Dutch pancake

I love this recipe as it's perfect when you are time poor and feel like its a pancake kind of day. As I'm on my last legs of my pregnancy, everyday is a pancake kind of day.

This pancake is baked at high temperature in a skillet where it puffs up in the oven then settles down as it comes out. Typically served with a dusting of icing sugar, whipped cream and lemon wedges on the side. It's so delicious.

I love to whip this pancake up and throw whatever fresh fruit I have in the fridge. Today's option was juicy sweet figs.

Makes 1 large pancake

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup yoghurt
2 tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 cup of plan flour

1 tbs of melted butter for the pan

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celcius.

2. With a mixer beat the eggs, adding the milk, yoghurt, sugar, salt and vanilla until sugar has dissolved.

3. Add flour and mix until smooth.

4. Use an ovensafe frypan and coat the bottom of the pan with the melted butter.

5. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top and dark brown around the edges. (Pancake will rise whilst cooking and deflate once removed to cool.)

Beware the frypan handle is HOT. Use oven mitts to handle the hot handle or else you'll burn your palms. Something I haven't forgotten in a hurry.

6. Loosen the pancake around the edges with a couple of shakes of the frypan and slide out of the pan onto a plate.

7. Serve with fresh fruit, a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Handy hints
You can substitute 1/4 cup of yoghurt with thickened cream which will still give you a fluffy texture. But as I have yoghurt in my fridge at all times, this is what I use.

Happy New Year 2016 mochi ricecakes

The soft chewy texture filled with red bean filling oozing with that first bite, that's when I fell in love with mochi. I vividly remember as an after school snack, mum would purchase these favourite treats of mine. Wrapped in clear plastic, 6 mochi balls of pink, white and green filled with red bean which I would devour in a few minutes.

To celebrate Chinese New Year 2016, I thought I would attempt to make rice cakes of some sort. This meant experimenting with different flours to attempt hoddeok, a sweet Korean pancake which reminded me of the street stalls in Korea selling these tasty treats filled with cinnamon peanut sugary goodness. With that down pat, my next experiment was to try mochi.

Scouring the internet for an easy recipe, they varied from baking the glutinous mix to some fiddly and time consuming methods. I adapted Maagchi's "Korean style mochi rice cakes" recipe for my purposes. I found that you'll need to work quickly with the mochi to make the most of the elastic quality whilst its warm to cover the balls of red bean or black sesame paste. The kids will love stretching out the mochi and attempting to enclose their filling of choice.

The Koreans call this dish chapssaltteok whereas the word mochi is a Japanese word that simply means “rice cake.” The Korean version of chapssaltteok uses the colour green which is created with green tea powder. I found that mochi came in three different colours, white (plain), pink (with 2 drops of red food colouring), and green (with 1 teaspoon green tea powder or 2 drops of green food colouring).

I would of liked to make the filling but due to time constraints, I opted to try the ready made pastes. Next task for me is attempt to make the white sesame filling that hubby loves so much.

You'll never buy mochi again once you discover how easy it is to make it. I recommend you devour a few before the kids and hubby have discovered that you have made these delicious delights.

Makes 10 mochi balls

Ingredients

Filling
Red bean paste
Black sesame paste

Ricecake
1 cup glutinous rice flour
sprinkling of potato starch/ or mung bean starch powder
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of water
2 drops of food colouring of your choice, I opted for green

Outside coating
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup black sesame powder

Method

1. Roll your paste into 10 balls 2-2.5cm diameter for easy insertion into the rice cakes. I found putting the paste in the fridge to harden slightly made it easier to roll into balls. Or sprinkle a little starch powder to prevent the paste sticking to your hands when you roll into balls. Set aside to use later on.

2. Place glutinous rice flour, salt, sugar and two drops of green food colouring into a microwave-safe bowl.

3. Add water to the rice flour and mix well. (It may look like a liquid mix rather than dough, but don't worry)

4. Cover the rice mix with plastic wrap and cook on HIGH 3 mins in the microwave. (Watch the mixture slowly rise and fall before you have a ricecake)

5. Remove the rice cake from the microwave. (Be careful taking off the plastic wrap or else be blasted with hot steam, this happened to me). Mix the rice cake with a spoon for 20 seconds.

6. Cover the rice cake with plastic wrap and put back in the microwave for HIGH 1min.

7.  Knead the hot rice cake with a spoon as the best you can for about 1-2 minutes. This is the key part to get that soft chewy texture.

8. Sprinkle your choice of starch powder on your cutting board. Pull out the rice cake with a spoon into a sausage shape.

9. Wet your hands first, to stop the rice cake sticking to your hands. This way you can attempt to shape your rice cake into a rectangle about 15 cm x 5 cm. (Somehow I managed to flattened my rice cake into an oval shape that was 15cm long and 2-5cm in width) 

10. Cut the rectangle into half with a sharp wet knife and cut 5 even perpendicular cuts, to make 10 pieces of rice cake. Cover the rice cakes with plastic wrap to keep them from getting dried out.

11. Take one piece of rice cake, flatten and stretch out to a round circle about 5 cm in diameter.

12. Add a sweet red bean ball or black sesame ball to the middle of the piece of rice cake. Pull the rice cake over the ball and seal by dabbing a little water to join the edges with your fingers. Roll the mochi to look like a nice round ball. (If the rice cake starts sticking to your fingers, add a little starch powder to prevent this.)

13. I wanted to add an extra dimension of taste, so I dabbed water on the outside of my mochi and rolled this in coconut which the kids loved. Hubby is more of a black sesame fan, so I rolled a few mochi in black sesame powder for him.

14. Repeat this until you’ve made 10 pieces of chapssaltteok/mochi ricecakes.

15. Eat a couple before the kids discover them.

Handy hints

*Red bean and black sesame paste can be found at Asian grocery stores.
*Place paste in the fridge as this hardens this slightly and makes it easier to roll into balls
*Potato starch and mung bean starch can be used. I prefer the mung bean taste so I went with mung bean starch.
*It's extremely hot when it comes out of the microwave, so be careful with removing the plastic wrap.
*Work within 5-8 minutes of the dough being cut to make nice smooth round balls for presentation

Light and fluffy superhero pancakes

What is it about the golden brown, crisp on the edges, light and fluffy centre, that has you coming back for more? That's right, I'm talking about the all time favourite, pancakes.

This pancake recipe is extra light and fluffy with a balance of just the right amount of baking powder and baking soda giving the pancakes light texture and golden brown colour.

 

It's also not too bad in making fun characters for the kids too. My sister set me a rather large challenge to cook pancakes like a boss with superheroes such as all the characters from Avengers.

I took the challenge on and asked the kids what they wanted, this varied from Pokémon, George Pig and Baymax so I did all three, of course.

So what do you think of my creations?


Makes about 20 pancakes or 10 the kids' fave characters

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar


Wet ingredients
2 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
1 cup of unsweetened yoghurt (I use Greek Yoghurt)
4 tablespoons coconut oil (or if you want to be more decadent use butter), plus more for serving


To serve
Maple syrup

Method

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until mixed through.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the egg yolks, buttermilk, and yoghurt until mixed through. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter/coconut oil while whisking

3. Carefully fold in the egg whites with a rubber spatula until just combined. Pour the mixture over the dry mix and fold until just combined (there should still be plenty of lumps).

4. Using a stand mixer, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

5. Heat a large heavy-bottomed non-stick frypan over medium heat for 5 minutes

6. Add a small amount of butter or oil to the frypan.

7. Use a 1⁄4 measuring cup to place 4 pancakes in the pan and cook until bubbles start to appear on top and the bottoms are golden brown, This will take about 2 minutes.

8.  Carefully flip the pancakes and cook on the other side until golden brown. This will take about 2 minutes too.

9. Serve the pancakes immediately, or keep warm on a wire rack set in a warm oven while you cook the remaining batches.

10. Serve with maple syrup and butter.


Handy hints

* You can easily make buttermilk using milk and vinegar.
1. Place a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup.
2. Add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line.
3. Let stand for five minute. Then, use as much as your recipe calls for.

How to draw characters
If you are going to make characters, my tips are to keep the frypan hot to ensure the outline is noticeable. Work reasonably fast as it's hot work.

Place the batter mix into a squeezie bottle (say an empty tomato sauce).
Draw the outline of your choice of character, freehand of course.
Add details such as the eyes, ears, hands, feet first and leave for a 1 minute.
Fill in the spaces with the remaining batter and wait for the bubbles to come up before turning over.