Happy New Year everyone~! I hope you guys had yourselves a fantastic blast, welcoming 2020 last night – and of course, that you’re not still suffering from the lingering “consequences” a party-related blast has in tow on occasion.

As you might have noticed, I’ve made some sort of tradition out of steering my first post of the year into the general direction of a breakfast spread worthy of a new year’s welcoming feast – and this round it’s no different! Here’s my suggestion on how to start a new decade with a truly delicious bang and really get yourself and loved ones into the right mood to make this round a glorious one~!

 

The Cinnamon-Oats Crumble Topping
This is one of my favorite kitchen hacks because… well, who doesn’t like their dessert, especially fruity or ice-cream-related ones (or none at all~ Teehee), hidden away beneath a pile of deliciously crispy and simply mmmmmh~! Crumble? And as for the hack part… well, you don’t need an oven for these~! Weeeeeee! Oh, and they take next to no time at all to make. Here we go, breakfast AND crumbles for 4 servings.

50g Cold Butter, diced into comfortably manageable bits
50g Light Muscovado
50g Almond Flour
50g Soft Rolled Oats
50g Roasted Almonds – I like making this one during the cold months when there’s always a stand selling roasted, flavored or simply candied nuts somewhere nearby.
Alt: Raw Almonds, Hazelnuts, Walnuts or Pecan Nuts, finely chopped
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
¼ Tsp Ground Allspice
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Crack of Black Pepper

1) Place everything in a large mixing bowl sitting in a cool spot of your kitchen.
2) Give the lot a quick toss and proceed to rubbing the ground nuts and the butter into rough crumbles with your fingertips.
3) You’ve got to be quick’ish about this in order to out-crumble the softening process of the butter once it has made contact with your hands – you may want to consider cooling down your hands under running water before going in~
4) Transfer the crumbles to a pan sitting on medium-low heat once the lot has turned into tight little balls the size you prefer your crumbles to have.
5) Toast them, while gently shaking the pan from time to time to keep the crumbles from sticking/meltung/burning, until they’re crispy-golden all around.
6) And that’s all there is to it… unless you have an oven, then you could simply pop the crumbles onto a tray, bake them at 200°C for 5 and give them a grill-blast for another 5’ish until they’re golden brown.
7) Either way, set them aside for now and take care of the pancakes!

 

The Almond & Hazelnut Pancakes
50g Self-Raising Wheat Flour
10g Fine Rolled Oats, whizzed a fine kind-of flour
1 heaped Tbsp Ground Almonds
2 Tbsp Hazelnuts, finely chopped
1 Tsp Orange Zest
¼ Vanilla Pod, Seeds only
90ml Low-Fat Milk
2 Eggs, separated
1 Tbsp Brown Butter
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Pinch of Gingerbread Spices
1 Tiny Pinch of a freshly ground Clove
2 Tbsp Fine Baking Sugar
Opt: Cointreau and a torch…

1) Pop the nuts and oats into a small pan sitting on medium heat and lightly toast them until their delicious aromas start wafting up to you.
2) Transfer them to a mixing bowl and set the bowl aside for a moment to allow the contents to cool off.
3) Once the lot has reached room temperature, add the flour, zest and vanilla seeds.
4) Add the egg yolks and the milk and whisk away until everything is well combined.
5) Stir in the brown butter and set the bowl out of harms way.
6) Place the egg whites in a second bowl, sprinkle in the salt and the sugar and, with the beaters of your whisk’o’matic turned to full speed, whip the lot into a creamy fluff.
7) Gently fold the eggwhite cloud into the almond-dough mixture. Take your time, to keep the fluff intact~
8) Set your preferred pancake pan onto medium or medium-low heat so the sugar can caramelize in peace while the spices don’t get overheated and loose their aroma.
9) Add half of the butter and evenly sprinkle the bottom with the cinnamon and sugar mix.
10) With the help of a ladle and 4 8cm DIA dessert rings (or a smaller pan~!) add 4 equally sized disks of dough to the pan.
11) Flip the pancakes once the surface starts to show the tell-tale bubbles and looks “dry” around the edges.
12) Keep batch #1 warm while you finish up the rest.

 

The Mandarin Orange Sauce
3 Mandarin Oranges, squeezed for their juice
½ Lemon, Zest and Juice
3 Tbsp Liquor 43
3 Tbsp Honey
1 Tsp Orange Blossom Water
3 Drops of Vanilla Extraxt

1) Place all of these ingredients in a bowl and give them a hearty whisk until the honey has dissolved.
2) Once the last of your pancakes has left the pan, deglaze said pan with the contents of your bowl.
3) Allow the liquids to reduce down and thicken up into a deliciously syrupy sauce while the alcohol makes its exit.
4) Stack up and drizzle the pancakes with the syrup when it’s about time to dig in – you’re just a couple of figs away~!

The Figs on Top
4-8 Figs
1-2 Tsp Orange Juice
1 Tbsp Melted Butter
2 Tbsp Loose Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Cinnamon

1) Grab the figs and give them a cross-cut 2/3 of the way through.
2) Gently place them on top of your pancake stacks.
3) Brush each fig – inside and outside – with a dab of orange juice and butter each and sprinkle them with the sugar
4) Have at it with a Crème Brûlee Torch until the sugar does its signature thing.
5) Dust the freshly crisped up figs with a hint of cinnamon.
6) Grab the cinnamon crumbles you’ve prepared earlier (…or what’s left of them *cough*), divvy them up on each serving, whet your forks and…

Happy New Year~! Enjoy!

♥