About Time: You Pimped up Your Pancake Day 2017By Alicia Grimshaw
Fancy something a little bit different this Pancake Day? Us, too. We reckon we’ve found the best pancake toppings ever – from nut butters to coconut flours, here’s how to make the sexiest pancakes this year:
Pimp Your Pancakes: Sauces
What: Clarks Red Maple Syrup (£6)
The Lowdown: Clarks has just launched the UK’s first red maple syrup, just in time for Pancake Day. Tapped during the short red maple harvest in Quebec during early spring, supply of this pure Canadian syrup is limited and unique to the UK. The rare treat boasts a robust caramel flavour – perfect for drizzling over pancakes, or using as an alternative to white sugar in baking.
Where: Sainsbury’s
What: Yacon Syrup (£7.49)
The Lowdown: Yacon Syrup is an all-natural, healthy liquid sweetener, perfect for covering your pancakes. Yacon Syrup is extracted from yacon, a Peruvian root vegetable grown in the Andes Mountains. Not only is Yacon Syrup a great source of fibre, calcium, and iron, but it’s also a natural pre-biotic, making it great for digestive health.
Where: Yacon Syrup is available in 2 sizes, online and in selected Wholefoods Market stores.
What: Salted Caramel Sauce (£4.99)
The Lowdown: Joe & Seph’s Caramel Sauces are made with the same smooth caramel recipe as the popcorn, available in ten indulgent varieties. Think sticky toffee sauce, gin and tonic caramel sauce, rum and rasin caramel sauce, and salted caramel sauce. So many sauces. Our top tip: drizzle the sauces over your pancakes, and add a blob of ice cream. It’s a dreamy combo. Trust us.
Where: Online, Waitrose, Ocado, Selfridges, Harrods, Whole Foods Market and Harvey Nichols
Pimp Your Pancakes: Nut Butters and Spreads
What: Pecan Butter (£4.19)
The Lowdown: If you’re wanting something that’s not peanut butter this Pancake Dry, try Meridian’s pecan butter. We’ve eaten a fair few jars of the stuff, and we can report it’s very good news. The team roast pecans, then grind them for a delicious indulgent taste, and they never add any palm oil. So their nut butters aren’t just crammed full of nuts, they’re also better for the environment, and Orangutans. Best enjoyed with banana, and some maple syrup.
Where: Online, and healthy food stores
What: Coconut Almond Butter (3 pack £10)
The Lowdown: Hands down, best butter from the Pip & Nut range. The coconut almond butter will liven up your taste buds, and your pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Bursting with nuts and with a touch of sea salt, you’ll find it hard to resist.
Where: Planet Organic, Whole Foods, Holland & Barrett and online
What: Peanut Butter with Sunflower, Pumpkin and Flax Seeds (£2.99)
The Lowdown: Packed full of three types of seeds, Whole Earth Peanut Butter with Sunflower, Pumpkin and Flax creates a unique taste and a truly delightful spread. The peanut butter has plenty of gusto thanks to the addition of the seeds. It’s nutty. It’s tasty. And it works wonders on pancakes.
Where: Supermarkets nationwide
What: Banana Preserve (£7.50)
The Lowdown: You know Fortnum & Mason are getting all classy on us for Pancake Day when they start selling banana preserve. Way better than any jam, the preserve is handmade in England with ripe bananas. Excellent on anything, really.
Where: Online
Pimp Your Pancakes: Chocolate
What: Lindt Excellence Dark Roasted Hazelnut (£1.99)
The Lowdown: A new favourite for nut lovers, Lindt Excellence Dark Roasted Hazelnut features Piedmont hazelnuts – widely regarded as the world’s top quality variant for their fine, delicate flavour and spherical shape. Throw a few squares on freshly made pancakes, and let it melt. Pancake perfection.
Where: Sainsbury’s and online
What: Hazelnut and Cocoa Spread (£5.19)
The Lowdown: Wyldsson’s unique spread features the yummy taste of organic Peruvian cocoa combined with roasted hazelnuts, with a subtle sweetness provided by little chunks of dates and tiny bits of cashews. Take a spoonful of the spread, cake it on your pancakes, topped with berries and honey for the ultimate pancake party.
Where: Online
What: Tiptee Chocolate Spread (£2.99)
The Lowdown: Wilkin & Sons have blended real Belgian dark chocolate 60% with sugar, butter and double cream to create a rich, versatile Tiptree Chocolate Spread. And it’s palm oil free. This spread can be eaten with anything – toast, pancakes, waffles. You name it.
Where: Independent stores and online
What: Cadbury Crunchie Spread (£2)
The Lowdown: We may be a tiny bit late to the Cadbury spread party, but this beauty is a store cupboard must. Essentially, it’s a jar containing blended Crunchie with milk chocolate and honeycomb pieces, but the taste is out of this world.
Where: Waitrose and online
Pimp Your Pancakes: Ice Cream
What: Salted Caramel Ice Cream (£3.90)
The Lowdown: Pimp your homemade pancakes this Shrove Tuesday with a generous scoop of Jude’s ice cream. With a broad repertoire of flavours, Jude’s is dedicated to crafting the world’s tastiest ice cream from their dairy in Hampshire. Jude’s ice cream can be found on the shelves of the country’s best supermarkets, and an indulgent scoop of the award-winning Salted Caramel or newly launched Caramel Pecan will make the perfect topping to this year’s pancakes.
Where: Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado and online
What: S’wichUp (£4)
The Lowdown: Their legendairy Cookie Dough flavour took them 5 years to perfect. 25 years on, they’ve turned it even cookier. The Ben and Jerry’s crew amped the cookie-o-meter right up to concoct this: vanilla ice cream with chocolatey cookie sandwiches, a swirl of chocolatey cookies, and of course, cookie dough chunks.
Where: Ocado
Pimp Your Pancakes: Alternative Ingredients
What: Organic Coconut Sugar (£3.99)
The Lowdown: The Groovy Food Company’s Organic Coconut Sugar is great for those wanting a refined-sugar free alternative to the classic lemon and sugar pancake. It has a rich buttery caramel taste that really complements the acidic citric notes of lemon. It’s 100% natural, organic, unrefined and contains inulin, which can slow glucose absorption to lower the GI Index, unlike traditional refined sugar.
Where: Tesco
What: Biona Orghanic Coconut Flour (£3.99)
The Lowdown: Made from the finest selected organic coconuts, this is a healthy alternative to wheat and other grain flours. Ideal for both sweet and savoury baking, Biona Organic believe in great tasting, thoughtfully prepared food to complement an ethical lifestyle. They only use sustainable farming methods and do not work their land intensively – all their ingredients are of the highest quality, completely natural and suitable for vegetarians.
Where: Whole Foods, Planet Organic and other health food stores
Pimp Your Pancakes: Utensils and Plates
What: Are We Having Pancakes Plate (£25)
The Lowdown: Hand decorated in the UK, these plates are functional pieces of art, and will add some much needed sparkle to your pancake celebrations. It’s a cartoon badger on a plate asking for pancakes. What’s not to love?
Where: Online
What: Crepe Maker (£19.99)
The Lowdown: Frying pan looking a bit tired? Get yourself a crepe maker, and make pancakes until your hearts content. The Quest Pancake & Crepe Maker is perfect for easily making sweet or savoury pancakes, crepes and omelettes. Easy to clean, the raised edges ensure there is no spillage so you spend less time cleaning up, and more time tucking in to pancakes.
Where: Online
What: Personalised Pancake Spatular (£10)
The Lowdown: Let no pancake go unturned. These utensils have been handcrafted by artisans to a very high standard, will last for years, and will only get better with age.They only use wood from very old olive trees that have come to the end of their natural fruiting life and have already been replaced with younger, more productive trees. Each spatular can be engraved with a name, or short message (max 25 characters).
Where: Online
What: Animal Pancake Pan (£20)
The Lowdown: Tefal’s new pancake pan has been designed with an illustration of either a penguin or an owl on the bottom of the pan, to make perfect pancakes and an edible work of art. Simply wait until the pan is at cooking temperature – indicated by the Thermospot that will turn bold red – draw the outline so it has time to brown, before filling in the gaps with the rest of the mixture. Each pan has been made with a powerglide non-stick coating that promises durable non-stick cooking performance and has a glossy, enamel exterior and also comes with a squeezy bottle with a precision tip to ensure your pancakes are drawn to perfection.
Where: Tesco
What: Joseph Joseph Nest Multicolour Mixing Bowls (£32)
The Lowdown: Nest is the ultimate collection of practical, space-saving kitchenware comprising a unique range of food preparation sets. Their innovative design allows the individual elements within each set to be stacked together, saving tons of space. Both mixing bowls have non-slip bases and wider carry handles and the measuring cups have been redesigned to ‘snap’ together more securely.
Where: Online
