sweet miscellany

Buckwheat Pecan Pancakes with Honeyed Clementines

February 15, 2013 By Courtney West 1 Comment

A morning with pancakes seems to mean a morning without rush. Pancakes mean there is time to sit and enjoy the sun’s rays peaking into the window, soon to flood the room with light. Pancakes mean you can savor each and every bite, forgetting for a minute the millions of things you have to do. Pancakes encourage a bit of reading in that book that has been collecting dust on your nightstand. A morning with pancakes is relaxing, renewing, and refreshing after a week full of hustle and bustle.

My week days tend to be quite busy so my weekends allow for a bit of downtime. Though I love my morning yogurt and granola combo, I usually crave something a little more substantial on the weekend. I want a breakfast that I can enjoy slowly before greeting the sun and starting my day. Pancakes are a good stand-by, and this buckwheat pecan variety was particularly delicious last Sunday.

The honeyed clementines really brighten up these hearty pancakes, providing a lovely contrast of flavors and textures. If you can’t find or don’t have clementines (also called “cuties”), feel free to use any orange variety that is available to you. You can easily make the honeyed clementines ahead of time and keep them in the fridge. Just make sure to warm them through before enjoying them with the pancakes.
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Espresso Banana Doughnuts

February 11, 2013 By Courtney West 2 Comments

I did not like doughnuts as a child. Repeat DID NOT. I could never understand why it was a “treat” if someone brought a box of doughnuts to school or a sleepover. This may sound weird coming from a self proclaimed sweet tooth, but I thought they were too sweet. They were cloyingly sweet to be exact. To add to the unpleasant, tooth-aching sweetness, the dough lacked flavor and the glaze would always flake off in unattractive bits all over your clothes. Despite this dislike for doughnuts, there was one exception. I loved plain cake doughnuts. There was no sweet, flaky glaze on them and they basically tasted like lightly sweetened pound cake. They were totally my jam.

If I’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that I can improve upon foods by making them in my kitchen with my own two hands. That philosophy coupled with my distaste for doughnuts and the splurge purchase of a doughnut pan led to these espresso banana doughnuts. They are baked and have a much more complex flavor than anything you can buy at the corner doughnut shop. Aside from tasting awesome, they are both gluten free and vegan. If you don’t have a doughnut pan, you can still make some killer muffins out of these. Just make sure to watch the baking time.

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