With pancake day fast approaching, supermarket shelves are being emptied of maple syrup, lemon, sugar, whipped cream and fresh berries in anticipation, but how about those without a sweet tooth? Is there an alternative to pancake day toppings that does not involve copious amounts of sugar?
These are the questions I set out to answer. I took to the internet - but struggled to find many recipes.
There were plenty of recipes for savoury pancakes, but very few offered suggestions of savoury toppings. Eventually I managed to pull five recipes together, and headed to Aldi to pick up ingredients.
I am usually a lemon juice and sugar kind of pancake-eater myself, but I would also say I prefer savoury to sweet so I was intrigued as to how the different toppings would pair with pancakes. I imagined they would make more of a brunch than any other meal.
I went for bacon, chorizo and avocado, a pizza pancake made with passata, cheese and avocado, salmon and cream cheese, and garlic mushrooms and cream cheese. I also grabbed some small scotch pancakes for ease, so I didn’t have to worry about making my own for the test.
The five pancakes took quite a while to prepare - down to the fact I had to cook/chop/assemble five different sets of ingredients, but I imagine if you stuck to one for several pancakes it would not take half as long. Here is what I thought:
Chorizo and avocado
I smashed up a ripe avocado and added in a drizzle of oil, salt, pepper, and chilli flakes then lathered a thick layer on my pancake. I chopped and quartered several slices of chorizo and added them on top, and voila.
Although it felt wrong eating the avocado on what would be a Pancake Day pancake, chorizo and avocado is a combination that never fails. The hint of spice from the chorizo breaks through the avocado and makes for a delicious mouthful.
Smoked salmon and cream cheese
Smoked salmon and cream cheese go together like salt and pepper, bacon and eggs, and macaroni and cheese. I used Aldi salmon and cream cheese and the combination was delicious.
The cream cheese really helped to lift the salmon and pulled the salmon and the pancake together. Plus, there was no cooking involved which made it even easier to put together.
Garlic mushrooms and cream cheese
The recipe I saw online was for garlic mushrooms and brie, which I imagine to be equally delicious, but I paired it with cream cheese as I had some in the fridge. I simply heated up some oil in a pan, fried the mushrooms until golden, and added in some minced garlic and chilli flakes for about one minute.
I am not generally a big mushroom fan but these were absolutely delicious and had me going back for more.
Pizza pancake
Remember that Tiktok trend during the height of lockdown where people would make pizzas out of tortilla wraps, by slapping on some passata and grated cheese and putting them under the grill? Yup, it is basically that, but with a pancake and added oregano.
The oregano is pretty crucial, as it is that herby taste which makes the pancake feel like a pizza. Just be sure to keep an eye on it in the oven because I shall admit to burning mine.
It was still tasty nonetheless.
Bacon
My first thought when I looked into savoury pancake toppings was bacon and maple syrup, until I had the lightbulb moment that maple syrup is not savoury. I was certain bacon had to make my savoury topping list, but was not sure what to do with it.
So, I just put two rashers on top of a pancake and ate it like that. It did work, and was tasty - you cannot go too wrong with a pancake and bacon.
However it could have done with a sauce or spread to tie it together. Looking back, perhaps chilli jam or something of the like would have done.
Final thoughts
After tasting all five pancakes, as you can imagine, I had to roll to my laptop to type this up. Savoury fillings are certainly heavy on the stomach, but of course a lot less sickly.
Savoury toppings would be great for breakfast pancakes, or as a main meal, but not as a dessert. If that is when you generally have pancakes, you would be best sticking to sweet toppings like sugar and lemon or fresh berries and cream.
My favourite topping was probably the salmon and cream cheese - an age old combo that never fails, but I loved all of them.
