Blueberry Almond Pancakes

Happy Sunday! Today's recipe is all about these incredible, blueberry and almond pancakes from the Super Fresh cookbook. Fresh (four locations in Toronto) is my favourite restaurant. It serves up the most delicious vegetarian and vegan foods, even all of my meat-eating friends love it! When I saw this cookbook at work I knew I had to pick it up and I'm so glad I did. It's full of two hundred or so recipes, a few of which I have already tried and they went over very well. 

While these blueberry almond pancakes are on the menu at Fresh, I have yet to try them there. I thought I'd try my hand at making them on my own. Usually, I like my pancakes piled high with maple syrup and whipped cream or maybe even some Nutella but these pancakes are already so flavourful from the fresh, juicy blueberries and the fragrant and toasted almonds. The recipe is super fast to put together as well, so these make an impressive, yet quick weekend breakfast where you are not fussing around the kitchen for too long.

Yield - about 10 six-inch pancakes

Ingredients -

2 cups of flour, the original recipe calls for gluten-free all-purpose flour, I used quinoa flour
1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 of a teaspoon of sea salt
1 and 1/2 cups of almond milk, or whatever milk you have on hand
1/4 of a cup of maple syrup, original recipe calls for agave nectar
Coconut oil, for frying
2/3 of a cup of sliced almonds
1 cup of fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

Method -

1 - Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. In a smaller bowl, combine your milk and maple syrup. Make a well in the bowl of your dry ingredients and add a little of your liquid ingredients. Mix together. Keep on gradually adding in your liquid, stirring after each addition. Mix until everything comes together and makes a batter.
2 - Heat your coconut oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Using a small ladle, drop your batter onto the hot pan. I use the back of the ladle to spread the batter out into perfect circles. Once you drop the batter, press some blueberries and almonds into the batter.
3 - Cook pancakes until the bottoms have browned and the tops are bubbling. Flip and cook until the other side is browned and cooked through. Repeat with leftover batter.
4 - Serve warm, with maple syrup.

Thank you for reading! Have a lovely day! x

Vegan Pear Muffins

We had a few pears laying around that were just days from going off so I thought I'd put together a little something with them. I really love this recipe for banana muffins so I used it as a guideline and changed things up quite a bit. Firstly, I omitted the banana and added in my overly ripe pears. Since pears are quite sweet, I cut the amount of sugar in half. If you want something sweeter go ahead and add in all the sugar, or even some maple syrup. I am not vegan (maybe one day!), but I really enjoy trying out vegan alternatives in my baking. Instead of using eggs, I made an egg substitute using just chia seeds and water. Instead of melted butter, I melted some coconut oil in both the muffins themselves as well as for the streusel topping. There really is no difference with the texture or the density of the muffins, so you don't have to worry about that. 

The end result leaves you with incredibly moist muffins that are packed with flavour and topped with a sweet and crumbly brown sugar streusel.

Yield - 12 muffins

Ingredients -

Muffins
1 tablespoon of chia seeds
3 tablespoons of water
5 small, overly ripe pears
1/2 of a cup of coconut oil, melted
1 and a 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 of a cup of organic sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 of a teaspoon of salt
1 heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/8 of a teaspoon of ground ginger

Streusel Topping
2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted
1/4 of a cup of organic brown sugar
1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
1/3 of a cup of oats

Method -

1 - Preheat your oven to 400F and line a muffin tray with paper liners. In a small bowl, combine your chia seeds and water. Mix and let sit for about five minutes. It will turn sort of gooey and act as a substitute for eggs in this recipe.
2 - Mash up your pears. The pears you use should be overly ripe and very soft. Once mashed be sure to drain any excess liquid. In a large bowl whisk your pears together with your chia seed mixture and melted coconut oil until combined. Set aside.
3 - In a small bowl mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Combine with your pear mixture and mix just until everything is moistened. 
4 - Spoon your batter into your paper liners. Be sure not to fill them up too much, you will need a bit of room for your streusel topping.
5 - Make your streusel topping by combining all your ingredients in a small bowl and top muffins generously.
6 - Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Be sure not to overbake. You want your muffins to be moist.

I hope you enjoy these! They are absolutely delicious and just so simple to put together. Have a great weekend! x