Gluten-free Corn Fritters

My grandmother was a great cook. Nothing especially fancy but the sort of homemade, stick to your ribs, oh-so-tasty fare that grandmothers are renowned for.

Her jam tarts in particular were spectacular!

But it was her corn fritters that seem to have stuck in my mind most clearly.

I had gone with her and friend for a week's stay on Tangalooma, a family-friendly resort on an island about an hour's boat trip away. We were in a downstairs garden apartment with a small kitchen where we could cook for ourselves and not have to eat out all the time.

I can so vividly remember coming in from the beach all wet and sandy to the smell of corn fritters frying and then burning my tongue eating them as soon as they came out of the pan.

There's just something about that combination of sweet and salty, crispy fried outside and soft fluffy middle that I can't resist!

These days no one in my family apppreciates a corn fritter quite as much as I do but they are a family favourite nonetheless.

You can think of these as a savoury pancake and top them any way you like.

I shared on Facebook during the week that I had leftover fritters topped with some smoked trout and sauerkraut (haha I just realised as I wrote it down that it rhymes!) for lunch the next day.

My kids also love them topped with crispy bacon and maple syrup. SO good!

Gluten-free Corn Fritters

2 cups gluten free plain flour
3 ts gluten free baking powder
1/2 ts salt
2 eggs
1 x 400g tin corn, drained
3/4 cup rice milk
Oil for shallow frying (Olive oil, coconut oil or ghee is great for these)

Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and whisk together. Add the eggs, corn and milk and fold together with a spatula until well combined. (You may need slightly more or less milk than this, it seems to vary with every batch and probably depends also how well drained your corn is).

Preheat your frying pan over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to generously cover the base of the pan. When it starts to shimmer you are ready to fry.

Dollop spoonfuls of mixture into the pan and flatten out slightly. Fry for about 3 minutes then flip and fry on the other side until crisp, golden brown and cooked through.

Remove from the pan and place onto a wire rack over a baking tray. This ensures the fritters stay crisp on the bottom (nothing worse than a soggy bottom!)

Repeat with remaining mixture.

Makes approximately 16.

Are there any foods you feel really nostalgic about from your childhood?

Let me know below!

Susan

Baked Banana and Blueberry Pancake

So baked pancakes. Did you know that was a thing? We love pancakes and pikelets in this house. I love that you can pack them full of good stuff and the kids still eat them. The kids love them just because they taste good.

Most days though we just don't have time to stand at the stove and cook pancakes 4 at a time in a pan. Enter baked pancakes. You mix up all the same ingredients, pour them into a preheated pan and cook in the oven for 20 minutes or so while you go and do something else. Brilliant!

My version uses lots of eggs, wholemeal spelt flour and the sweetness of banana, blueberries and a small amount of coconut sugar. I took it out of the oven just before I left for school pick up so it was ready to eat as soon as we all got home.

This was a delicious afternoon tea for my boys but it would be a perfect weekend brunch as well.

Happy baking!

Baked Banana and Blueberry Pancake
Adapted from All Recipes

3 eggs
1 large very ripe banana
1 tbs coconut sugar
1 ts vanilla extract
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1 ts baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup blueberries
4 tbs butter or coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius / 180 degrees fan-forced. Add the butter or coconut oil to a 20 x 30cm baking dish and place the baking dish into the oven to preheat as well.

Place the eggs, banana, coconut sugar and vanilla into a food processor or blender and blitz until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients (except the blueberries) and process for a few seconds until well combined, scraping down the sides if you need to.

Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and swirl it to coat the bottom evenly with the melted butter or coconut oil. Pour in the batter, scatter the blueberries over the top and return to the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes. It will be golden brown, puffed up and smell amazing.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing or leave to cool completely and serve at room temperature.

melt butter or coconut oil in pan

bake for 20 -25 minutes

My Sweet Corn Pancakes

One of the very few vegetables my Mr 5 will eat (and I'm not counting chips as a vegetable because he won't touch homemade ones) is corn on the cob. But there is absolutely no way he will eat a muffin, pancake or anything else with pieces of corn in it.

I adore corn fritters with their sweet and savoury flavour and packed with herbs. But I accept that those won't get eaten and sometimes you have to compromise. I came up with these sweet corn pancakes and was delighted to see them gobbled up without a pause.

The secret is processing the corn with the eggs and milk to form a completely smooth puree. The small amount of coconut sugar enhances the sweetness but you could leave that out, add 1/2 ts salt and make them savoury instead. They would be delicious served with avocado and smoked salmon.

Hope your fussy eaters enjoy these as much as mine!

My Sweet Corn Pancakes

1 x 425g tin corn kernels, drained and rinsed
4 eggs
200ml rice milk*
2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
3 ts baking powder
2 ts coconut sugar
pinch salt
oil or ghee for frying

Place the corn kernels into the food processor and blitz until chopped. Add the eggs and milk and process for 30 seconds or so, scraping down the sides if you need to, until the mixture is completely smooth.

Add the dry ingredients and process until just combined. Use a spatula to scrap the sides and mix through an extra flour. * Add an extra tbs or so of milk if you feel the batter is too thick at this stage as all flours differ.

Heat a large frypan over medium heat and add the oil or ghee.

Once hot, place heaped tablespoons of mixture into the pan (I can fit 4 at a time) and cook for approximately 3 minutes each side.

Remove to a plate and keep warm as you repeat with the remaining mixture.

Serve with butter, syrup and crispy bacon.

Makes around 16 pancakes.

Fluffy Father's Day Pancakes

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads!!! I hope you are all being spoilt this morning.

My hubby missed out on breakfast in bed this morning as we have to be up early and all pitch in to be ready for swimming at 8am. BUT I did make him a yummy breakfast. Apologies for the terrible photo, it was very dark and very early!

These were some of the lightest and fluffiest pancakes I've made, which you can't always say about pancakes made without wheat flour and buttermilk (I've made some real duds over the years believe me!).  Hubby and the kids LOVED them and they were the perfect start to Father's Day.

Hope you're having a great weekend :)

Fluffy Father's Day Pancakes

2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1 tbs aluminium free baking powder
1 tbs coconut sugar
pinch salt
2 eggs
1 ts vanilla extract
270ml can Ayam coconut milk
1/2 -2/3 cup rice milk (or any  milk you like)
maple syrup and banana to serve
coconut oil for cooking

Place a large pan over medium heat.

In a large bowl place the flour, baking powder, coconut sugar and salt and whisk together. In a jug or small bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla, coconut milk and 1/2 cup of the milk together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until only just combined. The batter should be thick but if it is too thick and sticky add more milk, a little at a time until it is smooth and spoonable.

Drop some coconut oil into the pan and swirl to coat. Place spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan (I can fit 4 pancakes in my 10 inch pan). Cook until bubbles appear on the surface then turn and cook for another 2 minutes or so until golden brown and cooked through.

Place directly onto serving plates and top with sliced banana and a generous drizzle of maple syrup.

Enjoy!

Oaty Pancakes with Strawberries

I am the early riser in the family. Morning is my favourite time of the day and my alarm goes off at 5.30am every day. When the mood strikes I get up and exercise, or I'll just have a cup of tea and enjoy some peace and quiet, mentally preparing myself for another busy day with my 2 little people.

After yet another long week of illness in the food.baby household a yummy Sunday breakfast was definitely in order so that's what I spent my early morning doing.

Usually after having a breakfast of pancakes made with white flour and loads of sugar I will crash a few hours later, starving and with a headache. Recently though I've been making simple changes to our diet, swapping white rice for brown, always buying wholemeal or multigrain bread, reduced fat cheese and the like. So my challenge was to make some pancakes that the kids would actually eat while still being pretty healthy.

Oats are my breakfast of choice most days so that's what I used here and I was really happy with how these turned out. The batch of 12 disappeared in record time and with the strawberries on top it was the perfect start to our Sunday!

Oaty Pancakes with Strawberries
Makes 12 pancakes, serves 4.

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tbs sugar
1 ts vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup almond milk (or whatever milk you like)
1 punnet of strawberries
1 tbs orange juice
1 tbs maple syrup

Wash, de-stem and halve the strawberries and place them in a bowl. Pour over the orange juice and maple syrup and toss well to combine. Leave to macerate while you make the pancakes.

In a large mixing bowl stir together the flour, oats and sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Lightly grease a large fry pan with butter and cook pancakes over medium heat 4 at a time (or whatever will fit in your pan). You should get 12 pancakes from this mix. Cook on the first side until you see lots of bubbles start to form then slip over and cook until golden brown. Continue with the remaining batches.

Serve warm with a big spoonful of strawberries and syrup. Yum!

Ten in 10 Update 4 and Banana Pancakes

I don't know if it came through in last week's update but I was feeling a little blah about my Ten in 10 journey. So this week I didn't do anything special. Oh I still exercised but apart from that I didn't worry about any calorie counting or food choices. The result? I actually lost weight.

No wonder dieting makes us all crazy when there's no rhyme or reason to it!

This week I re-read 'Changing Habits, Changing Lives' by Cyndi O'Meara. I think this is one of the most common sense approaches to healthy living and re-reading it has brought me back to basics.

The premise is simple: unhealthy habits like skipping breakfast, not exercising and drinking too much coffee are all habits that can be broken. Unlike other programs where you go cold turkey, here you read one chapter at a time and start a new healthy habit. Chapter 1 is on eating a healthy breakfast every day. So for a week or month or however long it takes you to form that habit, that's all you work on before proceeding to chapter 2.

Now I've always eaten breakfast. There's no way I would make it through the day if I didn't. But this week I will be enjoying some healthier and more filling options like bircher muesli. Hopefully will have some recipes to post as well.

Now onto another breakfast, we had these scrummy banana pancakes a few weeks ago. They were without doubt the BEST banana pancakes on the face of the earth. I took photos and filed it away to post sometime. Problem is I made up the recipe on the spot and I cannot for the life of me remember what I did.

I know there was yoghurt in them, and ... umm ... bananas? Sorry 'bout that.

But here is a photo of the best banana pancakes on the planet served with greek yoghurt and maple syrup. Enjoy! :)