Cooking with IKEA: cream-filled pancakes with macadamia nuts and bananas

There’s nothing like a delicious dessert recipe or a sweet treat to brighten up the day. Today, at #CookingWithIKEA, we’re going straight for the heart of those of you with a sweet tooth. We'll be teaching you how to make cream-filled pancakes with macadamia nuts and bananas step by step.

Bon appétit! 

Meet the chef

This time, we’re delighted to introduce you to Álvaro Casamichana Moreno, our chef who is going to prepare today's recipe.

Since he was little, Álvaro has been passionate about food and produce that comes from the earth. That same enthusiasm was what led him to study Hospitality and Catering, graduating with a specialisation in Pastry Making and Baking from Escuela de Hostelería de Cádiz (Hospitality School of Cadiz), which is his home city. 

You might be thinking: they sound delicious, but what makes Álvaro’s pancakes so unique and different? Well, his professional secret lies in the delicious topping: a vanilla caramel sauce and a crunchy chocolate orange crumble. Is your mouth watering? Ours is too!

And don't worry! The best thing of all is that this recipe is really easy to make. So, without further delay, let’s get cooking!  

Ingredients (serves three):  

• 1 PANNKAKOR pancake 
• Canned whipped cream 
• 110 g of vanilla caramel 
• 100 g of single cream 
• 1 banana 
• 25 g of macadamia nuts 
• 1 chocolate orange bread loaf

Method

Let's start by making the caramel sauce. Follow these simple steps:  

1. Pour the single cream into a pot or saucepan. 
2. Add the vanilla caramel cubes so they melt. 
3. Stir regularly with a whisk so that everything is well mixed and the sauce doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.  
4. Allow everything to melt until it becomes a sauce. Note: cook over a low heat to avoid unpleasant surprises or mishaps. This will ensure that the cream doesn’t curdle and none of the ingredients burn.
5. Once ready, pour the sauce into a bottle to top the pancakes with later when plating. 

Now let’s move on to preparing the banana and nuts:  

• Cut the banana into slices. 
• Chop up the macadamia nuts as well. Mind your fingers!

The pancakes  

Now it's time to make the pancakes. You can always make the pancake or crepe batter from scratch if you prefer. Simply combine eggs, wheat flour, milk, yeast, butter and a bit of salt. However, in this case, we've gone for a much simpler and equally delicious approach: our PANNKAKOR pancake, which comes virtually ready. As they are frozen, all you need to do is heat them up properly. To do this: 

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC. 
2. Take one pancake for each guest. (Yes, you can come back for more.) 
3. Place them on a tray and bake for about 4 minutes. Note: don't forget to rest them on small piece of baking paper so they don’t stick to the tray.  

It's that easy! 

How to make the chocolate crumble

Now let’s move onto making the crunchy chocolate orange crumble. Even though this sounds very fancy, you shouldn’t be intimidated by its elaborate name, as you’ll see that it’s not hard to make at all! Simply:

• Let the bread sit out for few days to get a little dry, or you can chop it up and toast it in the oven for 15 minutes or so.
• Crush the chocolate orange bread with a grater or food processor. You can also do it with a good old mortar and pestle.
• Note: the crumble shouldn’t be too fine. If there are larger pieces, it will give the pancake a crunchier texture. Oh! And if you need to use a food processor or blender, we recommend you to do it in various batches so that you don’t overload the appliance with too much bread.
• Put the breadcrumbs on baking tray and bake at 160ºC for about 2 minutes. 

Plating  

As you will have seen in our previous #CookingWithIKEA recipes, we like to focus on the finer details too because aside from your taste buds and stomach, we want your eyes to fall in love with the dish. After all, first impressions count! So the plating of these pancakes will also have a special touch.  

There are a million ways to serve your recipes, but this time around, Álvaro teaches us how to do it using this mould.

1. Place the (previously heated) pancake on the mould unfolded. Go carefully so you don’t damage the dough.
2. Using a pastry bag, fill the inside of the pancake with some cream.
3. Layer the banana slices on top.
4. Sprinkle the finely chopped macadamia nuts on top.
5. Drizzle the caramel sauce on top of the cream, banana and nuts.
6. Fold and close the pancake.
7. Drizzle a bit more vanilla caramel sauce on top.  
8. Finally, sprinkle a bit of the chocolate orange crumble on top of the sauce.

Chef's tip: finish off by topping the pancake with three whole macadamia nuts.