Monday 5 November 2012

Oat flapjacks with peanut butter cinnamon sauce and banana

Oatmeal flapjacks with peanut butter cinnamon sauce and sliced banana
I love flapjacks. American pancakes. Crumpets. Whatever you want to call them, they bring me back to the days when my mom would make mountains and mountains of different flavoured Brumpets on a Saturday morning and us three kids would just stuff ourselves silly.


I can't find a photo of our old Brumpet ready-mixes, so I'll show you a photo of us instead.
Well now my lovely mom is staying with me for the weekend here in the Lowveld and I thought it might be time to return the favour.

Who could say no to that lovely face?
Now like it or not, I am a dietitian (I do like it, actually, I like it a lot) and my natural reflex with all recipes is to recipe redux. Nothing drastic - I just tried to reduce the glycaemic index and fat content because, well, I could. If you're feeling fancy, there are several low GI, low fat flapjack recipes out there calling for ingredients like rye flour, tofu and wheat bran. However, the thought of getting out of my pyjamas to go shopping for ingredients was too horrific for words, so I used ingredients lying casually around my kitchen.

The result is a flapjack with a touch of sweetness, that is slightly yet pleasingly more textured and dense than its originator.


Not a bad result.
 Yield

About 12 flapjacks (of about 20cm diameter), or 4 servings

Ingredients

1. 100g whole rolled oats (I use low-GI oats, but all rolled oats will do)
2. 125g cake flour
3. 55g or a large pinch (1/8 teaspoon) of Stevia powder
4. 5 mL (1 tsp) baking powder
5. 1 whole egg, beaten with a fork in a mug
6. 125mL (1/2 cup) low fat milk
7. 125mL (1/2 cup) fat free plain yoghurt (or simply more milk)
8. A pinch of salt
9. Butter for cooking


Delicious, and keeps you full for hours.


Method
  1. The first thing to address is the whole oats - if we just chuck them into the batter, we'll end up with raw oats in our pancakes. You can do one of two things here: 
    • The first, and my preference, is to cover the oats with about 1 cup of boiling water and leave to soak while you assemble the rest of the ingredients. 
    • Alternatively, you could pulse them in a blender to make a sort of oat flour - remember, this will increase the glycaemic index a little. If you choose the latter, just double the milk to make up for the lost moisture.
    • Remember that instant oats (such as Oatso Easy) have a high glycaemic index, so try avoid them.
  2. Sift the dry ingredients together and make a well in the centre. Add the beaten egg
  3. Using a whisk, beat in the milk a little at a time, and then the yoghurt. Use a light hand, the trick is to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. The batter should be a good dropping consistency (when a spoon is lifted out of the batter, the batter slides off slowly after a second or two) with small bubbles on the surface.
  4. Leave the mixture for 15 to 30 minutes.
  5. Set your stove to medium heat and add just a smudge of butter to a pan (about 1/4 teaspoon per pancake for the pedantic). If you have a functional non-stick pan, this is not strictly necessary, but oh! is it delicious.
  6. When the butter starts to sizzle, add a small dollop of batter to the pan. As soon as the edges start to appear a different colour and lift off the pan, flip. Assess the small pancake and change the heat as necessary. 
  7. Keep the cooked pancakes in a very low warmth oven whilst the rest are being made.
Serve with topping of your choice.
I made a peanut butter sauce (mix 1 tablespoon peanut butter with 2 tablespoons of plain yoghurt, add some milk if you feel it should be runnier, and cinnamon and honey as desired) and chopped banana. Now that I think about it, a little vanilla essence might be nice in that sauce too. Garnish with edible flowers if you have someone to impress.

If you can manage to leave some over, they make delicious sandwiches the next day or can easily be frozen for a quick breakfast mid-week.

The great thing about these is that they can function as a high-protein substitute for bread.


What is your favourite Sunday morning, stay-in-your-jammies brunch with someone you love?

4 comments:

  1. Pancakes are one of my favorites and I'm always looking for new recipes! Thanks for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do love oat flour in pancakes and that goes double now that I cook gluten-free for myself. I'd like to try the bananas in the pancakes instead of on top and see how that turns out. Yes, my family is subjected to many culinary experiments, too, often several versions of a recipe as try to get it just right. Pleased to discover your blog today, it's the first South African one I've encountered. You live in such a beautiful country, amazing birds and wildlife, too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've just made an exclusively oat flour batch and they're delicious! So much texture! The bananas are such a great idea, then you can use much less sugar or whatever sweetener, and an awesome way to get rid of browning bananas.

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Thanks for stopping by! My name is Amanda and I am an (unlikely) registered dietitian. Join me as I figure out how to fix my own dysfunctional relationship with food and fully embrace health, happiness and self-love.

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