Pancake Toppings ~ 22 Delicious Suggestions
In this post ...
These pancake toppings are to accompany my post of various pancake recipes (including the gluten-free crèpes below which I actually prefer to the gluteny ones – crisp and nutty and delicious!) here are some good things to serve on them, although they will also work on waffles, French toast, normal toast, brioche, fingers and so on.
Saucy Pancake Toppings
Sticky Toffee Sauce
25g butter
225g soft dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175ml double cream
~ Melt together the butter and dark brown sugar, stirring all the time.
~ Add the vanilla and cream and stir till merged.
~ Bring to a fast simmer but do not boil.
~ Use immediately or cool and re-heat gently to use (if the butter separates out when reheating add a little cold cream and stir it in. The sauce will immediately re-emulsify.
Banoffee Sauce
Just slice a banana or two and sauté in a little butter till turning golden. Stir in some of the above Sticky Toffee Sauce.
Apple Cider Sauce
175g sugar
300ml cider
5 Bramley apples
~ Bring the cider and the sugar to a
boil, stirring till the sugar has
dissolved.
~ Turn down a little simmer and cook
to a light golden brown – about 10
minutes.
~ Peel and slice the apples, add to the
pan and return to a boil.
~ Turn down the heat, cover the pan
and cook for about 10 minutes
stirring from time to time. The
apples will naturally break down
into a kind of chunky sauce which is
why I recommend using Bramleys.
~ When all cooked and mushy beat
with a wooden spoon to achieve
your ideal apple sauce texture.
Caramelised Pineapple & Rum Sauce
450g granulated sugar
Small can (227g) pineapple in fruit juice
50ml rum or Malibu
~ Drain the pineapple setting aside the juices.
~ Coarsely chop the pineapple.
~ Put the fruit juice right beside the stove.
~ In a small heavy pan over medium heat stir together the sugar and half a cup of water till the sugar is dissolved completely.
~ Turn up the heat and boil the sugar, watching it all the while but not stirring at all, but you can carefully swirl the pan a bit as it takes on colour.
~ Watch carefully.
~ As soon as it reaches a lovely rich golden brown caramel colour carefully pour in the fruit juice. This will splatter a bit so stand back. Stir over the flame till the caramel, which will have hardened, melts again.
~ Stir in the chopped pineapple, turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes till the pineapple is a little darker.
~ Away from the heat stir in the rum or Malibu.
~ Cool the sauce and then chill till needed.
Dark, Milk or White Chocolate
Caramel Sauce
These are absolutely my favourite chocolate sauce recipes! So the recipe for them is, not surprisingly here in my post on my 10 Best Chocolate Recipes.
Fruit Coulis – a slight recipe!
soft fruits such as berries or ripe peaches
sugar (approximately half the weight of the fruit)
~ Put the prepared fruit in a small saucepan.
~ Add the sugar to the fruit.
~ Simmer the fruit, helpfully giving it a squash
now and then – you could add a dribble of
water to encourage the sugar to melt if the
fruit isn’t very juicy.
~ Strain through a fine nylon sieve pushing on
the fruit debris to extract as much coulis as
poss.
~ Cool, cover and chill till needed.
Syrup Pancake Toppings
Honey and maple syrup are two syrups commonly used with pancakes, and no wonder, but other ones work well too for instance Coffee Caramel Syrup here.
Incidentally the butter in my picture is melting on a pancake which has been sprinkled with panko crumbs for gorgeous crunchy butter and sauce catching surface. See here for more panko ideas.
Preserves as Pancake Toppings
Here’s an easy one – just top your pancakes with a spoonful of lemon curd, jam, marmalade or similar.
Creamy Pancake Toppings
These can be with or instead of my other suggestions and include …
~ Whipped Cream (maybe with a little alcohol whipped in, maybe not)
~ Clotted Cream
~ Sour Cream
~ Ice cream (speaking of which have a look here at my book on a wonderful no-churn ice cream method with over 100 recipes)
~ Greek yogurt – plain, fruit, honeyed etc.
~ Cream cheese
~ Custard!
Butter on Pancakes
Just a knob of creamy, probably salted, butter melting onto hot pancakes is a lovely thing or dry flavouring the butter first with whatever you fancy! Cinnamon, toasted nuts, crushed caramel, vanilla sugar, all spring to mind. See here for Honey Cinnmon Butter and here for how to make flavoured butters.
Sprinkly Pancake Toppings
Finish off your dish with a scattering of …
~ Chopped, possibly toasted, nuts or
even salted nuts if serving, for instance, a caramel sauce.
~ Toasted Coconut (see here for how to toast coconut and also how to vastly improve desiccated coconut
~ Chopped or grated chocolate.
~ Crunched up granola!
~ Crunchy caramelised bacon – brush smoked streaky bacon rashers with maple syrup and cook on a baking tray under a hot grill to crisp. Cool and then sprinkle.
~ Crunchy sea salt, perhaps, with caramel or dark chocolate sauces.
Or, of course …
Fresh Fruit on Pancakes!
Happy Pancake Day!
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
