Almond pancakes with blueberries and ice cream

Photographer: Kate
Makes approximately 12 pancakes

Pancakes are a treat; they are often cooked in ones pjs on a lazy weekend morning.  So topping them with fresh blueberries and ice cream for our Mother’s Day shoot really pushed this already treat food into unchartered breakfast territory.  Everyone has their favourite pancake topping; mine used to be lemon and sugar.  But now the thought of sprinkling white table sugar on something feels so wrong (I say while talking about eating ice cream for breakfast).

Kate had made some amazing blackcurrant and lemon ice cream which will be posted later in the month.  We intended to serve it with these pancakes however sometimes in the world of food blogging things don’t go to plan, ice cream doesn’t set and you have to improvise.  So we did and we used a good old Kiwi favourite, hokey pokey.

 Special mention must be made again to the team at Citta Design for their beautiful homeware and styling which features throughout our Mother’s Day shoot.  My favourite pieces were the marble serving boards and the glass cake plate on stand, both of which can be found (along with the other props seen in our shoot) online at www.cittadesign.com.

Happy Mother’s Day mums.

INGREDIENTS

For the pancakes
4 eggs
3 cups almond milk
1 tsp vanilla paste
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 cups gluten free flour mix
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups fine almond meal
A pinch of salt


Butter and oil for frying

To serve
Ice cream
Fresh blueberries

METHOD


1. Turn your oven onto the warming function or if it doesn’t have one, turn it to Bake at approximately 75°C.
2. In a bowl or jug, whisk together your wet ingredients: eggs, almond milk, vanilla and maple syrup.
3. In a large bowl sieve the flour mix and baking powder. Then stir in the almond meal and salt.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Gently mix the wet into the dry, then give it a good stir until it becomes smooth and lump-free.


Note: Gluten free flour mixes are made up of various flours and so the consistency of pancake batters will vary. If your mixture is too thick, add more almond milk, ¼ cup at a time.


5. Over a medium heat, spray a non-stick frypan with oil and add a little knob of butter (around 1 tsp). Test your mixture by adding a small spoonful to the pan. When bubbles appear over the pancake, flip and cook for 1-2 mins on the other side.
6. Taste test and if you are satisfied cook one by one, adding more butter and oil when neccessary.
7. Keep cooked pancakes in the warm oven until you are ready to eat.
8. Serve with fresh or frozen blueberries and Greek yoghurt or ice cream.