Pancake Day - It's flipping marvellous
It’s Pancake Day soon.
When it comes to pancakes, I’ll take sweet or savoury.
Pancakes Day (or Shrove Tuesday) always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday and traditionally, was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fat before embarking on a fast for the period of lent.
The pancake has a very long history and featured in cookery books in the UK as far back as 1439.
Every country has its own version of a pancake. France has the thin and delicate crêpe, India has the Uttapam – a type of dosa, Japan has the Okonomiyaki whilst Hungary has the Gundel, a pancake stuffed with walnuts, raisins and rum served with a warm chocolate sauce. The Chinese have the crispy spring onion pancake and the Indonesians have the sweet coconut pancake, dadar gulung. Its characteristic green colour coming from pandan leaves.
Whilst it’s possible to make raw versions of most types of pancakes (a few pictured below), today I am offering you the simple and delicious Black Forest pancake. If Shrove Tuesday is traditionally to use up eggs, then surely in the raw food world, it is to use up bananas. The batter only takes moments to make and is a rewarding use of any speckled bananas if you don’t want to make ice cream or banana bread.
The pancake benefits from the tang of sour cherries, but if you don’t have them, you could try other fruits with a touch of acidity such as oranges or raspberries.
Don’t skimp on the warm cacao sauce. It can last for a few weeks once made and adds to the luxury of the dish. I couldn’t choose between vanilla cream and coconut yoghurt so decided to let the pancake wallow in both.
Some raw foods will be fine lingering in the dehydrator for longer than the stated time. This pancake recipe isn’t one of them. Be sure to flip after 5 hours for a tender pancake.
CHOCOLATE PANCAKE
INGREDIENTS
makes 5-6
5 tablespoons buckwheat flour or gluten free oat flour**
1 tablespoon cacao powder
3 very ripe bananas
1 tablespoon ground golden linseed (flaxseed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch sea salt
METHOD
Sieve the buckwheat/oat flour. In a high-speed blender, whizz together the bananas with the sieved flour, cacao powder, ground linseed, vanilla and sea salt until it is a smooth batter. You are aiming for it to be a thick cream and not too runny. Place two spoonfuls of the batter on a teflex sheet and using the back of a spoon, form thin rounds of about 5 inches in diameter. With practice, you will be able to produce similar looking pancakes each time. Dehydrate at 115F for 5 hours. Remove the pancakes from the teflex sheet, flip and then continue to dehydrate for a further hour to dry the underside.
SHELF LIFE: 3 weeks in a sealed container/wrapped in the refrigerator. Separate with baking parchment and then wrap in cling film. Bring to room temperature before enjoying - or warm in the dehydrator for 20 minutes.
** make sure you download ‘Essential Techniques to make Raw Food Like a Pro’ when you subscribe to my mailing list. It will explain this technique and more.
CHOCOLATE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons agave
2 tablespoons maple syrup
4 tablespoons cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch sea salt
METHOD
Blend together all the ingredients. Pour into a small jug and keep warm in the dehydrator until required.
SHELF LIFE: 3 months at room temperature in a sealed container.
VANILLA CREAM
INGREDIENTS
100g/3/4 cup soaked cashew nuts
5 tablespoons water
1 and 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch sea salt
METHOD
Blend together all the ingredients. Refrigerate until required.
SHELF LIFE: 3 days in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
TO SERVE/per person
1-2 chocolate pancakes per person
1 or 2 tablespoons frozen black cherries, thawed
1 or 2 tablespoons coconut yoghurt
1 or 2 tablespoons of vanilla cream
a drizzle of chocolate sauce
Love pancakes? In the Diploma in Raw Chef Mastery you can learn the skills to create all kinds of pancakes from all around the world (pictured below).
You can find out more about it here.
