Today’s recipe is inspired by my homesickness. You are right thinking that having sweet plum pancakes for breakfast isn’t a very Polish thing, but fresh plums and all these aromatic spices make me think of autumn and I am missing Polish autumn big time. I miss the carpet of colourful leaves under my feet, I miss the faint smell of bonfires, I miss wearing oversized warm knits (even though Duncan calls me names when I do wear them) and I miss warm autumn light. I miss collecting chestnuts and acorns with my grandma as a child and coming home all excited cos I was going to make farm animals out of my finds and a box of matches! I suspect that my memory of warm Polish autumn is probably a tad idealised (last time I spoke to my mum she was saying it was cold already and it’s only October!), but isn’t that memories’ prerogative?
Nothing says autumn to me as much as the fragrance of cinnamon, so I’ve decided to dial the cinnamon up in these plum pancakes and what better way to make them even more autumnal than add sweet, soft plums stewed in a bit of maple syrup and a handful of spices? They are easy to make and waking up to a warm stack of these spiced plum pancakes with cinnamon will definitely make your morning. The only thing is you’ll need to talk someone into making them for you:).
5 fresh plums, quartered 2 tbsp maple syrup or sugar 1 star anise 1 cinnamon bark 2 cloves grate of nutmeg ½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped 1 whole allspice
