As the cold weather approaches, so do the spices, chutney, cheese, nuts and old music. There aren’t many breakfasts I can think of that scream autumn to me, but this one certainly does.
Whenever I go home to see my Mum, she makes me fluffy American blueberry pancakes. She uses a Jamie Oliver recipe and I love them so much I decided to tweak them a little to taste like gingerbread. Queue black treacle and ginger. Sprinkling flaked almonds on one side of the pancake adds a lovely note of nutty flavour and texture. A warm, sticky, sweet roasted pear permeated with maple syrup couldn’t be a better accompaniment to this gorgeous breakfast treat.
Ingredients – Serves 2-3, recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver
- 3 eggs, separated
- a pinch of salt
- 115 g plain flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. ground ginger
- a few grates of fresh nutmeg
- 140 ml milk
- 1 tbsp. black treacle
- a few handfuls of flaked almonds
- 1/2 a pear per person
- maple syrup, for roasting and serving
Method
First, begin preparing the roasted maple pears. Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC. Take your pears and cut them in half. Using a melon ball or spoon, remove the pips and stalk. Cut each half into four pieces lengthways. Each person will get four pieces of roasted pear. Place these onto a baking tray and drizzle with a few tbsp. of maple syrup, roughly four depending on how many pears you have. Be as generous as you like! Roast in the oven until soft, about 10 minutes depending on the ripeness of your fruit.
While your pears are roasting, you can get on with your pancakes. Separate your eggs into yolks and whites. Whisk your egg whites with the pinch of salt until you reach firm peaks.
In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder, ground ginger and nutmeg. In another small bowl stir together the egg yolks, milk and black treacle. Pour the milk/treacle mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together until no lumps remain. Carefully fold in your whisked egg whites until you’re left with a fragrant fluffy pancake mix.
Heat a large saucepan on the stove with a little butter. Once hot, cook your pancakes a few minutes on one side and a minute on the other. Before flipping over, sprinkle on some flaked almonds so that they toast when the pancake is turned over. Serve three pancakes per person with four pieces of the maple roasted pear. Eat immediately with a generous serving of maple syrup.
