I like it when my breakfast resembles dessert, especially when it’s deceptively nutritious and uses seasonal produce. January is literally the only time you can get a pear that isn’t so hard you chip your teeth on it. So get with the season and enjoy a warming bowl of chocolate porridge – would be rude not to.
Chocolate pear porridge Serves 1 / Hands on time 10 mins / Total time 10 mins /V VnDf
1/3 cup porridge oats
2/3 cup oat milk
1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp milled flaxseed(optional)
Pinch of sea salt flakes
Handful fruit and nuts
1 tsp maple syrup + extra to serve
Drop of vanilla extract (optional) ½ pear to serve, sliced
Tip:Don’t wait to soak your pan, do it immediately or your porridge will turn to cement.
Method
1. In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients together apart from the pear. Cook on a medium heat stirring continually until the porridge is thick and creamy.
2. Serve immediately topped with sliced pear and a drizzle of maple syrup.
Chocolate pear porridge
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Peanut butter and honey on toast might seem like an odd combination but trust me, it’s a wonderful thing. I was first introduced to it by my old school friend Hina. Hina was (and still is I believe) Japanese and the Japanese like their peanut butter a bit sweeter than us Brits. So after school, we’d often scamper back to her boarding house and eat peanut butter on toast slathered in honey, which I later christened ‘Hinabutter’.
Anyway, so I forgot all about Hinabutter until I purchased an insanely expensive pot of raw honey recently. Apparently the 40p honey I’d been buying all these years was no better than eating filtered dog turds. So did it really taste all that different?
Well no, not really but there’s a quite a significant difference between the two despite tasting very similar. For a start, regular honey tends to be pasteurised and filtered, which is said to destroy the honey’s natural vitamins and nutrients. Whereas raw honey, comes straight from the hive so remains untreated, unheated and unfiltered. This means, unlike regular honey, it retains most of it’s nutritional properties and can even include the odd bit of wax, pollen and a couple of bees knees (literally). Although don’t worry, raw honey is often strained to remove wax/knees so no need to freak out, humans have been eating raw honey for thousands of years. Anyway that’s enough eduction for one day, now where was I?
Oh yeah, so for the past week, I’ve been pouring honey all over my peanut butter on toast like some kind of deranged Pooh Bear which doesn’t exactly make for a balanced breakfast. So I chucked in some pears and a bit of ricotta to help balance it out and to help cut through the sticky sweetness of it all. Bananas I’m sure would work wonderfully too but as I can’t stand the little buggers, I think I’ll stick to me pears thanks guvna… Not sure why I’ve gone all cockney but there you go. Enjoy!
Peanut butter, honey & pear on toast Serves 1 / Hands on time 5 mins / Total time 5 mins / V
2 slices of bread
Knob of butter
Crunchy peanut butter
Honey, preferably raw or organic
½ conference pear, cored and sliced
1-2 tbs of vegetarian *Ricotta
Sprinkle of pumpkin seeds
Method
Toast the bread of your choice and top with an even layer of butter and then peanut butter. Drizzle the toast with a couple of teaspoons of honey and spread evenly with a knife. Top with slices of pear, drizzle with a bit of extra honey and serve with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds and a good dollop of ricotta.
Peanut Butter & Pears on Toast
If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.
V– Vegetarian
*Ricotta is traditionally made with animal rennet but you can get vegetarian varieties. UK supermarket home brands tend to be, click here.
Okay so I know it’s Januaray and you’re all busy doing the duck walk with that idiot Bee Gees lookalike Joe Wicks, but it’s cold and I need something warm and chocolatey. What could be better than cardamom spiced pears baked in chocolate cake? Exactly, literally nothing. So stop chomping on kale for 5 minutes and lets scoff this pear pudding. You’ve been good for almost 2 weeks now, it’s time for some oozy chocolatey goodness – you deserve it.
Cardamom, Chocolate & Pear Pudding As featured in Families First Magazine Serves 6 / Hands on time 30 mins / Total time 1 hr / V You’ll need: A pestle and mortar, 8×6 inch deep oven dish
130g golden caster sugar
130g plain flour
25g Green & Black’s Organic Cocoa Powder
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate soda
Pinch of salt
10 pods of cardamon, shells discarded and ground
150g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g Green & Black’s Organic 70% Dark Chocolate
2 cans pear halves in juice, drained (415g)
Crème fraîche to serve
Method
1. Pre-heat an oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/gas mark 5. Butter an oven dish and drain the pears. Line the dish with the pears facing up and put to one side.
2. Carefully bash your cardamom pods in the pastel and mortar, discard the shells and grind until you have a powder.
3. Put the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat and melt with the powdered cardamom.
4. Meanwhile combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and give it a bit of a mix. Add the melted butter with the cardamom and combine well with a wooden spoon. Beat in the eggs until you have a gooey chocolate mixture.
5. Pour over the pears and distribute the mixture evenly (the mixture will be quite gooey so use a spoon to spread it to the edges).
6. Break up the dark chocolate and submerge the pieces into the batter evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes. Serve immediately with a dollop of creme fraiche.
If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.
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