Valentines Day Special Breakfast Platter – Multigrain Pancakes With Fresh Strawberries and Home Made Strawberry Syrup

A Perfect breakfast platter to woo your partner this Valentine's Day!

Valentines Day Special Breakfast – Multigrain Pancakes With Fresh Strawberries and Home Made Strawberry Syrup

Since this is the first time Masalachilli is celebrating Valentine’s Day, I thought I should slightly shift my focus into making something special. After all, it is the season of love and we have to celebrate it. Although, I personally believe everyday should be a celebration. A woman always shows her share of love by waking up early in the morning, preparing breakfast, lunch boxes for husband and kids so I thought, I should plan / prepare an easy recipe, something that even the husbands can manage to cook for their wives and give them a much needed break from the routine, for Valentines Day. So, instead of baking a cake or bread, which were honestly my initial plans, I thought of making a breakfast spread that is healthy and tasty and can be quickly whipped by husbands / partners. This breakfast platter consisting of Multigrain Pancakes served with fresh strawberries (coz they are in season) and Home made strawberry syrup will definitely make you feel royal for the rest of the day.

February is special for personal reasons too, it’s the month of Narayan’s birthday and Valentines day is also the day we got engaged. So, now you understand the pressure of posting something special for this month and occasion?

Honestly speaking, my husband encourages me to post so many of my dessert recipes on the blog as he loves my meetha a lot. But unfortunately, that means, meetha at home and we eating it. Though I admit here, I initially planned on baking a cake, which I haven’t done since ages. Trust me, I find more joy in baking breads than cakes any day. Also, baking a cake for just the two of us, with the constant travelling etc meant it would be a waste. Hence, the idea of making sweet pancakes. Small portions too!

If you ask me, I am not a pancake maple syrup person at all. I prefer Indian breakfast any day. It has to be hot, savoury, spicy and served with some hot chai. I don’t want a fancy buffet spread with variety of muffins, croissants etc, that is totally not me, early morning. Just a bowl of poha or upma and I am a happy soul. Also, I don’t like skipping breakfast as I get very cranky, something I was made to realise only after I married my husband and we were on a honeymoon in Maldives. There was hardly any vegetarian options for breakfast in Maldives so I always ended up having a glass of fresh fruit juice or a bowl of fruits (which by the way I hate eating it in mornings) and spent the rest of the day being cranky as I didn’t get masala chai and poha. Ha ha .. funny memories but priceless! So, when I was making these pancakes, it did remind me of the breakfast platters during our honeymoon.

While making a test batch of pancakes, I was most certain that I wouldn’t include Maida or All Purpose Flour so made a batter using Whole Wheat Flour, Ragi or Nachni and Rice flour to hold and give some shape to the batter. We had recently visited Saputara and I had purchased a lot of strawberries which came in handy. Made the pancakes even more special by adding strawberry puree. It provided natural sweetness and a slight tang to the pancakes. Of course, since these are sweet pancakes, sugar is essential. I have kept it minimum though as I am serving these with a strawberry sauce that also has a bit of sugar and some freshly chopped strawberries too. So the pancakes need not be overtly sweet. However, you may go ahead and add sugar according to your taste and preferences. These pancakes were cooked in ghee or clarified butter and they tasted absolutely delicious.

Valentines day though needs to be celebrated with good food, also means that it should be healthy too in some ways. After all, if we are celebrating love then the well being of our loved ones and health should be certainly the number one priority too, isn’t it? So, make smart choices and cook food that is tasty yet doesn’t compromise on health. Although, I have to admit here, that I tried making these with jaggery but had to dump the entire test batch as it didn’t turn out good in taste. I guess the strawberries and jaggery didn’t really go well together so I made another test batch with sugar and it was perfect!

Happy Valentines Day to everyone. Spread Love and be happy always! Eat healthy and stay fit! I am off to Bangalore for celebrating 2 special days with Narayan who is away there for some projects. See you in a while!

Recipe for Multigrain Pancakes With Fresh Strawberries and Home Made Strawberry Syrup

Prep Time – 20 mins

Cook Time – 15 mins for 6 small sized pancakes

Makes 6 small sized pancakes

Ingredients for the pancakes

1. Whole Wheat Flour – 4 tblsps
2. Finger Millet / Nachni (Ragi) Flour – 1.5 tblsp
3. Rice Flour – 1 tblsp
4. Cardamom powder – a pinch (optiona)
5. Baking Soda – ¼ tsp
6. Sugar – 3 to 4 tblsp
7. Strawberry Puree made with 7 to 8 strawberries
8. Ghee or Clarified Butter as required to cook the pancakes
9. Milk as required to adjust the consistency

Method to make the pancake batter -

1. In a bowl, mix the flours together and add the cardamom powder.
2. Add the strawberry puree along with baking soda and mix well
3. You may adjust the right consistency by adding milk.
4. Add sugar and rest this mixture for 5 minutes before you begin making the strawberry syrup.

How to make the Strawberry Syrup?

2. Take atleast 7 strawberries in a mixer grinder jar and add some sugar (as per your taste), give it a good blitz and then heat the mixture in a pan till it becomes slightly thick.
3. Just takes about 10 minutes for the whole process. However, cool the syrup before pouring over the icecream etc else (while assembling / plating) it will melt. For pancakes, you can serve it warm too.

If you want to try my homemade strawberry jam recipe, please check out the same. Absolutely pectic free, no preservatives and 100% fresh strawberries used. 

 How to make pancakes?

1. Once the pancake mixture is ready, heat a non-stick pan or griddle or tawa, smear some ghee and grease the surface well.
2. Since the pancakes don’t have APF, it might be sticky, so ensure the heat is on medium and wait patiently to cook before flipping the pancake and allowing to cook on the other side. Drizzle few drops of ghee.
3. Serve hot and fresh with the strawberry syrup or if you really want to have a lavish meal, please serve it with a scoop of strawberry icecream and some chopped strawberries with a good drizzle of this syrup and dust some cinnamon sugar or just plain icing sugar with some chocolate syrup too. I have kept it really simple and will enjoy these pancakes by dipping them in the not so sugary strawberry syrup along with some chopped strawberries on the side.

Recipe Notes –

• I have chosen to make the pancakes with a mix of flours. However, you can make this with APF / Maida entirely too.
• You can add some choco chips too in the pan cake batter if making for kids.
• You can make these pancakes with any seasonal fruits in the similar manner. Choose pulpy / fibrous fruits that add both body and natural sweetness to the dish. Eg:- Mangoes, Bananas, Berries of all kind etc.
• Flipping the pancakes is slightly tricky as they don’t have APF. So allow the pancakes to cook slowly over low heat and don’t turn them until they are complexly cooked on one side and you can see slight golden edges on your pancakes.

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Vidya Narayan