Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pancakes (with homemade strawberry syrup - inspired by Nigella)

I love Cracker Barrel's Buttermilk Pancakes.  They have to be the best pancakes in the world.  No other pancake comes close.

The love affair started in Aug 2006, when our family relocated to Montgomery, Alabama in the US for a year.  My first meal in Montgomery, was breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant at Exit 11 of the I-85.  Junior and I had just arrived after an exhausting 30 hour journey from Singapore, to join my husband who had already been in Montgomery for two months.  The husband brought our tired and hungry bodies to this wonder of a restaurant and I remember feeling terribly happy.  I don't think we had the pancakes that day.  I recall eating some grits and biscuits and not taking to them quite so well.  But I loved the atmosphere and everything else I was eating.  After spending many lazy Saturday mornings brunching here, I grew to enjoy the grits and biscuits, but not quite as much as their pancakes!

I was very sad to leave Montgomery and my favourite pancakes.  Fortunately for me, Cracker Barrel sells their pancake mix in their stores and online.  Wonderful friends in the US would bring them to me by the boxes, and I would be very happy.  I don't know what I would do without my pancake mix!

Why do I love them so?  First, they taste awesome!  No styrofoam tasting blandness for you.  These pancakes pack a powerful punch in flavour.  Slightly sweet and salty, and terrific drenched in maple syrup, or on its own.  Second, they have a fantastic texture.  The pancakes are nice and thick, yet light and fluffy on the inside, with a crispiness all around.  I can't replicate all this in my own kitchen, but what I produce is good enough for me!

My children love the pancakes as well.  I normally have the pancakes with maple syrup (real maple syrup, not some corn syrup imitation).  Since I had some slightlty sour strawberries left from my strawberry baking exploits, I decided to do a modification of Nigella Lawson's blueberry syrup recipe for pancakes from her book Nigella Express, using strawberries instead of blueberries.

It's an easy peasy recipe - just boil maple syrup and strawberries in a pan until the berries soften.  Then pour over the pancakes and enjoy!

Strawberry Bread (Joy of Baking Recipe)

Since we have loads of strawberries right now, I thought I would try another strawberry recipe.  This time, it is Strawberry Bread, from joyofbaking.com.

Unlike Banana bread, where the ingredients are pretty much stirred together (great for lazy cooks like me), Strawberry bread is made quite like a cake, i.e., the butter and sugar are creamed before the flour is mixed in. This meant that my Kenwood Major would get its first use!

The ingredients are pretty much the same as a standard banana bread, except of course one uses strawberries instead of bananas.  It also uses sour cream or yoghurt  (I used yoghurt).  I received a little help from my boys, but they spent most of their time watching the Majoy whirr away...

My strawberry bread came out a little too brown.  In fact, the crust was ever so slightly burnt at some spots.  My oven might have been a bit too hot, though I don't know why since my oven thermometer showed the right temperature. I had even turned it down slightly when I thought it was getting burnt.

The crust was thick (which I suppose was the result of the hot oven).  But, the insides were nice and soft! It was not as sweet as a banana cake, which is fine by me. The softness of the cooked strawberries contrasted beautifully with the crunchy walnuts (which were toasted before chopped roughly and added to the batter).  This was very nice!

This recipe received positive reviews from my tasters.  One neighbour also asked me for the recipe, after declaring its deliciousness.

Between this and the Strawberry-Banana Muffins, however, I think I prefer the muffins.  The strawberries in the muffins were not as cooked as those in the bread, and so were still nice and jammy.  Those in the bread had been cooked much longer, and had given up most of their flavour and colour to the bread.  I'm not saying that I don't like the Strawberry Bread though, coz it is certainly very yummy!

My Kenwood Major

A very handsome Major.

Introducing the latest addition to my kitchen! The Kenwood Major Titanium KM0040. All gorgeous in silver and stainless steel.

My Major working hard!

I had previously been using my mum's Kenwood mixer from more than 20 years ago.  It is still working fabulously.  So I finally decided to get my own.  Hopefully it will last me a good 20 - 30 years too!

Strawberry-Banana Muffins (Joy of Baking Recipe)

Fresh out of the Oven

It's the school holidays and I finally found some time to bake!

I had a couple of very ripe bananas sitting in my kitchen and the Joy of Baking website (one of my go-to sites) was featuring a Strawberry-Banana Muffin recipe.  I thought it sounded much more interesting than the usual banana or blueberry muffin recipes that I do (although I think plain ol' banana or blueberry muffins are quite yummy).


It was a simple recipe, using regular ingredients.  Of course, it's a bit more work than a regular banana muffin as the strawberries need to be cut up. But I had help from the boys with the mixing and mashing and spooning out.

Strawberry goodness oozing out...

There is quite a lot of batter to make 12, so each muffin cup was filled quite well.

The boys couldn't wait to try it, even though Jr really dislikes strawberries.

Once done, I noticed that the muffins had risen beautifully, and the strawberries had cooked into a juicy and jammy goodness which oozed enticingly out of the muffins.

A very soft and tender crumb.

The muffins were beautifully moist, soft with a nice tender crumb.   There was a slight tartness of the strawberries which made it quite lip-smackingly moreish...yummy.

What a brilliant way to use strawberries which are just a bit too sour to eat in large quantities.  The supermarkets have berries on promotion right now.  I'll probably be making this recipe again soon. I might also explore other recipes that use strawberries.