Breakfast Club - Croissants with Warm Blackberry and Apple

This is only our second Breakfast Club - last weekend the concept was given a very wide berth thanks to over indulging in beverages on Saturday night at K's barbie. But, we're back with vengence this weekend! Today's breakie included the left over pikelets from yesterday, with Peach and Apricot jam, Summerberry Jam or Passionfruit Curd for slathering over the top ... mmmmm! But the star dish is one of our favourites for this time of year, Croissants with Warm Blackberry and Apple. This version is made the WW way but for maximum enjoyment use full fat croissants and whatever fruit is on hand, blueberries and raspberries added in work really well.

Croissants with Warm Blackberry and Apple

2 eating apples (3 if on the small side), peeled, cored and chopped roughly

150g blackberries

2 reduced fat croissants, halved

2 tsp low fat spread

2 tsp caster sugar (I use vanilla suger)

Place the apples and blackberries in a small pan with 2 tbsp water. Bring gently to the boil and simmer for 3-4 mins until softened.

Preheat the grill to medium. Spread the croissant halves with the spread and arrange in an ovenproof dish. Spoon over the blackberry and apple, so that some of each piece of croissant is exposed. Sprinkle with the sugar and grill for 2-3 mins until the croissant is beginning to brown.

Serve warm, divided between two plates.

Serves 2

Think this one came from a WW magazine!

Pikelets

About the first thing I was ever allowed to make in the kitchen by myself were pikelets. These mini pancakes were a prerequisite in our family, almost a rite of passage. Visits to my Grandparents house on a Sunday afternoon always had pikelets on the menu, Granny was the master pikelet maker and my cousin and I were the master taste testers - unless banana bread was also on the menu, in which case I got the pikelets and B got the banana bread. I was happy with this deal ;0)

Pikelets in our family didn't actually come with a recipe attached, just a bit of this and a bit of that and a "you'll know when you've got the mix right" kind of statement that never really seemed to be that helpful when I was little. My preferred method these days is;

SR flour (about 200g or there abouts)

some caster sugar, depending on how sweet a tooth you have at the time but 20g is a good guess

1 egg, beaten

Enough milk to make the batter the perfect dropping consistency (that's pretty thick still)

Heat a frying pan and melt some butter so the pikelets don't stick. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan and wait for bubbles to start to appear on the top. When the bubbles pop and leave a hole in the mixture the pikelets are ready to turn over, they should take between a minute or two on each side - school girl errors taught me that bumping the temperature of the pan up didn't actually make them cook any quicker, although, on occasions, the smell of burning butter could raise the attention of a jumpy grown up frightened the house was about to be burnt down around them!

Best served warm with a nice dollop of butter oozing into them, or left to cool and then spread with butter and jam and made into a pikelet sandwich M&B style!

American Style Fluffy Pancakes for Pancake Day

I seem to always be on a quest for finding the perfect pancake recipe.  I like a pancake to be light and fluffy, not flat and rubbery which some of them can be.  We gave this recipe from BBC Food a whirl last night for Shrove Tuesday and we were pretty pleased with the results, the only point to really complain about is that the recipe doesn't make enough!!

American Style Fluffy Pancakes for Pancake Day
135g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
130ml milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
To serve
Maple syrup
Butter

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.

Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When it's melted, add a ladle of batter (or two if your frying pan is big enough to cook two pancakes at the same time). It will seem very thick but this is how it should be. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm (½in) thick.

Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan.

Serve with lashings of real maple syrup and extra butter if you like.

Makes 4-6
BBC Food Website