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MY DARLING LEMON THYME

buckwheat pancakes with warm vanilla berries {gluten + dairy-free} + a cookbook giveaway!

buckwheat pancakes with warm vanilla berries {gluten + dairy-free}

I own a lot of cookbooks. If my husband Si was telling this story he would definitely be using expletives by now and would be going on about how my cookbooks are no longer contained to the one shelf above the T.V. He would be saying they now occupy premium space under the desk, beside the desk, on the coffee table, next to the bed, often on the dining table… and the kitchen bench. He would be complaining that there’s also the odd pile on the floor… Or two, and really I can’t deny any of it. Some people collect antiques, dolls or cars. Me, I collect cookbooks. Some I love for their recipes (those ones are generally splattered with food), others for the voice behind them, while mostly if I’m being completely honest I just love to ogle the gorgeous photography. I know, I know, how superficial eh? Please don’t tell me I’m all alone on this one.

The newest addition to the collection is a stunner and one that I’ve loved cooking from over the past week or so. Wholehearted Food is written by Brenda Fawdon, the legendary chef who founded the first licensed organic restaurant in Australia, Mondo Organics, and its immensely popular cooking school in Queensland. Her ethos mirror mine to a T and in this, her first book, she shares her lifelong love of real food to produce a beautiful collection of wholefood recipes. All the photos were taken at her home, gorgeous organic orchard and kitchen garden on beautiful Mount Tamborine in Queensland. She writes…

‘I am lucky enough to live at the breathtakingly beautiful Tamborine Mountain, where we also source much of our produce for the restaurant and for home. We haven’t paid an electricity bill since we had sixteen solar panels installed on our roof. We use only tank water, and we have built an organic courtyard kitchen garden featuring handmade recycled sleeper and corrugated-iron raised beds. Down the back we have planted a mini orchard, which is slowly providing us with mandarins, Meyer lemons, limes, grapefruit, blood oranges, peaches, apricots, fuji and Granny Smith apples and figs. (And cobbler’s pegs. Damn them!)’

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Along with the photos being taken at her home, they were also captured by Brenda’s partner Christine Sharp and are just stunning. While the book is not vegetarian or strictly gluten-free, many of the recipes are both (or vegan) and all the sweet treats use unrefined sugars and natural alternatives, which of course, I love. There’s a strong emphasis on encouraging people to think about where there food comes from by buying local organic produce and ethically raised meat and sustainable seafood, which I think is a really important thing for people to consider if they chose to eat these foods. 

Some of the recipes that have caught my eye are: Purple sprouting broccoli with sweet potato, poached egg and turmeric aioli, Mung Bean falafels (which I have tried and loved), Mung bean, wild rice and buckwheat kitchari (next on my to-try list), Chickpea crepes with avocado, black hummus and lentil sprouts, Ginger kuzu creme brulee, and the famous Mondo Chocolate dandelion pudding has my name written all over it!

It's totally normal to eat pancakes for afternoon tea eh?
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buckwheat pancakes with warm vanilla berries {gluten + dairy-free}

The recipe I most wanted to try out though, was her Buckwheat pancakes with warm vanilla berries (see recipe below). I make two very similar recipes (they are actually both in my book, one sweet, one savoury) but it was her method of beating the whites, then adding the sugar to form a meringue which blew me away with it’s genius and I just knew I had to share this recipe! If you are familiar with using buckwheat flour you will know that it sometimes has a tendency to go a tad gluey and dense. I whip my whites for one of my recipes, but stabilising the whites with the addition of sugar is something I’d not ever thought of doing myself and I’m actually kinda kicking myself it wasn’t my own idea, haha!

The resulting pancakes are lighter than light, beautiful fluffy wee things. And the warm vanilla berries are the perfect topping, along with a generous dollop of natural plain yoghurt. I made these yesterday for the kids and I as an afternoon snack (the things we bloggers do to get good light I tell ya?! Read this great blog post for more on this) and rather than cooking large pancakes I instead just cooked them in little pikelet sized ones. The kids ate most of them straight from the pan unadorned, but they did save a couple each which I topped with the berries before they were inhaled, literally.
I’ve shared the recipe below exactly as it appear in the book, but there’s a few added notes of mine at the very bottom should you care to read the slight adaptions I made.

Update: This giveaway has now finished! Thanks to everyone who entered.


Lastly, the lovely people at UQP have offered a book to giveaway to one lucky New Zealand or Australia reader! 
Here’s what you have to do to be in the draw to win a copy of Wholehearted Food, by Brenda Fawdon.


***Leave a comment on this post mentioning your favorite cookbook of the moment***
For extra entries (you must leave a separate comment for each of your entries to be valid, e.g “I follow you on facebook”, one comment, next comment “I follow you on twitter”. I know it’s a pain but it’s the easiest way for me to keep track of each entry!)

1.“Like” My Darling Lemon Thyme on Facebook
2. Follow @mydarlingLT on Twitter
3. Follow mydarlinglemonthyme on Instagram
4.Tweet the following:Come enter to #win Wholehearted Food by Brenda Fawdon from @mydarlingLT  http://bit.ly/1cEjKyh #giveaway
5. Subscribe to My Darling Lemon Thyme updates by email, or subscribe to my RSS feed

If you already follow me on twitter, facebook, instagram or have subscribed, you can still leave a comment stating the same and it counts as an entry.

This giveaway is open to New Zealand and Australian readers and will be drawn by Random.org on the 15th November. Good luck!


buckwheat pancakes with warm vanilla berries {gluten + dairy-free}



Buckwheat pancakes with warm vanilla berries

If you haven’t tried buckwheat flour before, this is a good recipe to start with. Buckwheat flour is an excellent alternative for people who are sensitive to gluten or wheat. It’s not related to wheat; rather, it is a seed related to rhubarb. Buckwheat has a delicious earthy flavour, it is easy to digest, packed full of fibre and has many health benefits, including lowering blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Serves 4

6 organic eggs, separated
½ cup rapadura sugar
2 cups buckwheat flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 cups organic milk (use full-cream, rice or almond)
unsalted organic butter or ghee, for cooking (or virgin coconut oil, if dairy-free~Emm)
raw honey labna, or vanilla ricotta or plain yoghurt, to serve
Warm vanilla berries
100 ml water
1 tablespoon rapadura syrup 
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, or 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
finely grated zest and juice of
1 lime or lemon
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries or strawberries (or use a combination)
To make the berries, place the water, rapadura syrup, vanilla bean paste, and lime zest and juice in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low,
add the berries and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm or reheat gently before serving.
To make the pancakes, place the egg whites in a clean mixing bowl and whisk (use an electric hand mixer if you prefer) until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until firm peaks form and all of the sugar has been incorporated.
Sift the flour and salt into a separate mixing bowl and add the egg yolks and milk. Use a large metal spoon to stir into a firm batter. Gently fold the egg whites through the batter. Don’t over-mix.
Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in a small cast-iron skillet over low–medium heat. Add a large spoonful of the batter to the skillet and cook until the top starts to form bubbles. Flip over and cook for a further minute, or until golden and cooked through. Transfer the pancake to a serving plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining pancake batter until all cooked.
Serve the warm pancakes with your choice of raw honey labna, vanilla ricotta or plain yoghurt, with the warmed vanilla berries on top.

This recipe is reprinted with permission from Wholehearted Food by Brenda Fawdon (UQP), available now in all good bookshops or online.

Emma’s notes:
I halved the recipe and it fed my two kids and I for afternoon tea. I image the full recipe would make ample for 4 people. In place of the rapadura syrup for the berries, I just used straight rapadura sugar. I used homemade almond milk in the batter and ghee to cook the pancakes. Use virgin coconut oil to cook the pancakes if you’re completely dairy-free.

Disclaimer: I received a complementary copy of Wholehearted Food courtesy of UQP, but as always my views are completely my own. I only write about things I believe in and what I feel you, my readers, will enjoy.

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149 Responses

  3. hi i am a liker i have just been given my nana's hand written cookbook from when she got married this is a book i shall treasure and make good use of

    carolyn abraham

  4. I wish I could justify all of the money I've spent on cookbooks so far, haha… But they bring me so much joy! I'm dying to get my hands on this one, so apologies for the comment "spam" 😛

    I follow you on twitter

  13. This looks so good! Don't worry, I too have a burgeoning cookbook collection too, and the more pretty pictures the better! My favourite book at the moment is Yottam and Sami's "Jerusalem", everything I make from it is amazing!

    2. I hope this doesn't disrupt the entry system but I had a quick question… does this recipe use the storebought buckwheat flour or freshly ground flour? Thanks!

  22. oh poo that i can't enter! but this cookbook looks gorgeous! i totally look at cookbooks just for the photos all the time, you are way not alone on that one.

    also i love the idea of serving labna on pancakes! will have to try these soon 🙂

  23. My favourite cookbooks of the moment are the Karen Martini Collection and Jerusalem by Ottolenghi and Tamimi. Love the tip about beating egg whites, my last buckwheat pancakes were stodgy! Must try 🙂

  24. M favourite cookbook, at the moment (its constantly changing as i love to ogle over the gorgeous photography too, what do they say..we eat with our eyes first) is Teresa Cutters 80/20

  29. i have tweeted the required phrase..up to 6 comments now..fingers crossed 🙂
    i must confess, like you, i collect cookbooks, i have 30 + and i'm only 19 and when people ask what i want as a gift for birthdays or Christmas, they already know the answer, a cookbook off of my long list of 'to-buys'. I can't wait for your new cookbook to be released, its at the top of the list!

    1. Oh no you're well on your way to becoming a full-fledged cookbook addict like me! 🙂 It's all I ever want for presents too, hehe xx

  30. As much as I would like to say your cook book Emma I have not been able to get my hands on a copy yet!! However I am still taking a copy of 'The Green Kitchen' to bed with me for some night time reading ( is it weird reading a cookbook like a novel? my husband thinks I am obsessed!) every time I pick it up I find another thing I want to make.

    1. Please just know that you are not alone in your reading of cookbooks like they were a novel! I do this all. the . time! Not too much longer until my book comes out… man I've had to learn patience this year 🙂

  31. Hi Em! Those pancakes look beautiful. My fave cookbook at the moment is 'Dr Libby's Real Food Kitchen' by Dr Libby and Chef Cynthia Louise. really yummy and super healthy food 🙂

  34. I'm currently digging into 'My Taste of Sicily" by Dominique Rizzo. I bought it in 2011, and now it seems to be working its magic. Gutsy Italo- Australian recipes.

  35. My hubby would share the same thoughts as your hubby. I have far too many cookbooks as far as he is concerned. I'm loving the new Revive book at the moment and the new Dr Libby book Real Food Kitchen.

  39. Root to stalk cooking, and hungry and frozen! Also you are totally not alone in valuing good visuals in a cookbook. If it inspires you to cook it is saving you money right?!

  40. Those pancakes look so incredibly fluffy and divine! I love using buckwheat flour in my kitchen but it can indeed be challenging to bake with. Making a meringue first – what a genious idea! Thank you for featuring this gorgeous cookbook. It goes straight to my cookbook wish list. And yeah, you're most certainly not alone with that cookbook addiction. Here's one victim too.

  41. I love the sound of this cookbook – however fun it is to experiment sometimes it is nice just to follow a recipe, even better when it is full of wholesome ingredients. As for the pancakes? Yum – I am a big fan of buckwheat, one of my favourite flours to bake with, there is something about the nutty almost bitter flavour and satiny feel of the flour that works in so many recipes.

  43. oh cookbook love!I really really have that problem.Hubby just built a new bookcase for me:)We are redoing our kitchen soon and a bookcase is going in there too!!(there will be a spot saved for yours!!)there is just a lot of talent out there and I love getting a peek at others food lives.Have pancakes every Sunday usually buckwheat,egg whites are a genius idea!!

  46. My favourite cookbook at the moment is my grandmas collection of recipes. Yesterday I baked her Christmas cake and her tomato chutney is to die for. This cookbook looks fantastic and is right up the alley of how we cook at home, whole foods and with local ingredients.

  54. I'm exactly the same. I love cookbooks. I can't pass a book shop without going in to look at their cookbook section. My husband rolls his eyes at my ever growing collection, but then I remind him of all the things he collects and how many delicious meals I've cooked from them and then the complaints stop. 🙂 These pancakes look amazing, and perfect for a weekend treat. I love the plump berries on top. I know they definitely wouldn't last long in our house.

  57. Hello! I recently started following your blog. I am also following you on Instagram. My favorite cook books over the years have been community cook books that I find in antique stores. I love reading the recipes and imagining the food trends from the times they were written. I would love to have this book!!

  58. This recipe is perfect for my toddler who is dairy/soy intolerant, and is gluten-free (because her digestion got damaged when she was a little baby before we worked out what was making her so miserable) … and also nut-free, which is essential as we've got a few little people in our circle who have nut allergies – so hard to tick all the boxes and still be delicious – thank you for sharing!!

    My latest cookbook I bought with my birthday money (my idea of a treat!) it's by Melbourne cooking legend Diane Holuigue called The French Kitchen. A thick, wonderful book that describes basic recipes in detail (like cream of vegetable soup) and the reasons why tasks are done in a certain order, so the reader can develop knowledge and confidence to cook with the ingredients at hand, without a recipe. A joy.

    I am an email subscriber and love getting updates from you.

  59. I have so many cookbooks that it is really difficult to pin down to one but I think at the moment it is Nigel Slater Tender I and I adapt them as required for gf, df and vegan.

  63. Oooh, love pancakes and baking with buckwheat flour so thanks for the recipe. They are different from the traditional Breton kind but more my waffle recipe that separates the eggs. My fave cookbook at the mo would be Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson.

  74. Looking forward to trying this recipe. Hard to think of a favourite cookbook at present as I have so many but do not use all of them since going "gluten free" The one I use most just now is "Organics for all seasons" by Ceres Organics.

  75. Oh, and email updates – and another fave cookbook at the moment is Pletny by Yotam Ottolenghi. So delicious and accessible. I seriously have too many to choose from to decide (an addiction fuelled by working in a bookshop for 10+years) but Plenty and Tender vol 1 are my two go-to books at the moment, Oh and Annabel Langbein's latest annual. Thats it, no more "spammy" posts. I can't wait to include your book as one of my faves!

  76. Oh how lovely! I adore Mondo organics so this book would be much loved I'm sure!! I'm still loving my Jude Blereau collection and Supernatural Everyday gets a constant workout. Thanks so much and hope your week is a lovely one. I'm subscribing by email 🙂 x

  79. Hello! I am a new follower of your blog! I also follow you on instagram. My favorite cookbooks are the ones you find in antique stores, the community cookbooks from members of schools and churches. They're really neat to read through. I would love to win this cookbook!

  84. ohhh…. I'm back to say I made this today for my little miss (who has all the allergies) and she said "yummy yummy". She ate two – a good effort for a 15-month-old! Made mine with rice milk and brown sugar, which is all I had in the pantry, and fried up in coconut oil. They didn't 'bubble' as they cooked, but were beautifully light and fluffy – especially for a pancake made of buckwheat (which can sometimes have the consistency of cardboard). Thank you again.

  87. It is difficult to decide between Whole Larder Love by Rohan Anderson and Simon Bryant's Vegies. Given that it is Spring and Vegetables are a plenty, I'm going with the later, Simon Bryant's Vegies is my favourite book of the moment. Both worth a look if you haven't discovered them already. C Bird

  88. Hi Emma, whoa that was a long scroll down 🙂 My favourite recipe book at the moment (and likely to stay that way for a long time) is Small Plates and Sweet Treats by Aran Goyoaga. An absolutely delicious recipe book completely gluten-free and recipes to die for. I really like the look of giveaway recipe book you have here too.

  92. Oh, how I love cookbooks and have a healthy addiction. My fave at the minute is Love Bake Nourish by Amber Rose. No wait, it's Wholefod Baking by Jude Blereau. Hang on, it really must be Vegies by Simon Bryant.

  96. hi Emma, well Im waiting for your book but at the moment enjoying 'The Whole Family Cookbook' by Michelle Stern. It promotes local organic eating with the little family in mind x

  98. Hi Emma, that looks divine! My fav cookbook at the moment is any and all of the River Cottage books (esp Vege and Everyday) but I mostly use blogs and the web for inspiration! I'm also a fan of Jamie Oliver's 15 and 30 minute meals for ideas and a crazy kitchen challege if I'm feeling daring (to get it all done in the alloted time!).

  108. My current favourite book is The Family-friendly Gluten-free Cookbook by Sarah King – great foccacia bread recipe, the sticky date pudding is divine, and many more.
    I'm a follower of your blog and I "like" you on Facebook. (And I'm waiting very patiently for your book)

  112. you are making me wish i had these ingredients right this very second and whipping up a batch of pancakes, alas I'm trying to put a very stubborn baby to sleep lol. i follow you on Facebook and I'm about to subscribe to your blog 🙂

  114. Hi Emma, my favourite book or books at the moment are the Ripe café ones…have made so many of their recipes and they are healthy and yummy too…love your blog too 🙂

  116. Hi Emma – I recently rediscovered Charmaine Solomon's Complete Vegetarian Cookbook. I'm not vegetarian – but I love my veggies and the recipes in this book are superb! Charmaine truly is a remarkable lady and deserved doyen of Australian cooking.

  121. My favourite cookbook at the moment is Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion – I'm finidng it helpful because I can find recipes by ingredient – which is great when something is looking good in the garden! Plus, she lets you in on some good gardening tips too! Super helpful for my kitchen garden 🙂

  126. Hi Emma! I follow you on Facebook. I would love to win Brenda's book! I have made these pancakes with Brenda at her cooking school in Brisbane. My favourite cookbook at the moment is Jude Blereau's Wholefood Baking book.

  127. Sadly, I don't live in Oz so not eligible for the competition, but I love the book; love the recipe (it looks absolutely delicious); and love your site (which I have only just discovered). I am looking forward to reading more and more…

  128. Thanks for sharing this! I'm already a big fan of Mondos so I popped in yesterday to buy the book (just like you I have a, rather large & expanding, collection). I ran into Brenda and she is possibly the most delightful human ever. So excited to get started on a few of these recipes – especially the buckwheat pancakes! Thanks for letting me know the book exists! RL x

  129. Long time reader, first time Facebook follower…
    After living in China for the last 18 months, and missing all the bad-ass Sichuan food I could get there, my current fave cookbook is Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuan bible 'Land of Plenty".

  131. Great giveaway! Currently my favourite cookbook is Martha Stewart's Cooking School 🙂
    -Sophie

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