Foodie Friday Magic! Jax Garren is here today with Apple-Ginger Pancakes. What’s the magic part? They are gluten-free, nut free, and vegan (and still yummy!). Jax writes very modern urban fantasy romance. I’m a huge fan of her Tales of the Underlight trilogy. Today she’s brought along her ambiguously paranormal (Is he? Or isn’t he?) holiday foodie romance, The Elf and the Ice Princess. There are five FREE copies up for grabs if you’re willing to talk breakfast temptations in the comments.
JAX:
Brett grinned slyly. “I make a good breakfast. Pancakes. Waffles. I have experimental lox at the house. You could give me your professional opinion.”
“You want me to stay the night to critique your salmon?” Carrie meant it to sound like a joke, but it came out more like an accusation.
“No! No. I’m trying to convince you to stay the night with breakfast incentives.” His face lit up. “I will be highly motivated to make an amazing breakfast.”
Sex was one thing, but…“I’m not sure I’m ready for breakfast.”
Though his shoulders may have sagged a bit, Brett’s smile stayed intact and his voice light. “Okay. That’s fine. I understand. But it’s a package deal for me.” He wagged a finger at her. “I may be easy, but I’m not cheap. Or, something like that. Basically, I’ll wait.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I offered to get naked with you, and you’re turning me down?”
“I offered cuddling and pancakes, and you turned me down.” He snatched her hand and kissed it again. “I’m A-plus-plus boyfriend material, Carrie Martin. You’re going to figure that out—I hope—and then there will be nakedness and cuddling and pancakes. All of it. It will be epic.” Until then . . .” He yanked on her hand, and she stumbled forward, landing against his chest. “Until then, I’ll just have to work on convincing you.”
~ from The Elf and the Ice Princess
I love pancakes (and nakedness and cuddling), but when I went grain free, I thought I’d never have them again. (At least not the pancakes.) Then I discovered plantains! Plantains are related to bananas, and are usually found next to them in the grocery store. When green, they have a high starch content and neutral taste, so they can replace flour in all kinds of recipes. These apple-ginger pancakes are one of my favorite ways to use them; I make these about once a week for breakfast. They’re super easy, require just a few ingredients and a food processor, and have enough room for error that they’re almost impossible to mess up. I love them! Of note, they’re not cake-y like pancakes. They’re more like funnel cake–crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Which, in my book, makes them even better!
I never measure my ingredients; I just toss stuff into the food processor until it looks right. The recipe below is approximately what I shoot for each time, but you can miss the proportions by a wide margin and still get the same results. Plantains are cool that way. After years of baking fancy cakes and breads, it’s a relief to put something together that doesn’t require any fastidiousness.
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Apple-Ginger Pancakes Recipe (gluten free, nut free, vegan)
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Okay, all great, except all my recipes start with browning the meat. So I consulted Mr. Google. There are tons of vegetarian chili recipes, but none looked quite like the type of chili I would normally make at home. So…. I started from scratch. I’m experimenting on y’all. Here we go… Continue reading 
