Russian-style Pancakes with Banana and Rye

Unfortunately, in the cooking process, I used the last
of the sour cream.  These are nice alongside powdered
sugar in a pinch.

Russians have a wide variety of pancake-like breakfasts: syrniki, which are dense and made of farmer's cheese, blini, which are very thin, and alladushki, which are like American pancakes, but denser.
This is a recipe for alladishki.  The alladushki are rather sweet on their own, and are best when served with sour cream, orange marmalade, or anything else with a sour note present.

While cooking, I used sour cream, although you can easily substitute strained yoghurt for it.




Ingredients:

♕210g / 1.5 cup white flour
♕60g / 0.3 cup rye flour
♕50g / 0.25 cup sugar
♕8g / 2 tsp baking soda
♕dash salt
♕1g / 0.5 tsp cinnamon
♕2g / 1 tsp orange zest (dry)
♕130g / 0.5 cup sour cream
♕1 egg
♕45g / 2 Tbsp honey
♕200g / 1 cup milk
♕Oil or butter, for cooking
♕2 or 4 bananas
note: if you want the bananas to be on both sides of the alladushki, use 4.

Procedure:

♕Slice bananas into 1cm / 0.5 inch rounds.
♕Combine dry ingredients, mix well.
♕In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients, except for the banana and mix well.
♕Heat a pan to medium-low temperature, and warm up oil.
♕Once the pan is hot, mix all of your wet and dry ingredients together.
♕Pour a large spoonful of batter onto the pan.
note: if you used 4 bananas, before pouring the batter, place 3-4 rounds onto the pan and put the batter on top of those.
♕Place 3-4 rounds of banana on the wet batter facing towards you.
♕Let sit until edges are just slightly browned, around three minutes, making sure not to burn the alladushki.
♕Flip alladushki over with a spatula and cook their other side for a bit shorter time, a little less than two minutes.
♕Cook all of the batter as such.
♕Serve hot or cold-- these keep well in the fridge,
 in an airtight container.

Chocolatey Banana Bread

Banana bread is a very convenient way to use up blackened bananas.  This recipe for banana bread contains a high amount of whole grains, with chocolatey undertones and chopped nuts for complexity.  It is a good bread for breakfast, with a dough that is not too moist or too dense, thanks to the combined efforts of the baking soda and sour cream.

Ingredients:

♕1 cup / 120g whole wheat flour
♕.5 cup / 50g rye flour
♕.5 cup / 65g white flour
♕2 t / 9g baking soda
♕2 T / 11g cacao powder
♕3 T / 25g dark chocolate, chopped and/or shaved
♕1 cup / 200g turbinado sugar
♕.75 cup / 180mL milk
♕1 tsp / 5mL vanilla extract
♕.25 cup / 55g coconut oil
♕3 very ripe bananas
♕2 eggs
♕4T / 58g sour cream
♕10 hazelnuts

Procedure:

♕Preheat oven to 375˚F /
♕Sift together flours, cacao powder, shaved chocolate, and baking soda.  Add sugar and stir.
♕Mash bananas into a paste in a separate bowl.
♕Melt coconut oil and stir into bananas.
♕To banana mixture, incorporate milk, vanilla extract, eggs, and sour cream.  Stir until
homogeneous.
♕Chop hazelnuts roughly.
note: a mortar and pestle is ideal for this.  Shoot for chunks the size of pebbles.
♕Once the oven is ready, quickly divide mixture into two standard (8' by 3' / 21cm by 8cm) pans.
♕Top with hazelnuts, and bake for 45 minutes.

Healthier 15 Minute Sundaes

 

I realize that most sundaes take approximately three minutes to assemble, so this recipe's main selling point is that it will clog ones' arteries slightly less than a sundae made with all store-bought components: The fats are healthy saturated type, the sugar can be modified (white granulated, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, or even stevia can all be easily accepted by the recipe).   Most importantly, the flavors compliment each other very well.  I was very happy after eating this.

Ingredients:

♕1.5 cup / 355mL whipping cream
♕3T / 45mL brewed coffee no sugar
♕1.5T / 25mL vanilla
♕5T / 70g coconut oil, solid
♕5.5T / 30g cacao powder
♕1/3 cup+ 3T / 90g+40g sugar (separated)
♕2-5 bananas
♕Optional: pineapple, berries, raisins, nuts, or even more bananas for topping

Procedure:

♕Put a large metal bowl and the beaters to an electric mixer into your freezer.
♕Brew some coffee, make it strong.

♕Microwave coconut oil to melt it.
♕Mix in cacao powder and 1/3 cup / 90g sugar, and stir until homogeneous.  Set aside, it should be more or less fluid.
♕Once the coffee and chocolate sauce is done, remove the metal bowl and beaters from the freezer.
♕Allow 3T/ 45mL coffee to cool while you pour the cream into the bowl.
♕Whip the cream, starting at a low speed and ending fast.  Near the end of the whipping process, add vanilla, coffee, and sugar.
♕Slice your bananas.
♕Into three or four large serving glasses, layer banana, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.  Top with other things, if you so wish.  The chocolate should become solid soon after being poured.


♕Serve immediately or after refrigerating, with coffee or strong tea.