Sweetheart Pancakes

2/28/2017

A lovely stack of Sweetheart Pancakes!

Heart-shaped pancakes that you're sure to fall in love with!

Sweetheart Pancakes come in awesome flavours! Even the flip side looks pretty!

Yaay! Today is Pancake Day! When I was a kid everyone used to call it Pancake Night. At that time pancakes were always served at suppertime on Shrove Tuesday. Today pancakes are a regular item on the menu in my kitchen, but February's selection is usually extra special.

Yes, we have fun with yummy toppings, but I thought I'd share some pancakes hot off the griddle. And here's the naked truth! These pancakes are gluten free, vegan and delicious!

The flavours shown are vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and chocolate. I simply used homemade berry purées and cocoa powder. No food colouring at all!

Sweetheart pancakes just out of the frying pan

Use a heart-shaped pan, egg ring or cookie cutter to make these Sweetheart Pancakes!

I used a small heart-shaped pan to cook each pancake individually. You can also buy heart-shaped rings that you can place on a frying pan or griddle. But if you don't have either of those items, you could simply drop the batter on a pan or griddle as you normally would for pancakes. It's much faster, and the pancakes will still have these pretty colours and taste just as delicious! And, if you wish, you could even cut them into heart shapes using a cookie cutter.

If you try these at home it will be love at first sight (or bite)! Bon appétit!

SWEETHEART PANCAKES

Heart-shaped pancakes that you're sure to fall in love with!
AUTHOR: Beverley Noseworthy
MEAL: Breakfast/brunch, dessert
DIETARY INFO: FODMAP friendly, gluten free (option), peanut free (nut free option), refined sugar free (option), vegan
MAKES: 12 small pancakes (8 cm/3 in in diameter)

INGREDIENTS

DRY INGREDIENTS

1 cup gluten-free flour blend*
1 teaspoon golden flax meal/flour **
2 teaspoons baking powder

WET INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon melted butter/margarine (check label for vegan option)
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or 1 1/2 tablespoons organic cane sugar)
1 - 1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk (or other preferred milk for nut-free option or if desired)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (omit if using vanilla-flavoured milk)

FLAVOUR ADDITIONS

2 - 6 teaspoons strawberry purée (made from 1/4 to 1/2 cup berries)
2 - 6 teaspoons strained raspberry purée (made from 1/4 to 1/2 cup berries)
2 teaspoons of strained blueberry purée (made from 1/4 to 1/2 cup berries)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder combined with 2 teaspoons maple syrup

SUGGESTED TOPPINGS

fresh berries
sliced banana or other fresh fruit
berry coulis or compote
chocolate sauce (such as my Dark and Delicious Chocolate Sauce)
yogurt
maple syrup
dusting of coconut milk powder (or icing sugar if you prefer)

METHOD

1. Prepare the flavour additions. Use a small food processor/blender to make each of the berry purées. Strain the raspberry and blueberry purées to remove seeds and any large pieces of pulp. Make the chocolate-flavoured addition. Set aside. (You will have extra purée. You can use it to make a coulis or sauce for the pancakes.)

2. In a medium bowl, add the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

3. In a separate bowl add the wet ingredients and stir to combine.

4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy.

5. Prepare the berry and chocolate batters. Get 4 small bowls. Add 1/4 cup of batter to each bowl. Then add the flavour additions. Begin by adding 2 teaspoons of strawberry purée to one bowl, Stir to combine. Add additional purée, if necessary, until batter is the desired pale pink shade. Prepare each of the remaining flavours (raspberry, blueberry and chocolate) in separate bowls.

6. Lightly brush cooking oil on at least one small heart-shaped frying pan (or on a frying pan/griddle and heart-shaped egg ring, if using). Heat over low heat so pancakes will remain a light colour on the top when fully cooked..

7. Cook the pancakes. Add 1/8 cup of the plain (vanilla) batter to frying pan/griddle/ring for each pancake. Cook until bubbles form on the top and the outside edge of the pancake is dry. Then turn the pancake and cook about a minute on the other side. Cook the remaining vanilla pancakes. This recipe will make about 4 of the first flavour. Transfer cooked pancakes to baking sheet, cover with foil and keep warm in the oven (200°F) until serving time. Cook the remaining pancakes in a similar manner. This recipe will make 2 pancakes of each remaining flavour.

8. Serve pancakes with desired toppings.

TIPS

Check the ingredient list on the food packaging to ensure that each food item used in the recipe meets your dietary needs (e.g. gluten free, vegan or peanut free).
*For this recipe I prefer to use a gluten-free flour mix that does NOT contain xanthan gum. It caused the pancakes to stick to the small pan that I used. If gluten-free is not required you could use any all-purpose flour. I have also used buckwheat flour in this recipe to make the chocolate pancakes.
**I used golden flax flour as a binder/egg replacement, but you could use brown flax flour/meal for chocolate pancakes, or a commercially-prepared egg replacement. If you prefer, you may include an egg (not a vegan option) rather than the flax flour/meal.
If you use a different flour blend you may need to adjust the amount of milk. Add a cup of the milk and stir the mixture to see if the remainder, or more, of the milk is required.
You may make the berry purées from either fresh or frozen berries.
I used a small heart-shaped frying pan. Heart-shaped silicone egg rings also work well. You may also make these as round pancakes and use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to obtain a similar effect.

PER PANCAKE, approximately (One vanilla flavoured pancake without toppings.)

Calories: 51
Carbohydrate: 9 g
Fibre: 1 g
Sugars 1 g
Fat: 2 g
Protein: 1 g

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