eggs

Banana pancakes

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pancakebanana

Serves 4.5

This is a bastardisation and bananaisation of a Nigella recipe, with the salt and sugar removed and banana and cinnamon added.

2 tablespoons melted butter

225g self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

300ml whole milk

3 crushed bananas

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put the butter in a pan to melt, then combine the flour, baking powder, eggs and milk in a bowl. It doesn’t need to be a really smooth batter,  just make sure there are no pockets of flour. Stir in the banana, cinnamon and melted butter.

Use a piece of kitchen towel to rub any vestiges of melted butter onto a hot frying pan and put dessert spoons of the batter in. When they start to bubble turn them over. It’ll take a couple of minutes on each side to get them golden.

Yours are nice with maple syrup. Sorry Bert.

Croissant and butter pudding

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breadpudd f

…except there’s no butter.

Serves 1.5 very generously

2 stale croissants

About 80ml double cream and 120ml whole milk – you can fiddle around with the quantities so long as you end up with 200ml of liquid

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 egg

Good pinch of cinnamon

Grating of nutmeg

Handful soft apricots (some supermarkets sell them – they’re darker brown and much softer), cut into smallish pieces

Slice the croissants into thick slices and lie them in an ovenproof dish that they’ll fit in reasonably snugly. I used a 20cm cake tin. Sprinkle over the apricots. Combine the other ingredients and pour over, leaving the croissants to sit in the custard for a good 10 minutes before turning over for another 10 minute soak.

Cook at 180 for 20-25 minutes, till the custard’s set and the pudding’s golden brown.

Cheddar and sweetcorn fritters

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cheeseandsweetcorn

A cheese and sweetcorn version of the pea and parmesan pancakes.

Serves 2.5 (Daddy’s home!)

100g self raising flour

150 ml whole milk

1 egg

A couple of handfuls of grated strong cheddar

1 small tin sweetcorn, most of the liquid drained out

Strangely, this makes a lot more than the eight that the pea and parmesan mixture makes – I think the extra liquid from the sweetcorn and extra cheese explains it.

Combine all the ingredients and pop dessert spoons of the mixture in a hot pan that’s been greased with a smigeon of butter. They need a couple of minutes on each side till they’re golden and feel firm under a spatula – you don’t want uncooked batter in the middle, so wait till they feel a little springy under pressure.

Also lovely with a thinly sliced leek that’s been sauted in butter in place of the sweetcorn.

Root veg cakes and sausages

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rootvegcakes

…and a poached egg for me.

I suppose this is a bit brunchy for dinner, but in a world where we sleep in a pair of woolly tights, on all fours, with our bum in the air and reject milk but eat dried dog food, anything goes.

Serves 1.5 very generously (2 if you count the dog as a second half person)

A selection of root veg – we used a small carrot, 4 small potatoes and a quarter of a small celeriac

A dessert spoon of flour

1 egg

A grating of black pepper and nutmeg, a sprinkle of dried or well chopped fresh sage

A large dessert spoon of butter

Sausages

An egg

Peel and chop the veg into pieces – about the size you’d do for roasting – and parboil them for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, put the sausages in the oven or under the grill. Grate the veg (using a food processor means you can do it hot) and combine with the flour, herbs and egg. Get the butter frothy in a hot pan and put small spoonfuls of the veg mixture in – if they’re small it makes them a bit more manageable and less fragile. Push them down a bit with the spatula till they sizzle. Fry till golden on both sides, then poach or fry an egg for yourself to go on top. No reason why a baby can’t eat an egg, but self feeding and runny yolks are an extravagant combination, wet wipes wise.

Little orange and almond cakes

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orangecake

This is a version of a Tom Kerridge recipe. I’ve reduced the sugar and fiddled around with the quantities to make little cakes and to avoid the scales, as cups and tablespoons are a bit less fiddly when a two foot tall person is tapping at your knee. I like a pudding that’s an excuse to get a bit of protein in Bert (egg and almond here), and a lot of the sweetness comes from the orange. In a baby free life, simmering an orange for two hours would be a bit limiting, but if you’re hanging around at home anyway while someone drops small plastic balls into holes, then why not?

Makes 4 small cakes

1 orange

1 cup ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Cover the orange with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for about one and a half hours till it’s soft. Blend it, skin and all, into a pulp then combine with all the other ingredients. Butter four holes of a muffin tin and fill each nearly to the top. Bake at 160 degrees (or on the grid shelf on the floor of the Aga roasting oven with the cold shelf three rows down from the top) for about 20 minutes, till golden and firm.

I had mine with Greek yoghurt with some honey stirred through. Bert had his naked.

Fruity clafoutis

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clafoutis

Strictly speaking, clafoutis is just the word for the cherry batter pudding, not when it’s made with a different fruit. If your baby is a pedant, call this a flaugnarde. I’ve cut down on the sugar so add a little more if you’ve got a sweet tooth.

Makes 2 mini clafoutis

1 tablespoon ground almonds

1 dessert spoon self raising flour

1 dessert spoon golden caster sugar

1 egg

50 ml whole milk or cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

A handful of fresh or frozen berries

Butter some small, shallow tins – I used two holes of a four hole yorkshire pudding tin. Scatter in the fruit – a few berries in each.

Combine the remaining ingredients – the easiest way is to measure the milk or cream into a measuring jug then stir in everything else – and pour over the fruit. Cook at 180 degrees or in the middle of an Aga roasting oven for around 12 minutes – till golden brown. Don’t leave it in too long – you want it on the soft side of firm.

In theory, it’s one for you, half of the other for the baby and another half for you, but it didn’t work out like that for us. I just got the one.

Pea and parmesan pancakes

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peapancake

A new category in honour of Anna and her daughter, Fearne of the evil cackle – portable finger food. This is a little nursery-food-like as it comes, though I eat it like that with Bert, but you can add crispy bacon and a poached egg and call it brunch.

Makes 8

100g self raising flour

150 ml whole milk

1 egg

Good handful grated parmesan – about 30 or 40g

Handful or two of frozen peas – a small hand may help you carry one extra pea from the freezer to the work surface

Small knob of butter

Freshly chopped mint. I’m a new convert to dried herbs, but this needs fresh

Mix all the ingredients except the butter together with a whisk or fork. The flour needs to be incorporated but it doesn’t matter if it’s lumpy. Get a pan hot and melt the butter – brush it over the whole pan surface with a piece of kitchen roll. The pan needs to be barely greasy and very hot. Put in dessert spoons of the batter and spread into small circles. They need a couple of minutes on each side – once they start to firm up you can turn them over – they should be evenly golden on each side. You could cook half and then season the other half of the batter for you, but I think my palate’s adjusted to the salt thing and I don’t bother.

I ate 3.5, Bert ate 2.5 and there are two in the fridge for when we’re out and about tomorrow.

This is one finger food that you don’t need your baby in full Breaking Bad protective overalls for.

Eggy bread

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eggybread

Serves 1.5

2 slices of bread, the airier the better – sour dough’s good or white sliced

2 eggs

60 ml whole milk

Knob of butter

Sprinkle of cinnamon

Mix together the eggs and milk and decrust the bread. Soak the bread in the milk and egg mixture, one slice at a time, turning after a minute or so. Melt the butter in a reasonably hot pan – you want the bread to cook fairly quickly but not to burn before it cooks through – and pop in the first slice. You can start soaking the second as you cook, turning the soaking one as you turn the one in the pan. Cook till golden brown on both sides. It should feel reasonably firm under the pressure of a spatula, meaning the egg’s cooked through. Sprinkle with cinnamon or serve  your own with crispy bacon and maple syrup and watch your baby’s little face contort with jealousy.