Pancakes are an excellent way to start a busy weekend. This weekend has been full with markets, the pub, craft, baking and a birthday lunch. It is the second weekend in a row that old bananas - that didn't make it into smoothies - went into
banana oat pancakes. After I made a batch last weekend,
Vegan MoFo made me wonder how could these be veganised. This weekend I had a go, using applesauce and chia seeds.
The pancakes were good but had a quirk I have noticed when I have tried making vegan pancakes before. Pancakes with egg are almost cakey inside but I find vegan pancakes quite soft (almost gooey) inside. It is something I will continue to investigate. If anyone has any suggestions, they are most welcome. Nevertheless, the pancakes were gobbled up readily by all of us.
We ate the pancakes with maple syrup at first. But as a child I never had maple syrup. It wasn't a common sweetener back then. We usually had either butter and sugar or lemon and sugar. So I revisited that childhood delight of watching the lemon juice melt the sugar crystals on the pancake.
On Saturday, we met up with a few people at the
Fitzroy Market. We have become regulars there, because E plays ukelele there. It is a great car book sale market. The focus is not on food. Yet there is enough food to please. We usually buy a barbecued vegetarian sausage wrapped in bread and smothered in sauce.
Yesterday we gave the cake stall a miss in favour of the icy poles, made with real fruit. I had a blackberry lemonade one, Sylvia had a strawberry one, and Yav and Florence had a mango and coconut one. They were predominately fruit and wonderfully refreshing.
When I could drag Sylvia away from playing hide and seek with a new-found friend, we browsed the stalls. I bought Sylvia a necklace for $2 and Yav bought a handful of necklace for Florence for $1. Heather bough apricot jam. Mum and dad bought coconut ice. E found a few interesting books, including a wee 1977 recipe book for me called
A Vegetarian in the Family: Meatless recipes for the odd one out by Janet Hunt. (No stigmatising vegetarians then!)
After the market, we all got paranoid about parking inspectors (they are mean in the Fitzroy streets) and decided to move our cars before setting off to the pub for drinks and nibbles. We had a fantastic time at the Rainbow Hotel. The food was delicious and the beer garden was the perfect place to relax. I'll write about it more later so today I will just share a photo of nearby graffiti.
This morning Sylvia and I did some craft with egg cartons. We made monsters that were inspired by
Red Ted Art's Blog. Having watched a lot of
Mr Maker lately, we mixed paint and gloopy glue, and then we had stuck on wool, beads, glitter, fabric hearts, jewelled stickers and googly eyes. When we had made enough monsters, we put a lot of our craft stuff onto a piece of paper. Great fun!
After craft, we baked some yummy biscuits before heading off to
Hellenic Republic for my sister's birthday. It is such a fantastic place to eat, especially with a large group with various dietary requirements. I wish I had taken more foodie photos but that was not that easy with a small child on my lap and a hungry family. You can glimpse a small hand with one of the delicious chippies below.
You will not be surprised to hear that it has not been a weekend for fancy dinners. We have arrived home in the evening without a lot of energy or appetite. Last night I made one of my favourite salads of last summer,
smoky potato, bean and corn salad. Not only was it just what I needed, but we also had leftovers for tonight. Hope everyone else has enjoyed their weekend.
Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago:
Amazing gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes
Two years ago:
Potluck, Salad and Car Trouble
Three years ago:
Vegan feta crackers for sleepless nights
Four years ago:
My Personal Vegetarian 100 List
Vegan Banana Oat Pancakes
Adapted from
my previous version
Makes about 16
1 tbsp margarine, melted
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup soy milk
2 tsp golden syrup (or other sweetener)
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp hemp seeds
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 banana, mashed
margarine, for frying
Mix melted margarine, applesauce, milk, golden syrup, oats, chia seeds and hemp seeds. Leave 5 minutes. Add flour, baking powder and banana. Mix til you have a thickish batter. It should be a thick pouring consistency - add a little extra milk if it is so thick that it comes off the spoon like cookie dough.
Heat a frypan over medium heat. Melt a little margarine in the frypan - the pan should be liberally greased rather than awash with butter.
Drop dessertspoons of batter into the frypan. Fry a few minutes until bubbles appear and the mixture dries out a little to look cooked. Flip over and fry another minute or two until the other side is golden brown.
Serve warm with maple syrup or lemon and sugar.
UPDATE: February 2015 - I have revisited these pancakes and am much happier with this vegan version of the Banana Oat Pancakes.
On the Stereo:
Back to Basics: Billy Bragg
This post is part of
Vegan Month of Food October 2012. Go to
my Vegan MoFo list for more of my Vegan MoFo posts.
Those pancakes look amazing and the most perfect way to start a nice long lazy weekend. Loving the egg carton monsters too ;0)
ReplyDeleteThanks Chele - I think when we don't have bread on a weekend pancakes are an easy quick fix
DeleteY'know, most of my pancakes are a bit soft on the inside too - it's hard to get them to cook through without burning on top. I've had good luck with the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe though!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly - I have Vegan with a Vengeance so will check out their recipe
DeleteNo stigma back in 1977 at ALL! You get the feeling that vegetarians back in the 70's were talked about with hushed tones behind hands like you had been in prison. It's a bit like that in Tasmania when you are a vegan ;). Good old Billy Brag...I dare say he narrowly missed a few episodes in prison and would DEFINATELY be one of those talked about behind the hand people back in the 70's. I don't make pancakes much but do make pikelets. You just skip the egg completely and add a bit of applesauce or mashed banana or something else like that to give it moisture and they work just fine. Try them :) I love reading your Melbourne posts. The son and heir now lives in Melbourne and it makes the distance between the mainland and we Taswegians seem a lot smaller. I am with Sylvia by the way...there is NOTHING better than an amazingly well cooked chip :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Fran - I think Billy Bragg would have been quite friendly towards the vegetarians in the 1970s. I always think my pancakes are like pikelets because they are small and thick - the ones I made had applesauce instead of the egg so am not sure how different these are to yours - maybe I need to try some plain ones again (though I think I have done so before).
DeleteWhat a fun day! We're still getting sunshining days in Toronto, so I've been soaking in farmers markets too. My childhood pancakes were always maple syrup or lemon sugar :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Hannah - glad you are enjoying sunny markets in Toronto - sounds like the good life
DeleteSounds like you had a fab weekend - and how wonderful to spend it in the company of the ones you love.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cakelaw - it was a great day and great company
DeleteI just use 2 tbsp of cornstarch/arrowroot mixed with 2tbsp of water to replace each egg in a standard pikelet or pancake recipe. I also make sure to add a dash of vinegar to my soymilk to replicate buttermilk, which with the acidity helps the baking powder to do its work. My pancakes cook up easily and fluffy and I can't tell the difference to the regular ones. I don't have banana in mine though, just plain so they would be less moist.
ReplyDeleteThanks lookimadeitmyself - I usually have both cornstarch and arrowroot in my pantry - and will try to remember the vinegar too - will keep trying
DeleteWhat a wonderful weekend Johanna - and I can see why no extravagant dinners were wanted, after such busy days! I really like the sound of your pancakes and you've made me realise that despite making pikelets quite often, I haven't played around much with vegan pancakes. I have found that baking with apple sauce sometimes makes things a bit too soft, so I wonder if that is part of the difference in texture? ( I also quite like that texture, but agree it is different.)
ReplyDeleteThanks Kari - I must look up pikelets - my mum made both when I was young but I think they have merged in my memory. I quite enjoyed the pancakes but need to understand them a bit more
DeleteSounds like a great weekend all around! And I love the egg carton monsters, too (and that grafitti!). Re: vegan pancakes, I'm like you--I don't enjoy them unless they are very cakelike and dry inside, so almost all my pancakes are made to turn out that way. May I humbly suggest my Fluffy Fruited pancakes? The Carob-date ones are also cakelike inside. But I'd say yours actually look very fluffy! Love the lemon juice trick, too-will have to try that with coconut sugar. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ricki - I think I have tried your buckwheat pancakes and I think they were cakey - must check again - I find that gf flour can also have a softer texture too but seems you have hit the jackpot with vegan and gf, Didn't think to get out the coconut sugar to have with lemon juice - would be yummy
DeleteGrowing up, we never had maple syrup either. Sometimes it was honey-butter, sometimes powdered sugar dusted over the buttered pancake.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bliss - powdered sugar over the pancakes sounds like those dutch profertjes which are always covered with it - but I love the crunch of the cystallised sugar
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