Autumn Baked Apple Oats
2020-04-01
Autumn is truly with us and new-season crisp apples abound. Turn your morning oa...
Oat Pancakes with Honey-roasted Figs
Prep 30 mins
Cooking 30 mins
Serves 10 large pancakes
Autumn is slow-food season, time to take a bit more care than usual and whip up something to celebrate the bounty of the season, like perfectly plump purple figs. We roasted them with cinnamon and the merest hint of honey to bring out their ‘figiness’. To go with these roasted purple beauties? Fluffy American-style pancakes. But ever conscious of being good to our bodies, we add loads of fibre-rich oats to the mix, and we cut back on the sugar. A dollop of creamy plain yoghurt and toasted almonds and you have yourself a mighty fine breakfast to start a lazy autumn weekend.
What you will need
- For the oat pancakes:
- For the honey-roasted figs:
- 1 cup oats (normal rolled oats, not steel cut oats)
- 1 punnet of purple figs
- 1 cup low fat milk
- ¼ tsp Natural Herbs & Spices Ground Cinnamon
- 2 extra large free range eggs, separated
- 1 Tbsp runny honey
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar (the less refined the better)
- For serving:
- ¾ tsp Natural Herbs & Spices Ground Cinnamon
- Full cream plain yoghurt
- ¾ cup self-raising flour
- Toasted flaked almonds (simply toast them in a clean non-stick pan until golden)
- Pinch of salt
Method
To make the oat pancakes:
Place the oats and ¾ tsp cinnamon in a large bowl and pour over the milk. Allow to stand for 10 minutes so that the oats can start softening. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and add it to the oats. Sift in the flour and salt and mix. Use an electric handheld whisk to whisk the egg whites until stiff-peak stage (Cook’s tip: Don’t use a plastic bowl, egg whites whisk best in a stainless steel or glass bowl. Also do make sure that the bowl and whisk attachments are clean – any spot of yolk or fat of any kind and you’ll battle to get stiff-peak egg whites.) Add a third of the whisked egg whites to the oat mix and use a large metal spoon to gently fold it in until it disappears. Repeat twice with the remaining two thirds of egg white, taking care to always fold gently and not stir vigorously – you want to preserve as much of the air in the egg whites as possible.
Place a large non-stick pan over low heat and either spray it with non-stick cooking spray or brush it with a bit of vegetable oil. Use a quarter cup measure to scoop up pancake mix and pour it into the pan – these oat pancakes do spread quite a bit, so only make two at a time. Cook them on one side until you see bubbles that pop appearing on the surface of the pancakes. Now use an egg lift to flip them over and cook on the other side until golden. Keep warm while you make the remaining pancakes.
To make the roasted figs:
The figs can go into the oven when you start cooking the pancakes. Simply make a cross in the top of each fig and place them in a shallow ovenproof roasting dish. Squeeze the bottom of each fig a bit to open up the cross. Dust each fig lightly with cinnamon and pour over honey. Roast in a pre-heated 180°C oven for 20 minutes.
Serve pancakes topped with roasted figs, yoghurt and toasted almonds. For those with a sweet tooth an extra drizzle of honey is a good idea too.
Recipe concept & photography by Lizet Hartley.
Lizet Hartley is a freelance stills and reel food stylist, food photographer and recipe developer. In her spare time she – rather predictably – cooks. Get more of her recipes on her blog at http://www.melkkos-merlot.co.za
