A while back we spent a weekend on the island Gotland in southern Sweden. One of their traditional dishes is baked saffron pancake with whipped cream and dewberry jam. The pancakes are made on rice porridge, mixed almonds, whole milk, eggs, sugar, flour and saffron. They taste incredible, but won’t win any healthiest cake awards. Whenever we come across a great tasting dessert we always ask ourselves: “How could we do this our way?“, and last week we decided to give this one a try.
We have replaced quite a few ingredients in our recipe. They are significantly healthier now, and as far as we can remember they taste quite similar to the original. Maybe a little more dense, but on the other hand you can now eat them as breakfast as well, even though they were originally intended as a dessert. That’s always a good quality from a dessert! The saffron, the pieces of almonds and the shredded carrots are just great together. Warm, sweet and saffrony.
Since dewberries almost only grow on Gotland we instead made a jam out of the only berries that you can get in Sweden this time of the year. Frozen. During the summer we fill our home with as many fresh berries as we can get hold of (and afford). Nothing beats fresh berries, right? But frozen berries are not to be underestimated. They are both beautiful and a real life saver during the winter. Make sure they are unsweetened (in Sweden most berries are). We made a 15-minute-jam with a bag of frozen forest berries (with the beautiful Italian name “Frutti di Bosco”) and only sweetened it with some dried prunes. Ridiculously simple. If you have the pancakes for dessert, a dollop of mascarpone cheese tastes a lot better than whipped cream. You could also go for some turkish yogurt.
Swedish Saffron Pancakes
Makes 6 tartlets
1 banana, large and ripe
4 eggs
½ cup (1,2 dl) soy milk
½ cup (1,2 dl) rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
0,5 g saffron
2 carrots
½ cup (1,2 dl) almonds
coconut oil for the tartlets
Making the pancakes: Preheat the oven to 350F (175°C). Mash the banana with a fork, add the eggs and whisk together. Add soy milk, rice flour, baking powder, salt and saffron and stir around. Shred the carrots and chop the almonds roughly, add to the mixture and stir around. Grease the inside of 1 large baking tin or 6, 5-inch tartlet tins with coconut oil. Pour the batter into the tins and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve the pancakes while they are warm, together with forest berry jam and a dollop of mascarpone cheese.
Forest Berry Jam
Makes 1 small jar
2 tbsp water
1 lime, juice
15 prunes, finely chopped
250 g frozen berries
1 tsp cardamom, grounded
Warm water, lime juice and chopped prunes in a small pot on medium heat. Let it boil carefully for 5 minutes while stirring. Add berries and cardamom and let it simmer for 10, stir occasionally.
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20 Comments
they sound SO GOOD! saffron in pancakes, that is such a great idea.
The photo of the frozen berries is marvelous!
Love it!
Yummy! I like the idea of using the banana in the mixture and well done for scratching the sugar :)
mmmm deliciosoooo;) A great saffron recipe just in time for 1:a advent! Seems that you go on nice little adventures from time to time:) Any great findings on Gotland? I´ll give it a try making a vegan version of these yellow beauties.. Much Green Love to you and thanks for…all that you are!
These sound so interesting, especially with saffron and banana. I love how you guys make your own healthier versions of everything, including desserts! They look beautiful.
Saffron pancakes? Really? I’m so glad I found this recipe. I love saffron. It’s one of my favourite spices. I’ve never tried it in a pancake before. I’m excited to try this recipe.
You’re so lucky you get to go on adventures. I’m stuck at home with the kids all the time. These pancakes look so delicious, especially with the fruit jam and mascarpone cheese. Thank so much for sharing :)
INCREDIBLE!Thank you so much for sharing such a delicious recipe, I’m so excited to try n’ make it this weekend :D
Those berries look, so sweet, juicy and divine! Lovely photos :)
saffron pancakes! i think that i am in love!
i appreciate that you always find delicious foods and transform them into both delicious AND healthy creations.
Wow, these look amazing. Definitely not what I expected when I read pancakes though! My partner is Swedish, I may have to raid his grandmother’s recipes. Beautiful images too.
Amazing recipe, amazing colours!
I never would have thought to add banana and carrot, but I can see how it would work! Great suggestion.
Interesting taste combo! I would of never thought of mixing saffron and bananas but hey, why not?!
Looks lovely! Saffron in pancakes is a great suggestion, I will try it for sure.
As usual, fantastic recipe and a pristine ingredient combination :)
Take care! xxx
Those pancakes are gorgeous! I love how golden yellow-orange they are. Beautiful pictures, as always!
Looks delicious! need to try this! bookmarked for later used! thanks for the great recipe!
Hi!
My name is Amanda, I´m brazilian and read you guys every day. Even when you don´t blog :)
Just want to say that I did this AMAZING pancakes yesterday, for my daughter´s snack (she´s the same age as Elsa), and we all loved.
As I never follow exact instructions (shame on me), I´d like to suggest two adds that I did. Put orange zest, cause orange with carrots are a favorite, and some white raisins. Please, please, pleeease try next time. :)
And thanks for evething you share with us.
Kisses, Amanda & Alice.
Looks delicious. Would love for you to share this with us over at foodepix.com.
Every day I’ve been getting a reference to Sweden — I think this is because I’m looking for it, since I’d like to move there eventually. So, here’s today’s reference. I should start bookmarking them or keeping track. This recipe looks fantastic — I love that it’s gluten free. Your photos are amazing, too!