I’ve decided to add a new category — recipes I’ve found somewhere, have made pretty much as described, and recommend to you! The first is the Gingerbread Pancakes I made last weekend from Tea and Cookies, who in turn apparently adapted them from a restaurant called La Note. Anyway, they were absolutely delicious, and, even better, I already had all the ingredients on hand.

They make a pretty thick, gingerbread-spiced batter, but the pancakes aren’t too heavy. I sometimes have trouble with thick pancakes cooking unevenly, but these were done all the way through and had a texture I very much enjoyed. I’m not a huge fan of plain pancakes, so these were a nice departure from the usual. I served them with a lemon curd and pears as Tea suggested on her post (curd from this recipe from Joy of Baking). The lemon flavor added a nice zing to the spice of the pancakes, and pears went very nicely as well. Overall, a very tasty and comforting breakfast for a chilly and damp January morning.

As you can see, we could hardly stand to finish them off!

Other ideas:

• I often like chunks of things in my pancakes, especially in thick ones like these. I think chopping up fresh pears would make a nice addition, or maybe some chopped walnuts or pecans.
• Orange would also go nicely with the gingerbread flavor I believe. I thought about making the curd with orange juice instead of lemon; I might try that next time. Also, a little orange zest in the pancake batter might be good.
• Tea suggested poaching or roasting the pears. I think this would be very tasty, although I didn’t bother with it.
• Leftover lemon curd (that recipe will probably make more than you need) is also delicious on shortbread, biscuits, or in scones (try these from Heidi at 101 cookbooks). I’ve also been eating the lemon curd on vanilla ice cream with some toasted hazelnuts.

I know, it’s the new year, and everyone’s got all kinds of resolutions to exercise and eat healthier, and the last thing you need is more pictures of delicious sweet things. So, I promise this is the last of the Christmas sweets. This is a traditional yeast bread/cake often made by Moravians, usually at Christmas time, but sometimes other times of the year as well. My mom grew up in the Moravian Church, but doesn’t remember making sugar cake herself until I was little and she made it for the Candle Tea (a kind of church bazaar at Christmastime) at Raleigh Moravian Church in North Carolina. She got the recipe there from Mae Marshall.

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