Earl Grey Vanilla Tea Pancakes with Honey Tea Syrup

Happy Pancake Tuesday!

For those who have never heard of it, Pancake Tuesday (aka Shrove Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday) falls on the day before Lent every year, and is associated with the practise of using up richer “fatty” foods like eggs, milk, and sugar (hence the pancakes) before the fasting season of Lent begins.

I don’t think it serves much of the same purpose today (at least not for me, as I don’t give anything up for Lent), but it’s still a great excuse to eat pancakes for dinner! Pancake Tuesday in my household always meant a big feast of at least four different types of pancakes for dinner, so you can see how it easily became a favourite holiday for me as a kid. Now that I don’t live at home, I still carry on the tradition of pancakes for dinner for myself, but also use it as a chance to test out new and exciting pancake recipes!

Last year I created coffee-flavoured pancakes with my delicious caramel latte pancakes, inspired by my favourite Starbucks latte.  This year I decided to create pancakes inspired by my favourite tea drink, the London Fog. 

A London Fog is a tea latte made with steamed milk, Earl Grey tea, and vanilla syrup.  Apparently Starbucks no longer calls it a London Fog and just uses the much more boring name of Earl Grey Tea Latte, but at Second Cup and Williams you can still order a London Fog, which I think sounds so much classier!

To recreate those flavours in pancakes, I knew I needed to infuse Earl Grey Vanilla tea (if you can’t find the vanilla flavour, just use regular Earl Grey) and vanilla extract into the pancakes. Baking with tea can get tricky because unlike coffee, it can be difficult to get a strong tea flavour to come out in the final baked good.

In my first attempt at these, I steeped vanilla almond milk with the tea before mixing the milk into the batter. They turned out well with a lovely Earl Grey fragrance, but the tea flavour wasn’t quite strong enough. In my second attempt, I still steeped the milk but also added a bag of tea to the dry ingredients and infused tea into a honey vanilla syrup to serve with the pancakes.

The end result was a light and fluffy stack of pancakes that smells just like a London Fog and has a subtle but very nice tea flavour that I loved! I think the honey syrup makes all the difference in making these resemble tea, so don’t skip it! I made these for breakfast Sunday morning and they made our apartment smell so nice – even later in the afternoon my sister kept commenting that she would get a whiff of tea wherever my pancakes had been (I had to carry them to a few different spots for photographs)!  And I saved just enough leftovers to eat for dinner tonight, which I’m quite looking forward to!

Sorry for the somewhat long post, and if you skipped by everything above just to see what the main point was, it’s that tonight it is perfectly acceptable, if not strongly encouraged, to eat pancakes for dinner – Happy Pancake Tuesday!

Earl Grey Vanilla Tea Pancakes with Honey Tea Syrup (aka London Fog Pancakes)

Makes about 9-10 pancakes

Ingredients:

For the Syrup:

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons water

1 Earl Grey Vanilla tea bag

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Pancakes:

1-1/2 cups vanilla almond milk

4 Earl Grey Vanilla tea bags, divided

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

First prepare the honey tea syrup.  Bring honey and water to a simmer in a small saucepan.  Add teabag and remove from heat.  Let steep for at least 5 minutes.  Remove teabag, scraping off as much honey as you can (discard) and stir in the vanilla.  Transfer to a small container and place in the refrigerator to cool and thicken.

Next prepare the steeped almond milk.  Add vanilla almond milk and 3 tea bags to a small saucepan.  Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and let gently simmer for 3-5 minutes.  Remove teabags, squeezing the liquid out as you remove them (discard tea bags).  Let milk cool in the refrigerator.

Mix the dry ingredients for the pancakes: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and sugar.  Stir in the contents of 1 tea bag.  My tea was very finely ground, but if yours is not, grind it first in a food processor. 

Once the milk has cooled, prepare the wet ingredients by whisking together the egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently fold together until just incorporated.  Do not overmix.  Heat a large non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat.  Spray with non-stick cooking spray if desired (I find that I don’t need to).  Spoon 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter (depending on desired size – I used 1/3 cup measuring cup but didn’t fill it all the way) onto the pan and use your fingers to spread it out a little into a circle.  Cook until bubbles begin to form on surface, a couple of minutes, then flip over and repeat until golden brown on both sides.  Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve pancakes warm with honey syrup.

Earl Grey Vanilla Tea Cake

On Monday I got hit with a cold at full force ... I don't want to complain too much because I know a cold is to be expected around this germy time of back-to-school, but normally I get a few days of warning signs first.  You know that little tickle in your throat that tells you a cold is on its way and you'd better start taking vitamins like crazy to try to lessen its blow?  This one came with no warning signs, just the whole works right from the start - sore throat, runny nose, sinus congestion, fluctuating body temperature, I'm sure you all know the drill!

It doesn't help that I have a crazy amount of work to get done this week, which is hard when I'm so tired because my stuffy nose just does not want me to get any sleep!  So, in my efforts to rid myself of this cold as quickly as it came on, I have been taking lots of vitamins, eating lots of fruits and veggies, and drinking a TON of tea!

And what goes better with a cup of tea than a delightful tea cake!  

This healthy-ish and not-too-sweet loaf contains the actual contents of three bags of earl grey tea, steeped in a bit of milk, along with some warm spices and vanilla so the smell and taste of the end product really remind you of earl grey tea.  I've been snacking on this with every cup of tea (which is probably not a good thing considering how much tea I've been drinking), and it's especially good warmed up or toasted.  You could probably even change up the tea and spices to any flavour you like - a chai bread would be really nice too!

Even if all my tea drinking doesn't chase away this cold, at least it's given me an excuse to eat lots of tea cake :)

Earl Grey Vanilla Tea Loaf

Adapted from Butter Me Up, Brooklyn

Makes one 8x4 inch loaf

Note: This loaf has a light and delicate crumb, much more like a cake than more dense and moist banana bread-like loaves.  If you want to add to the subtle citrus notes of the Earl Grey tea, you can add a splash of lemon juice to the loaf.

Ingredients:

3 bags earl grey vanilla tea

1/4 cup milk

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup plain yogurt

2 large eggs

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line the bottom of an 8-1/2 by 4-1/2 inch loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray. 

Add the milk to a small saucepan and empty the contents of the tea bags (snip off the tops first) into the pan.  Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the milk is warm and tea begins to steep.  Turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  In a medium bowl, combine the oil, sugar, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir the milk and tea mixture into the wet ingredients.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and fold together with a flexible spatula until just combined (do not overmix). 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean (mine was just slightly overdone at 45 minutes so you might want to check on it at 40 minutes first, though the exact time will depend on your oven).  Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.