Nutella Filled Pancakes

Letter # 1

Dear Blog,

       I haven't been doing any blogging lately. There are a few reasons behind this. Firstly, all the cooking that I have been doing lately turned out delicious but didn't look picture taking worthy. I have made delicious chicken with lentils, strawberry jam and then used that jam to make fruit leather and super yummy maple glazed Brussels sprouts. These all tasted great but did not look pretty.

       Secondly, being a novice photographer that I am, indoor lighting does not work well for me. Initially when I started this blog, I did take pictures on my kitchen table with the yellow light shining not so bright and post them. They are terrible. But now that I have taken pictures using natural light for the entire month of February I can not go back to taking pictures in my kitchen in the evening. I got some standards to meet in my own eye. Hence, no pictures worth posting.

        Last but not least, I put a lot of pressure on myself about blogging. The recipe has to be perfect (which must be- no excuse there!), the pictures have to be good (I try my best), and then write a nice post which needs to be interesting and funny (I don't consider myself funny) such that readers will like it and may be come back and visit again. Not being able to do this on a regular basis (thrice a week) was making me feel like I am not fulfilling my own expectations. When the food I was making in the evening after my work as a scientist in a lab, didn't look pretty, I was so upset with myself. I went to bed disappointed with myself. I felt that may be blogging was not a good idea as I am not good at writing. I always used to get the lowest grade in English language and highest in Math and Science in school. I love cooking but the pressure of blogging was taking the fun out of my cooking.

        That's why, I decided to write this blog like a diary. Let you (my blog) be my extension. I would like to continue sharing recipes here. Now, today's recipe is nutella filled pancakes. It does not necessarily need to be nutella, it can be peanut butter (that will be very nice), jam of any fruit or chocolate. So, this isn't a recipe really. It is about how to make pancakes a little more interesting.
Here are some pictures taken in natural light which looks good in my novice photographer's eyes:

I used:

Pancake mix (store bought or homemade). Because I made these for my husband and myself, I used gluten free pancake mix. Gluten free homemade pancake mix recipe here.

Few teaspoons of nutella or fruit jam or chocolate sauce.

Powdered sugar to make them pretty!

This is how I did it- 

Prepare the pancake mix following the package directions but the milk. Add a little less milk (I used almond milk to make it dairy free) than the package instructions. The pancake batter needs to be little thicker than usual.

Heat up a skillet on medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the pancake batter. Add about ¼ teaspoon of nutella in the middle of the pancake. Cover the nutella with a little bit more of the pancake batter (This is why the batter needs to be thicker than usual. If it is too thin, the batter will not cover the nutella, instead run to its sides). Flip and cook the other side of the pancake for another minute or two. Serve them warm with powdered sugar on top.

The pancakes can be filled with jam or peanut butter. The key is to not add too much filling such that it will spill.

Servings: For about 10-12 pancakes, I started with ¾ cup pancake mix.

Until next time, without much pressure of blogging but happily cooking,

Love,
Smita

Gluten free, Dairy free, Eggless Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

This is not by choice. My husband has recently moved to a gluten free diet. Also quit dairy and eggs. He is doing great with these restrictions. But this has challenged my cooking, specially breakfast.

I didn't have much knowledge about gluten free diet until recently. Well, in short, you can't have oats, cereal, granola, pancakes, cookies or anything for that matter unless it is specially made gluten free.

For now, we are buying gluten free cookies and cereal. We were also buying gluten free pancakes mixes. They don't taste quite like pancakes nor do they look like one. They look brownish rather than yellowish!

Now in a family of two (me and my husband), I am not making two different breakfasts, hence I started eating gluten free pancakes too. Dissatisfied by a few of the gluten free pancakes mixes available at the store, I started looking up recipes online and perfecting them over time. Here are the things I learned:

Flour: If you plan to buy all purpose flour mix, King Arthur has a nice gluten free all-purpose flour. However, if you want to make your own mix, some of the great gluten free blogs such as Gluten-free goddess, gluten free on a shoe string, gluten free girl are great places to get ideas.

Dairy free milk: Rice milk and almond milk are great options. However note that rice milk is thin (quite like skimmed milk) while almond milk is thicker (quite like full fat milk) in consistency. So, you might need to adjust recipe accordingly.

We were kind of getting tired of having maple syrup with pancakes every morning. 

The other day, my grocery store had the most beautiful looking strawberries. Also, I love strawberries! Made a very simple syrup with strawberries. Loved them on our pancakes. In fact, it was so good, I had a few spoonfuls of syrup right out of the jar. Shhh!

You need (Makes 8 pancakes):

For pancakes:

1 cup of  GF all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur's)

2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon maple syrup (You can use sugar or honey- note that the sweetness will differ)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce (I used Mott's natural apple sauce. You can definitely use sweetened and flavored apple sauce, just note to adjust sweetness)

¾ dairy free milk (I used unsweetened almond milk here. I also use rice milk at times. Use as much as needed for the mix to come to the right consistency.)

For strawberry simple syrup:

1 lb strawberries, hulled, chopped

⅓ cup granulated sugar

⅓ water

pinch of salt

Method:

For pancakes:

Add all the ingredients in a bowl except milk and mix (I don't bother to separate dry and wet ingredients). Add the milk and whisk until there are no lumps. I first added ½ cup milk, and then slowly added ¼ cup milk to reach the right consistency (not too thick, not too runny, somewhere in the middle is the right consistency.)

Put a griddle or pan on your stovetop on medium heat. Add ¼ cup of the batter for each pancake.

Cook for a few minutes until you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, takes a minute or two. Flip the pancake and cook the other side for about 30 seconds.

Serve with fresh fruits and homemade strawberry syrup.

For syrup:

Prepare the strawberries. Add the strawberries, sugar, water and salt in a small sauce pan on medium heat. 

Simmer for 15 min or until the sugar is dissolved and the berries become soft.

Transfer to a blender and blend to a smooth syrup. Chill before serving.