07977910823 [email protected]

Are pancakes on the menu today? Shrove Tuesday is the perfect opportunity to indulge in this wonderful comfort food but how to take part in the ritual but eschew the high fat/high sugar tradition?

Firstly, the pancake batter – cut back on any sugar in your chosen recipe. I use 1 teaspoon per batch only. As long as you use nice flavoursome fruity toppings you won’t notice. Ideally also choose a recipe with wholegrain flour to make it more filling and more nutritious. I use one with brown rice flour and some added baking powder, which gives it extra lift so that it’s not weighed down by the extra fibre.

Once you have a healthier batter, it’s time to tackle to toppings. I find that adding lots of fruit onto your pancake adds plenty of sweet flavour, and since fruit comes naturally packaged with fibre it’s much better than a loving spoonful of processed sugar. My favourite topping is an apple cinnamon concoction (like the one I use in my apple cinnamon breakfast from my post below) but then I think I’m a bit addicted to appley cinnamony tastes – I top the pancake with a couple of spoons of hot, fragrant apple cinnamon and then add a dollop of cold creamy yoghurt. Both greek yoghurt and vanilla coconut yoghurt create a lovely creamy topping. If it’s not quite sweet enough for you, you can either add more apple juice to the apple cinnamon mix before cooking – this then creates more juice to drizzle on your pancake – or you can drizzle on a little honey. For a quicker alternative I also love a pancake with strawberries and blueberries, a drizzle of honey and dollop of yoghurt. These toppings are so tempting, resisting the chocolate sauce isn’t even an issue!

PLEASE POST your favourite toppings. COMMENTS, LIKES and SHARES are also very welcome!