Pancake day – what a glorious day! A whole day dedicated to the the most simple, yet possibly the most delightful sweet treat? What could be better!

The smells evoke nostalgia, and bring back memories of childhood. Both my mum and grandma have always made creps, and I don’t think I’ve had american style pancakes until I was around 14 and started getting into cooking. And then years later, I changed my diet around, and ended up only ever having the fluffiest stacks of mostly berry filled pancakes.

Through the years I’ve tried so many different recipes, with substitutes for this and that, but these are actually the best ones I’ve come across so far.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 banana, mashed
• 3⁄4 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 cup flour*
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

*I’ve used a mix of 2/5 all-purpose gluten free flour, 1/5 buckwheat flour, 1/5 rice and 1/5 coconut flour. If using regular flour, adjust the amount of milk for desired consistency (batter should be thicker, but liquidy enough so you can spread it in a pan)

Method:

• Beat egg until fluffy.
• Add mashed banana and mix it well together.
• Add milk and coconut oil.
• Add dry ingredients and mix well.
• Heat a fry pan (grease with a little amount of coconut oil if not using the non-stick kind).
• Pour a small amount of batter (approx 1/4 cup) into pan and tip to spread out or spread with spoon.
• When bubbles appear on surface and begin to break, turn over and cook the other side.

Quick berry jam

• 3 cups frozen berries
• 2 tbsp sugar

Place fruit and juice in a small saucepan and bring to medium heat. Once bubbling, reduce heat and use a spoon to mash the fruit. Continue cooking over medium-low heat for 10-12 minutes, occasionally mashing fruit to combine.

Now onto the amazing chickpea spread. I love hummus. There is no day when I’d say no to hummus, and that’s a fact. But sometimes you just crave something sweet, and when you’re not really a nutella aficionado, you start thinking of something that is going to do the nutella thing without it being nutella.

There is a bunch of recipes on how to make your own, but honestly the whole process seems long and I needed something that takes literally no time and is just as delicious. So I first decided to blend up chickpeas, cocoa powder, dates, a bit of tahini and almonds. And it was great!

Next time I swapped tahini for coconut oil, added more dates, used cashews instead of almonds, and for some extra sweetness some carob powder – and it was even more delish! All said, I highly suggest using chickpeas, coconut oil, cocoa powder and dates as a base, and adding in all kinds of nuts, seeds and things to make it even more delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup drained well-cooked or canned chickpeas
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 6-10 dates, pre-soaked (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp carob powder
• handful of cashews, pre-soaked
• few splashes of almond milk for desired considtency
• optional: handful of cacao nibs

Method:

Blend everything on max speed and voila!

Let me know if you try any of the recipes don’t forget to check out my last Pancake day post: )

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