Good morning! Are you counting the days to Valentine's Day? It's fast approaching!
What's on the menu for Valentine's Day breakfast at your house?
If you want easy, you could pour strawberry milk over corn flakes. You could toast up a cherry Pop-tart. You could make toast, spread with strawberry jam and make cut-outs with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Or . . . . . . .
Are you looking for an easy, fun, kid-friendly, and budget-wise breakfast for this Valentine's Day? Here's what I make for Valentine's breakfast most years. Pancake hearts!!
All you need is pancake batter, a griddle or skillet, large spoon (I use the serving spoon that came with our cutlery) and metal spatula.
Make your pancake batter a bit on the thin side, so that it pours well from the spoon. I like to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter. The vanilla cake is nice with the fruit syrup.
Fill your large spoon with batter. Think of the heart as two halves. On the first halve, begin dropping the batter from the tip of the spoon, as you would a regular pancake, making the rounded portion of the heart half. Don't use all the batter in your spoon, save about 1/4. Now, with the tip of the spoon, draw the batter down to the pointed part of the heart.
Quickly refill your spoon, and begin the other half of the heart, fairly close to the first half, so the two halves will join to make one heart. Finish up the point, joining the two points. That's the heart! Use the last bit of batter in the spoon to fix any edges that didn't fill out properly.
These don't need to be perfect, because a lot will be hidden by the whipped cream.
When the pancakes' bubbles have mostly popped, flip them over.
Make your syrup while the pancakes are cooking. For syrup, melt some red jelly or jam in the microwave, mixed with a tablespoon or two of water. (Here I've used a couple of packets of strawberry jam blended with crabapple jelly.)
Place one or two pancakes on a plate. Pipe whipped cream (I use spray whip cream) around the edges, following the heart shape.
Spoon syrup inside the whip cream border. Voila! Valentine's Day pancakes.
These pancakes can be made the afternoon before, and reheated in the morning. When Valentine's Day falls on a school day, I make them the afternoon of the 13th, then reheat in the morning.
Or . . . . . . .
Just not sure about making heart-shaped pancakes? Not a problem. Here's one other way to make Valentine's pancakes.
You'll need round pancakes, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, a pink jelly/jam syrup, as above, powdered sugar, sifter and dried cranberries.
Make your regular round pancakes. After cooking, use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut a heart out of the center of each pancake. This works best on a wood cutting board.
On each plate, place 2 or 3 round pancakes with the heart cut out.
Fill the empty heart with red jelly or jam. It's okay if the jelly/jam bleeds underneath the pancakes. It won't be visible.
Take the heart cut-outs, place on another plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Place the cut-outs on the plate along with the round pancakes.
Sprinkle with some dried cranberries.
Okay, so a little bit of fuss for Valentine's Day. But it's fun to do, and these treats for the family are my gift to them.
Just to let you know, I'm chasing the sun for a few days. My posts will continue Tuesday and Thursday, and I'll try to check in from time to time. Internet access will be hit or miss. I'll catch some rays for you, and send them your way! ~Lili
