Coconut Pancakes

This was a fun quarantine challenge. My friend Hannah loved the Trader Joe's coconut pancake mix and was sad it got discontinued, so Michael and I took it upon ourselves to recreate it from scratch! We think ours turned out with even better texture than from a box.

Coconut Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

·   2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

·   ¼ cup sugar

·   1 teaspoon baking soda

·   2 teaspoons baking powder

·   ½ teaspoon salt

·   1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted per instructions below
*It’s also possible to toast sweetened coconut, but it requires a lower temperature to prevent the sugar from caramelizing, so it takes longer.

·   2 eggs, beaten

·   2 ½ cup buttermilk (or just whole milk with ½ teaspoon of lemon juice)

*For a more coconut-y flavor, can replace up to 1 ½ cup of the buttermilk with coconut milk, but this will make the pancakes more dense.

·   2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted to liquid

·   Butter for cooking surface

INSTRUCTIONS

1.      Toast the shredded coconut in a dry frying pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. When you smell the coconut aroma, it’s done, even if not all the coconut has browned.

2.      Lightly mix all dry ingredients together.

3.      Add all wet ingredients to the beaten egg and combine well.

4.      Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until incorporated. Don't over-mix!

5.      Warm a skillet or griddle to medium, then add a pat of butter to coat pan.

6.      Drop ¼ cup rounds of batter and let cook until bubbles begin to pop in center of pancake, about 1-2 minutes for first pancake. Flip pancake and cook for an additional minute or so until golden brown.

7.      Note that subsequent pancakes will cook a lot faster than the first one. Test cook surface and temperature, and adjust cook time accordingly.

Italian Pesto Crêpes

I'll kick off this blog by saying that I married an incredible chef. So naturally, in our household, Michael does all the cooking and I do all the cleaning, except one day a week when we switch roles and I make a super fancy meal to try and impress him. For our last in-home date, I came up with Italian pesto crêpes to combine two of my favorite foods of all time. Incidentally, both are fairly easy to make from scratch in a Blendtec (which makes for easy clean-up too).

First, start with the pesto. Since I discovered this recipe, I'll never go back to store-canned pesto. Nothing can beat the FRESH basil and parsley, the garlic and strong asiago cheese (yeah, I accidentally used that instead of parmesan) that actually give it a kick, and the richness of the pine nuts. Basically, I'm obsessed with pesto now and try to put it on everything.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

• 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• 4 cloves garlic
• ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup pine nuts

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Remember to save some parsley leaves for garnish.

Yields about 2 cups pesto.


Set pesto aside in the fridge while working on the crêpes. This recipe is called "Awesome Crêpes" because it was invented by Michael after we tried out several different recipes. It's just the perfect combination of thin, fluffy, and springy. Leave the sugar out if you're going for savory crêpes, or if you're doing both dinner and dessert (as I did), try half the sugar.

Awesome Crêpes


Ingredients:

• 1½ c. milk
• 1 c. flour
• 2 eggs
• 1½ Tbsp. butter
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)

Instructions:
Blend all ingredients in a blender. Keep batter in the pitcher to pour directly onto the crêpière*. Pre-heat crêpière on medium. When hot, lift crêpière off the burner and pour about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter in the middle. Turn crêpière to spread batter around (do NOT spread with a spoon or spatula). Cook until lightly brown at the bottom (usually the top is cooked through at this point). Flip the crêpe over and lightly brown the other side.

Yields about 10 crêpes if made in a standard crêpière.

*If you're wondering where to get your own crêpière, here are two highly rated ones on Amazon:
Norpro 9.5 inch Nonstick Breakfast/Crepe Pan (this one's only $17)
Berndes 9-1/2-Inch Crepe Pan (this is one of the ones we have, and we love it, but it's $40)
You can also use a 9½ inch frying pan for similar-sized crêpes, but it can be quite tricky to get the crêpes out of a deep pan. 



Finally, assemble your Italian crêpes with the following ingredients:

Italian Pesto Crêpes

• Chicken breast, cooked, seasoned with salt, and cubed
• Mozarella, cubed
• Pesto
• Spinach
• Tomatoes

As a bonus, make dessert with the extra crêpes!