Thursday, July 10, 2014

Vegan buckwheat raspberry pancakes with cashew cheesecake sauce

vegan raspberry buckwheat pancakes with cashew cheesecake sauce

It seems that these days, so many things “go viral” it is difficult to keep up with all of the new sensations and celebrities-in-the-making and baby animals who suddenly become more famous than you will ever be. One can only read so many breathless Buzzfeed articles before slamming one’s laptop shot and picking up the New York Times. At those moments, articles not ridden with with LOL’s and OMG’s are very, very refreshing. In their own way.


So the other day, while browsing through Facebook, I happened upon yet another article about the latest viral shit, or to be more specific Meghan Trainor’s debut single “All About that Bass”. Was rather proud of myself to have discovered the latest viral phenomenon before it was ancient history. If you haven’t yet happened upon it / watched the video, be proud that you have greater priorities than keeping up with the infinite news cycle of the internet and all of the contrived dramas that go along with it. Because holy shit, this drama was contrived.  

In the past few days and weeks, many articles have been written about this half-year-old song and its accompanying music video on venerable news websites like Today.com and The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed—well, they haven’t posted one quite yet, but I assume they will eventually. Can’t let a content generator like this pass them by.

If you watch the video, you will see why. It has this ground-breaking idea that hey, maybe size doesn’t matter, and maybe you can be sexy even if you are not exactly a size zero. The fact that people are shitting themselves complimenting the artist for her OMGsobrave message of peace and love and equality is kind of sad…but that of course has no bearing on the quality of the song. Personally I love it. It’s, like, objectively awesome.

meghan trainor all about that bass
#moresassthanyou

However, it seems like a lot of people are not focusing on the quality of the song but on how much it aligns with their previously held beliefs. You will see there are plenty of comments complaining that Miss Trainor refers to skinny bitches as, well, “skinny bitches”—which is of course horrendous oppression and should be righted immediately. How dare she create a piece of art that does not totally worship your trim physique! Blasphemy.

It also seems that people do not like to take the time to read and understand the lyrics of a song before they trash it. The stanza in which the genocidal phrase “skinny bitches” is used also includes these words, which, as it happens, have a meaning of their own whether you like it or not:

“Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches Hey!

No, I'm just playing I know you think you're fat,

But I'm here to tell you that,

Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top!”


You know how thin people are always complaining how fat they are? Yes. I find it quite disturbing. Apparently Miss Trainor is aware of that as well and is ever so kindly reminding them that they are fine just the way they are.

But thin people can be bitches too. Just saying.

Yet another qualm folks have had with this extremely controversial song is the fact that she uses the sexual appeal of ass (c’mon, don’t act like you thought she was actually talking about the clef) as a reason to justify having a few more curves than a prepubescent teenage boy. Which is stupid, because I don’t think Miss Trainor was trying to write the feminist anthem of the summer. Again, people trying to fit a song to their pre-aligned beliefs.

Anyway.

That was pretty dumb.

This is why I need to get away from the internet; it always ends in tears and frustration and a lack of hope in humanity. 

cute kitten photo
BUT THEN THERE ARE PICTURES LIKE THIS! source

But you know what we shouldn’t get away from?

vegan raspberry buckwheat pancakes with cashew cheesecake sauce
*Dramatic pause*

PANCAKES.

I just cannot get enough of them. There are far too many flavors to explore, far too many variations to create. Maybe I should rename this blog “How to Philosophize with Pancakes”. Hmmmm. Now that’s a good idea.

surprised shocked cat gif
HOLY SHIT JUNE HAD A GOOD IDEA! source

Raspberries, as you may be aware, are in season now. That means June has begun to consume far too many of them via hand. Which means our supply of fresh raspberries is rapidly dwindling without allowing for a few raspberry-infused baking projects to take place. Which means my fingers may be permanently stained red. But that’s okay.

So using the few (slightly aged) raspberries left at the bottom of the bowl, I whipped up some buckwheat pancakes and a simple cashew cheesecake-flavored sauce for a fancy yet easy breakfast. Also because I wanted pancakes. And buckwheat pancakes with raspberries and cheesecake sauce seems to alleviate that desire. Pancakes are cool like that.

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Raspberry buckwheat pancakes with cashew cheesecake sauce

Makes one serving of pancakes, plus several servings of cheesecake sauce

Ingredients

Pancake batter (adapted from Katy’s Kitchen)

60 grams • buckwheat flour • ½ cup

3 grams • baking powder • ½ teaspoon

122 grams • nondairy milk • ½ cup

7 grams • oil of choice (e.g. coconut, canola, etc.) • ½ tablespoon

7 grams • applesauce • ½ tablespoon

2 grams • vanilla extract • ½ teaspoon

Handful of raspberries

Cheesecake sauce (adapted from The Vegan Cookbook Aficionado)

140 grams • cashews, soaked for a few hours and drained • 1 cup

2 grams • lemon juice • ½ teaspoon

7 grams • apple cider vinegar • ½ tablespoon

90 grams • full-fat coconut milk • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

60 grams • maple syrup • 3 tablespoons

4 grams • vanilla extract • 1 teaspoon

Pinch salt

Instructions

To make cheesecake sauce, place all ingredients in a food processor or powerful blender and blend until smooth. This will take a minute or two. Easy as that.

To make pancakes, combine buckwheat flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Stir in nondairy milk, oil of choice, applesauce, and vanilla just until combined. Fold in raspberries.

Fry on a greased, preheated pan until browned. Top with copious amounts of cheesecake sauce. Yum.
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vegan raspberry buckwheat pancakes with cashew cheesecake sauce
I know those raspberries look sorta sad. I know.

These are probably some of the simplest yet tastiest pancakes I’ve ever made. The buckwheat pancakes literally have 6 ingredients (or only 5, if you opt to use all oil or all applesauce instead of half-and-half like I listed in the recipe), not including the raspberries or any other add-ins you may want; and surprisingly enough, the cheesecake sauce doesn’t require much effort beyond soaking and draining a bunch of cashews. And man that sauce is good. Thick and creamy and slightly tart from the lemon juice and (most importantly) sweet. Better than maple syrup, maybe.

6 comments:

  1. I am hopeful when I see these signs that we are moving away from the devaluation of people, human beings that aren't in alignment with this ridiculous ideal that you have to be a size 2 to be considered beautiful and that being "beautiful" is what ultimately gives you value. It's such BS. I am 38 years old and I still have to talk myself down off the ledge of negative thinking at times. Things were not quite as insane when I was growing up as they are now. I really hope the message is something that sticks and we make some changes as a society, part of me gets pissed even hearing people with their "good for you" patronizing attitude when someone stands up and says "I'm not going to be bullied by the world's beauty standards". It's ridiculous that we are even having to have this discussion in this day and age in the first place... I read an article awhile back that talked about anti-fat being the last acceptable form of public discrimination and I tend to agree with it, the negative messages are everywhere.... Your pancakes look and sound absolutely amazing June!

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    1. I totally agree. The whole conversation is so repetitive, but seems like some people still need to here it...hopefully someday it will pay off. And thanks for the lovely comment!

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  2. I had never heard that song before! :O
    It's really catchy though, and I like the fact that more and more curvy female artists come out and do their thaeng! I hope that she'll come up with more singles, perhaps less focused on the whole size-theme, since she's already covered that - and quite well at that, the girl is gorgeous!

    And as for the pancakes, yummers! S'all I can say :) I remember granny and I would be picking red currants, black currants and raspberries at this time of the year in Norway. Then, I would eat tonnes, whilst granny would make diluted juice with the rest, SO good! And I do the same as you - using the slightly aged ones to either mash up with a bit of syrup or just y'know "get rid of" them when no one's watching, munch! After all, waste is bad and these poor little things are super sweet! :D

    I hope you have an amazing pancake-filled weekend June x

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    1. I can't wait to see what she does next too, since this song was already so good. And I agree, there's nothing like fresh berries this time of year especially in pancakes. :)

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  3. You had me a cheesecake sauce.

    Hadn't heard of that song before, but viral stuff tends to fly over my head. I always hear about it by the time it gets to the news (ironically by then it's not news) oops.

    Great pancake recipe. Love pancakes. LOVE THEM.

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