You may well feel that life is too fraught at the moment to even consider making your own hot cross buns (you might feel like that all the time, in which case you have my sympathies). Even if you do like a bit of baking therapy, your plans might be stymied by a lack of yeast, or flour, or energy to do anything other than get through the day. I know the feeling. But in case you feel like making something, here’s an Easter-ish breakfast treat that uses basic ingredients, doesn’t require you to nurture a living thing and takes very little time to make.
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Chocolate pikelets with spiced honey butter
A note on substitutions for these straitened times: using butter gives these a better flavour, but using oil is fine if butter’s in short supply. Use any sugar (white, caster, brown) – but don’t pack brown sugar into the cup. Use any milk and any flour – omit the baking powder if you’ve only got self-raising, use a little less if you’re using wholemeal (and be aware the pikelets will be a bit sturdier). If you don’t have honey, use golden syrup in the butter (I had to do this for the photo – it was still delicious).
Makes about 20 pikelets, serves 3-6 depending on greed, hunger, boredom etc
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 minutes
- 1 tablespoon melted butter or oil
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ – ¾ cup milk
- 3 Tbsp cocoa
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup plain flour
For the spiced butter:
- ½ cup (125g) soft butter
- 2-3 generous Tbsp honey
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon
Whisk together the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and ½ cup milk. Sift over the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined (don’t over-mix or the pikelets will be tough). Add a litte more milk if the mixture is very thick.
Set a large heavy frying pan over medium heat. Grease with a little butter or oil.
Drop dessertspoons full of the mixture into the pan (hold the spoon vertically to make the pikelets round). Cook until bubbles appear and pop on the top, then gently flip over and cook for another couple of minutes. Remove to a plate lined with a teatowel or a cooling rack.
To make the spiced butter, beat the butter and honey together until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the cinnamon.
To serve, pile the pikelets on a serving plate and accompany with the butter. Any leftover pikelets can be frozen and reheated in a toaster. Any leftover butter is great on hot cross buns or toast.
If you fancy a few more Easter cooking projects, you might like to try these Pretend Hot Cross Buns (gluten-free) or these Homemade Marshmallow Easter Eggs (also gluten-free and dairy-free).
Hope you have a happy Easter, wherever you are. Don’t go anywhere, will you?