Mini Mixed Berry Pancakes

August 17, 2018August 20, 2018 amcarmenLeave a comment

ShefShaz is back again on Amcarmen’s Kitchen and this time I will be sharing a sweet breakfast option for those who love to start their day off on a sweet note – Mini Mixed Berry Pancakes served with Earl Grey Ice Cream and Fresh Fruit.

Before we dive into the recipe, if you missed my guest post a few days ago, I whipped up some delicious homemade Salmon Fish Cakes for the savoury breakfast eaters! You can also read more about my approach to food and how I know Ally.

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 10 MINS | MAKES 24 MINI PANCAKES*

*Or 12 regular-sized pancakes

INGREDIENTS

1 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1 & 1/4 cups skimmed milk
57g unsalted butter, melted
1 large free range egg
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt
Frozen mixed berries, or any other kind of fruits

To serve

Digestive biscuits, crushed
Earl Grey ice cream*
Fresh fruits
Icing sugar
Lemon slices (for a kick of tang)

*Or any other flavoured ice cream that tickles your fancy.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4). Grease a 24-hole mini cupcake tray with a bit of butter to prevent the pancake batter from sticking to the tray. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together until you have a smooth and creamy mixture.
Sift in the dry ingredients and gently fold until just combined. Leave the mixture to rest for about 10 minutes to allow the baking powder to work its magic.
Pour the batter into the tray, filling about 3/4 of the way and drop in your frozen mixed berries on top.
Bake in the oven from about 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the pancake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool down for about 5 minutes. Lightly dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream, crushed digestive biscuits, and fresh fruit of your choice. Enjoy!

Before I end, I would like to thank Ally for giving me the opportunity to cook and write for her blog. We had a lot of fun during our cookout session – both the cooking and feeding our dishes to many tummies!

BON APPÉTIT

– ShefShaz

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

December 23, 2014December 31, 2018 amcarmen4 Comments

Hello Everyone! So today’s recipe was made a while back, somewhere in November before I travelled to the Red Centre of Australia. The story goes back to my former housemate Lydia. Long story short, after having lunch together and going back to our rooms (or so I thought) I came back down to the kitchen and Lydia was STILL in the kitchen. She was flipping pancakes. I asked her how she was going with them, and she replied “not so good. I actually waited for you to go upstairs so you wouldn’t see my fail pancakes!”

If you’ve read my blog post from somewhere in September, you’d know that Lydia and pancakes do not go well together. Even when she tried to flip them the first time we made them together, life was just being too difficult for her – until we made these pancakes though! She flipped about 3 or even more pancakes successfully! And these pancakes aren’t considered easy for beginners like Lydia I would assume. I didn’t want to just make plain pancakes, we we stepped it up a notch and we (mainly I) decided to try out a recipe for Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.

The first pancake I attempted was a slight fail – I didn’t know when to pipe the cinnamon filling onto the pancake. What I did at first was basically wait for the pancake batter to start bubbling on the top and then pipe on the filling. Two things went wrong; firstly the filling was a bit firm so it wasn’t piping out in one smooth squeeze. The second thing, when I flipped the pancake, the filling just went everywhere. The first one was easy to resolve, we basically just let the filling out for a while until it started to soften a bit. The second took a little bit of thinking, but in the end we ended up piping the filling straightaway onto the pancake batter as it hit the pan. 100% success from then on!

Also, this recipe can originally be found on Vegan Yumminess – though I highly doubt that these pancakes that I’ve made are 100% vegan because of the choices of ingredients that I’ve used.

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | MAKES 6-8 PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

For the pancake batter

40g unsalted butter, melted
1 & 1/2 cup plain flour
1 & 1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice

For the cinnamon filling

60g unsalted butter, slightly softened
5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp plain flour

For the cream cheese glaze

100g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
3 tbsp milk, plus more if needed
1 tbsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt

METHOD

Preheat oven to 100C. Line a tray with baking paper.
Cinnamon Filling: Place all the ingredients into a zip-lock sandwich bag and seal closed. Knead the ingredients together with your hands until there are no big lumps or chunks of anything. Place the bag in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to allow the mixture to firm up a little bit. The consistency should be similar to that of toothpaste. When you are ready to draw swirls into your pancakes, cut about a 1/3-inch (.8cm) hole in one of the bottom corners of your sandwich bag.
Cream Cheese Glaze: In a medium-sized bowl beat the cream cheese using an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add the sugar and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Then add the salt, lemon juice, and milk; mixing on low speed until smooth. If the glaze is too thick to drizzle, add more milk, 1 tbsp at a time.
Pancake Batter: Add the dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Then add in the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth. Heat a nonstick pan on the stove on medium and once heated, turn the heat down to medium-low. Lightly butter the pan and pour about a 1/4 cup of batter. Immediately add your cinnamon filling by gently squeezing your sandwich bag in a circular motion around your pancake to form a swirl. Try not to get too close to the edge of your pancake.
When bubbles have formed towards the centre of your pancake (about 2-3 minutes), flip your pancake quickly in one continuous motion. When the pancake has cooked on the other side for a further 1-3 minutes, remove it from the pan and place on your prepare baking tray and place into the oven to keep warm while you work on the remaining pancake batter. Make sure to wipe your pan clean before starting your next pancake.
Stack your pancakes and drizzle with cream cheese glaze.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Bar Indigo

July 24, 2014December 31, 2018 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Today’s post won’t be a recipe, but instead I want to share with you this gem of a place that I recently visited with my ladies for what was supposed to be a nice Sunday brunch, but instead turned out to be a late lunch. In a nutshell, my friend Yvonne wanted to try this place out and recommended it to both Jialing and I. So Jialing and I planned our trip since we live in the same area, just a suburb away. We decided that we would get into the city at around 10am and meet Yvonne there to arrive at Double Bay by 10:30am and hoping to start eating by 11am. Yvonne then said it was too early and told us to come into the city around 11am, and I was like, what?!

Ally: But the whole point of brunch is that it is in between breakfast and lunch! Brunch for me is like 10am… 11am is already pushing it because it’s close to noon which is lunch for me!
Yvonne: When I said brunch, I actually meant lunch!

God bless her haha! Anyway, so we then decided to push it to meet up at 11am in the city, to be at Double Bay by 11:30am and have ‘lunch’ by noon. As usual, Jialing and I got to the city just 2 minutes past 11 and Yvonne was still at home. So we waited around for another 20 minutes for her and finally got on the bus to Double Bay. At this point I was super hungry also because I didn’t have anything to eat beforehand. We got to Double Bay at roughly around noon and when we got to Bar Indigo, man was it busy! We still had to wait for a table, another half hour. As we waited, we went through the menu and it was sounding so delicious – and a bit torturous being very hungry and all as we watched dishes go by. Finally we sat down and ordered and I can say that the wait was all worth it! The food was absolutely amazing (but then again I find EVERYTHING amazing, especially when I’m super hungry).

The food did not disappoint at all. The portions were massive! Actually their plates were massive as well that it could barely sit on the table we sat at! Also, their plates – loved them. I have a new sense of appreciation for plates ever since taking up an intro to ceramics class last semester – which by the way I got an overall High Distinction for (you know, those Lovelily plates I posted about probably weeks ago, yes those)!

The one thing I love about going out with my girls is that we all decide one one dish that we like most, and once the food arrives, we split our dishes into three, and share – which I think is the best thing to do if you want to be able to try more than one dish, especially if it’s your first visit. Simply amazing! I say this in particular because I do have other friends who don’t like to share dishes – that is if it is a dish that is not meant to be shared.

FROM THE FARM: Argentine Salmon Omelette
Oven-roasted salmon, bell peppers, spring onion, flame-grilled corn & coriander salsa, sweet potato, fresh aversana mozzarella & chimichurri sauce ($19.90)

This was the dish that I ordered, and for one very particular reason as well which was the description. It just screamed my name! Salmon, eggs, and chimichurri?! Why not!

FROM THE GARDEN: Grilled Lamb Salad
Crispy flat bread, sweet yoghurt, baby carrots & couscous ($29.90)

A dish that Yvonne ordered. The description isn’t as fancy as the others only because I completely forgot to take a photo of the menu description for this! And it wasn’t on their website as well because they changed their menu I think for the season. Nonetheless, that lamb was cooked to perfection and the flavour combinations went really well together. Loved the presentation as well (you can’t really see it in the photograph above, but those crispy flatbreads standing tall from the plate looked so majestic)!

INDIGO LUNCH FAVOURITES: Free Range Victor Churchill Duck Sausage Risotto
Chicken stock, thyme leaves, spring onion, white truffle oil, garlic, chives, mascarpone, sliced asparagus, parsley, aged parmesan & asparagus crisp ($28.90)

And finally the dish Jialing ordered (or more like I recommended since the description appealed a lot to me as well). The risotto was really rich and creamy, packed with lots of flavour and just… SO yummy. And those duck sausages, just WOW.

After our lunch, we still had space for a yummy warm dessert (since it was freezing cold out). It was probably one of the best decisions we made together as a group only because I know for a fact that we usually go for a walk first after a meal to clear our bloated tummies, and then get dessert elsewhere, but this time around we decided to go for some fluffy pancakes because they looked oh-so-good on various Instagram accounts.

INDIGO BREAKFAST FAVOURITES: Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
Maple syrup, caramel-glazed bananas & vanilla whipped mascarpone ($18.90)

The winner for me, hands down. I actually wanted these pancakes to begin with but I thought starting the day (in terms of the first meal of the day) with sweet pancakes just didn’t quite fit with me, needed something savoury. JUST LOOK AT ALL THAT FLUFF!

One of my favourite spots indefinitely. Great food, great company. The bill scared me a little bit, but otherwise affordable, just not a place to eat at every single week – for me that is. Be sure to check this place out if you haven’t already done so! Cheers!

Bar Indigo
15 Cross Street
Double Bay, New South Wales
Australia, 2028

– Ally xx

Three-ingredient Pancakes

May 7, 2014December 28, 2018 amcarmen2 Comments

A very good morning to all! Well, it’s like past 10am here in Sydney (almost 11am probably by the time I get this post up), but probably only just about past midnight in parts of the world, or maybe just a few hours behind/ahead depending where you are really. Anyway, today, I managed to get out of bed by 8am (I usually wake up at 8 but laze around until 9-9:30), maybe because it wasn’t as cold as the previous days that made me just want to snuggle in my thick warm blanket. Who I am kidding? I got out of bed because I was hungry and I wanted to do something about my overripe bananas sitting in the corner of my room. I then remembered a friend of mine posting a photo (probably a month ago or so) on Instagram about his ‘failed’ two-ingredient pancakes – well more like when he tried to flip it, it tore. And it was slightly burnt.

Anyway, so this magical two-ingredient pancake is gluten and dairy free – basically two eggs per large banana. But I decided to put a little twist to my two-ingredient pancake and make it my very own three-ingredient pancake (I’m pretty sure someone out there thought about it already, but who cares). I decided to add a spoonful (or two) of crunchy peanut butter to the mix. YUM. I love peanut butter, especially the crunchy ones. I also added a touch of vanilla and more than I should’ve added, ground cinnamon. I also love me some cinnamon. You can never go overboard with it – I guess?

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 15-20 MINS | SERVES 4 PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

1 large ripe banana, mashed
2 large free range eggs
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
Dash of vanilla extract
Dash of ground cinnamon
Honey & maple syrup blend, to drizzle
1 tbsp vegetable oil

METHOD

Add the peanut butter and eggs in a medium-sized bowl and beat together. Add in the mashed bananas, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Mix until well combined. (Tip: if you are pressed for time, use a blender to mix all the ingredients together).
Heat a small pan (nonstick or cast-iron) over medium heat. Fold a sheet of paper towel in half, and moisten with the vegetable oil and carefully rub the pan with the oiled paper towel. Ladle the batter onto the pan, using the back of the ladle to spread the batter into a round shape. Cook until the surface of the pancake starts to bubble, about 2-3 minutes. Flip carefully with a spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, about 1-2 minutes more (I am actually unsure about the timings so please don’t accurately follow them, I just used my eyes and instincts to tell whether they are cooked through or not).
Continue with more oil and remaining batter (makes about 4 pancakes). Serve warm, with desired toppings.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Anzac Pancakes

April 25, 2014December 27, 2018 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Today (April 25) is Anzac Day, a national day of remembrance, commemorating Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. So to commemorate Anzac day, I decided to bake some home-made Anzac biscuits. They are made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water, popular in Australia and New Zealand. It is said that Anzac biscuits were sent to the soldiers abroad by their wives, mainly because the ingredients used to make them did not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. Today, Anzac biscuits are manufactured commercially for retail sale.

Initially, that was my plan, to bake some home-made Anzac biscuits. But I woke up today wanting to make some yummy pancakes. So I thought to myself, why not both?…In one? And thus for today’s recipe, Anzac Pancakes. I basically used a basic pancake mix and added a few extra ingredients from the Anzac biscuit.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 15-20 MINS | MAKES 6 PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

1 cup plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 tbsp honey & maple syrup blend by Capilano, plus extra for drizzling
1 tbsp vegetable oil, for cooking

METHOD

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, rolled oats, and desiccated coconut. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, egg, and honey & maple syrup blend. Add the dry ingredients to the milk mixture and whisk until well combined (do not overmix, a few small lumps are fine).
Heat a small pan (nonstick or cast-iron) over medium heat. Fold a sheet of paper towel in half, and moisten with the vegetable oil and carefully rub the pan with the oiled paper towel. Ladle the batter onto the pan, using the back of the ladle to spread the batter into a round shape. Cook until the surface of the pancake starts to bubble, about 2-3 minutes. Flip carefully with a spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, about 1-2 minutes more.
Continue with more oil and remaining batter (makes about 6 fairly large pancakes). Serve warm, with desired toppings.

It was quite a gloomy, rainy morning here in Sydney, so I decided to have a cup of Crème Brûlée flavoured black tea from T2 to go with my pancakes. What a great way to start a morning I reckon! Also, I actually really like my pancakes with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. I just didn’t add these ingredients in because I really wanted this to be a true Anzac Pancake. But I think the pancakes definitely needed these extra two ingredients!