Make a Valentine’s Day Breakfast for Your Sweetheart


Do you need a perfect beginning to your St. Valentine’s Day celebration? Treat your better half to a romantic breakfast in bed! Pancakes are, of course, a safe bet for any special breakfast, and a portion of chocolate pear pancakes are sure to satisfy any chocolate lover.

Chocolate Pear Pancakes

Cook & Prep time: 35mins

Makes 6 x 20cm/8-inch pancakes (Serves 2)

Ingredients

For the batter

50g/2oz Plain Flour

½ – 1 tablespoon Pure Cocoa Powder

1 Egg

150ml/5fl.oz. Milk

For the pears

2 Pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/ ½ – inch pieces

About 4 tbsp Sugar

1 x 2.5cm/1-inch Cinnamon Stick

Cold water

For the Chocolate Sauce

50g/2oz good-quality dark Chocolate, broken into small pieces

25g/1oz Butter

3 tbsp Honey

Vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Place the flour and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl or large jug, mix well then add the egg and milk and mix until well blended and smooth using a balloon whisk or handheld electric. Set it aside whilst you prepare the pears.

2. Place the chopped pears in a small saucepan together with the cinnamon and sugar and enough cold water to come halfway up the fruit. Place over a medium heat and bring to simmering point, mixing well and continue to cook for about 5 minutes or until soft.

3. Meanwhile, put the chocolate, butter and honey in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water and leave until the chocolate starts to melt. Mix well until you have a smooth sauce. Remove the pan from the heat, cover the bowl with a lid or clingfilm but leave it in the pan and set aside.

4. Once the pears are tender, turn the heat off, drain any excess liquid, remove the cinnamon stick then crush the pears with a fork. Cover with a lid and set aside whilst you cook the pancakes.

5. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a small frying pan until very hot, swirling it around to coat the base of the pan. Pour off most of the oil then add one sixth of the batter to the hot pan, tilting the pan so the batter covers the base evenly. Cook for about 1 minute until just set then loosen the edges using a palette knife or fish slice, turn the pancake over and cook for a further 30 seconds or so until lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining batter, keeping the cooked pancakes warm under the grill or in a low oven.

To Serve fold each pancake into quarters, place three on a plate, place the pear mixture over the pancakes then drizzle with the chocolate sauce.

Maybe your soulmate is not into a major sugar kick early in the morning. Instead, treat her or him to a cup of delicious coffee with cute cookies on the side.

“I love you” Cookies

0.5 lb soft butter

0.5 lb powdered sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

4 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 lb. flour

0.1 lb vanilla pudding powder

Preheat the oven to 356F. Run the butter and sugar in a mixer, mix until it is fluffy. Add both eggs, and the sour cream, mix this for two minutes. Stir together baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour and vanilla pudding powder in another bowl. Add the vanilla extract to the butter mix. Mix everything until the dough is ready. Leave the dough in the fridge for at least an hour. Roll out the dough, use extra flour if it’s too sticky. Use heartshaped “Message in a cookie” cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma.

Bake for about ten minutes in the oven. Let the cookies cool before you decorate them. (Recipe from www.passion4baking.com)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *