Coconut Pancakes with Mango-Honey Compote

I am procrastinating.

I don't wanna write another damn paper.

Ironically it's on chronic stress - apropos, eh?

Instead I will tell you about the coconut pancakes I made the other night.

They were outstanding.

My husband frequently sends me text messages about what he's decided he wants for dinner. Unless I've got something that requires a ton of preparation, I usually let him have his way.

This time he wanted pancakes.

For dinner.

I hate pancakes - what's the point of a simple, empty carb swimming in sugary syrup? The calories just aren't worth it to me.

But, for him I will make exceptions (and I'd eaten a huge Subway sandwich for lunch so I only ate what you see on the plate - not much of a sacrifice if you ask me).

He also loves coconut and mangoes - Thai sticky rice with mangoes is a menu staple in our house - so I decided I'd make coconut pancakes and incorporate the mangoes somehow. The only problem with making recipes with a lot of coconut is the exorbitant amount of saturated fat present in nearly all coconut products. One cup of coconut milk alone contains 45 grams of fat. As nihilistic as I have been in the past towards my arteries, I don't hate them that much.

Because I wanted to make the husband happy with coconut pancakes and mangoes I decided to use 2% evaporated milk with a teaspoon of coconut extract. Tastes like coconut with a mere fraction of the fat. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

I'm not going to lie, I fudged on these pancakes. I had some Jiffy Baking Mix languishing in the drawer that I needed to use up - so I did. And they were still fabulous.

Fast, easy, and relatively low-fat coconut pancakes - if anyone objects to using a boxed mix they can feel free to just alter their own pancake recipe. This one is good.


Coconut Pancakes with Mango-Honey Compote

Makes 4 servings

2 cups Jiffy Baking Mix/ Bisquick Mix
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups evaporated milk
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 cup shredded coconut

1 mango, in small dice
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup water

Make the compote:

Combine mango, honey, and water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium to low heat until mango is softened and falling apart and majority of liquid has evaporated.

Make the pancakes:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl or pitcher - blend with whisk or immersion blender (immersion blender will chop up the coconut more). Cook over medium heat in a butter greased skillet for approximately 2 1/2 minutes each side, or until golden brown.

Serve with mango-honey compote. Garnish with micro or chopped mint if desired.

Lemon Curd French Toast with Minted Strawberries

I was originally going to title this post "What do do when your cake collapses" but the end result was simply too amazing to ignore.

I've been noticing a ton of French Yogurt Loafs traipsing around the food blogosphere lately and it piqued my curiosity enough to try it out. From what I'd read it was similar in taste and texture to pound cake, but with a fraction of the fat and calories - sign me up, eh?

Unfortunately it collapsed like one of those fainting goats as soon as I pulled it out of the oven.

Bummer.

It had great flavor, but it was dense and chewy where I wanted it to be light and fluffy...or at least fluffier.

As husband and I were chewing on a piece, and he was mentioning that I don't have great success with cakes (gee, thanks babe), I decided that this would make delicious French toast. As I was pulling the eggs out of the fridge last Saturday morning to make said French toast, I noticed a jar of calamansi curd I'd made a little while ago, canned, and stuck in the fridge door.

Cue lightbulb flickering over head.

This was one of those ideas that's either going to end as a tasty and amazing treat, or with me furiously fanning the damn smoke detector hoping it will shut the hell up.

It was outstanding.

Seriously the best French toast I've ever had in my life. I honestly believe that it is worth it to make the yogurt loaf just to have this French toast again - and I'm a very lazy person, so that's sayin' something.



Lemon Curd French Toast with Minted Strawberries

Serves 2 (One hungry, one not so hungry)

6 slices yogurt loaf ( I used this recipe but converted it to vanilla bean instead of peach)
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons lemon curd
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt, divided

In a shallow pan mix the lemon curd and beaten eggs until thoroughly combined. Set the slices of yogurt loaf to soak for ten minutes, flip and let soak another ten minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the strawberries, mint, lemon juice and sugar. Toss to combine and set aside. Heat a pan, and cook the soaked slices of yogurt loaf until golden brown on each side and set throughout. Set three slices each on two plates, top each with one cup slices strawberries and 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt. Embrace the awesomeness.

Cinnamon French Toast

When I made the Cinnamon Bread the other day I knew it would make some stellar French toast. And did it, you ask. Oh god yes it did. There's two trick to make this outstanding:

1. Soak the bread in the egg, really soak it in. It'll take several minutes for the egg to permeate the density of the bread.

2. Fry it in bacon fat. My mom told me about this once, but my ass can't handle cooking a whole lot in bacon grease. But, I was cooking bacon at the same time I was soaking the bread and...well, you see what happened. And folks, let me tell you, it's friggin' tasty.

P.S. The picture looks like garbage, but the taste really stands out. I can't recommend this enough if you love French toast.