Raspberry Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

In our house pancakes are consumed quite a bit, not just on Shrove Tuesday. A basic batter can be adapted to sweet and savoury styles, they are economical, easily made and filling. A late morning visitor gave me the perfect excuse to make these slightly more indulgent pancakes for brunch.

Raspberry pancakes with maple cream cheese filling, some raspberries slightly warmed in the microwave and a little extra maple syrup for good measure. 

For a light and fluffy pancake use buttermilk or place two tablespoons of yoghurt in a cup and add milk to make it up to cup. The combination of yoghurt and milk adds an acidic quality much like the buttermilk. Adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder to every cup of SR flour will also make them lighter. You can get the recipe for pancakes here. For these thicker pancakes use a bit less milk approximately 3/4 cup of yoghurt/milk mixture.

To prevent the batter from discolouring it is best to spoon the batter into the hot pan and then put the berries onto each pancake, then flip them over. This is not the best photo but you can see the pancake on the left has had the berries stirred through the batter before cooking, the one on the right had the berries placed on the pancake after it was spooned into the pan. The discolouration of the batter is more obvious with blueberries and blackberries.

Maple Cream Cheese Filling

250 g cream cheese

1/2 cup maple syrup

4 tablespoons of sour/light sour cream

Combine all ingredients and mix together or pulse in a food processor until smooth. Refrigerate until required

It wasn't all sweet stuff, these zucchini and pea pancakes/fritters appeared again at dinner. Served with a spoonful of mint yoghurt and spicy tomato relish these make a good entree or lunch snack. Poached or fried eggs are also good with these, add some crispy bacon for the meat lover.

Zucchini Mixture
1 large zucchini grated - about 1 1/2 cups of grated zucchini
1 cup precooked frozen peas
1 egg
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 tablespoons of flour or more as needed to make thick batter

Place zucchini, egg, garlic and cumin in a bowl and mix well.
Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a thick mixture. Add peas and mix through.

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