So I was wrong about it not being long. An hour later and a few tastes later finally it’s syrup.

One small thing, I took my eye off it for a few minutes and think I may have over boiled it.

Seems a bit sugary

I haven’t got a candy thermometer, so had to guess.

Not bad for a first try

It’s more maple sugar than syrup, but the taste is divine, so fresh and delicate. The seasons not over, so I’ll have a few more attempts at getting it perfect. f

Cranberry Pancakes with Orange Honey Maple Syrup

The combination of honey and maple syrup may be enough to give some people a toothache, but the tart burst of cranberry cuts through it like a hot knife through butter. The pancake is the perfect  neutral base for this classic flavour combination.

For the syrup;

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup honey

Juice and zest from 1/2 an orange

Zest your orange

Squeeze its juice

And warm them in a saucepan with the honey and maple syrup until you’re ready to serve

I use Aunt Jemima pancake mix, I like the fluffy cake texture. Feel free to make yours from scratch.

For the pancakes;

2 cups pancake mix

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries

A pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg – optional

Follow in instructions on the back and add in your own spices, zests or flavourings

Once all the lumps have been mixed out, stir in the cranberries

All the cranberries need at least a thin coat of batter, otherwise they will burst and stick to the pan whilst cooking. I use spray oil to coat the pan and get it lovely and hot

I always cook my pancakes in my silver dollar pan, I think it’s because I love how they look stacked high on a plate.

The best tool I found to turn the silver dollar pancakes is a skewer

I turn the heat down to ensure the pancakes are cooked through and the cranberries are warm

Pour the syrup into a serving jug

Stack your silver dollars and drizzle over the warm syrup

Letting it flow over the sides

OK who am I trying to kid, pour the syrup on

A silver dollar tower in a orange syrup lake

Light and fluffy and cakey, the sweet syrup is soaked up and is the prefect compliment to the tart burst of the cranberries