Pancake Dipped Apples with Vanilla-Chai Syrup

There's nothing better on a slow weekend morning than a big batch of pancakes!  This fancy twist on dutch apple pancakes won't let you down. Remember this one when Mother's Day rolls around and fighting the crowds for brunch just isn't what she had in mind.

I chose Vanilla-Chai for this one because it is also fancy and the spices in it go well with apples.  If you prefer a more traditional flavor profile, use Spice Cake sugar instead.

What you will need:
1 batch of prepared pancake batter (see below for my home-made version)
1 cored and sliced apple (any variety) per person
coconut oil or butter 
1/2 C Vanilla-Chai sugar
1/2 C water

I used Jazz apples because they are tart and crisp, but you really could use any kind you like.  Slice them into 1/4-1/2" rounds and cut the core out.

Heat up a heavy skillet or cast iron pan over medium heat and add a bit of butter or coconut oil - whatever you like to use to fry up pancakes.

Grab some tongs and dip an apple slice into your batter to completely coat it.  

Carefully transfer it to the pan to cook on one side.  It takes a little longer to cook through than regular pancakes, so be patient and just watch for burning.  After the first side is nicely browned, flip it over and cook the other side.

Finish up with the rest of your apples!  

Now, it's time to make the syrup.  It's very quick and easy.  Combine your sugar and water into a small sauce pan and stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and thickened just a bit.  It will thicken more as it cools.

Voila!  You have a very beautiful, all-natural spiced syrup.  Pour it on your pancakes or use it for dipping. If you like, add a pat of butter to round it out.









*Home-made Pancake Mix:
4 C all-purpose flour
3 T baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 T sugar

Use 1 C mix + 3/4 C milk + 1 egg per small batch
(if your house is dairy-free, use coconut, soy, or almond milk instead)

Signature Spiced Irish Coffee

This upgrade to a traditional Irish Coffee is something you won’t regret trying!  While any of our standard specialty sugars would work in this, my favorite is Signature Spiced. The citrus in it really works well with the Irish whiskey and the spice combination is subtle enough to not be overwhelming.

What you will need per person being served:

8 oz good, strong coffee

1 shot of Irish whiskey

1-2 tsp Signature Spiced sugar

¼ C slightly whipped cream

Pour the sugar, whiskey, and coffee into a heat tolerant stemmed glass or mug and stir the sugar to dissolve it.

Take a whisk to your heavy cream and whip it up for about a minute until it is airy and fluffy but still pourable. Transfer it to a vessel with a spout.

Pour the cream over the back side of a spoon onto the top of the coffee. Don’t be intimidated – it is actually really easy.   This technique keeps the cream floated on top of the spiced coffee instead of mixing in.

Do not stir if you want to be Irish!  The classic way of enjoying this coffee/cocktail is to sip the coffee through the floated cream rather than stirring it together.  I thought it wouldn’t taste creamy enough that way, but I was wrong!  It is exceptionally delicious and leaves you with a proper milk mustache.

Signature Spiced Sugar

It’s hard to beat an original!  This is the specialty sugar that got the ball rolling for Boutique Treats. This is the one that friends and family discovered they couldn’t drink coffee without ever again and wanted to share it with teachers and loved ones.  If you don’t know what to try first, try this! 

Signature Spiced Sugar is unique and intriguing, without being over the top exotic. Because it is special and unexpected without being "weird", it makes a really great gift. It is wonderful in coffee, tea, oatmeal, banana bread…really anything you want to drink or bake.  If you like kettle corn, try sprinkling this on your hot, buttered popcorn. You’ll find a new obsession! 

To make this brilliantly aromatic blend, we hand-grind spices and combine them with whole vanilla bean, bay, and granulated sugar using a technique that sifts out the large grains and sediments, but still leaves you with a whole-food product.  You will see the shimmer of essential oils from the citrus and cloves on the surface of your coffee, making this extraordinarily different from artificially flavored creamers.  If you ever needed an excuse to call sugar health food – this is it! :)

To order or inquire about Signature Spiced Sugar, please contact us on our page at: www.facebook.com/BoutiqueTreatsSugar or BoutiqueTreats@yahoo.com.

Why Boutique?

I love America.  As a student and as a missionary I have had the great joy and privilege of traveling around the world in my younger years.  I have seen some remarkably beautiful, wild, and diverse places. I have enjoyed the honor of hosting foreign students in my home. I continually suffer from a very serious case of adventure bug!  But I can still say, America is my favorite place to call home.

In all my travels I realized something. It should have been a no-brainer, but it took some time. I realized that people in different parts of the world think differently about things.  We tend to form specific ideas regarding what is good or bad, polite or impolite, important or unimportant by our own culture.

In America we are good at making money.  I'm a big fan of free enterprise because, hands-down, America makes the best pizza!  All of that competition puts a demand on the production of the best product at the best price.  You just can't beat it. This part of American culture impresses us to think a certain way about business: find a need and mass produce the solution at the cheapest price.  I'm certainly glad most people do that, because now I have a choice of no less than one million types of any given thing at the grocery store!

But mass production isn't the only way to do things.  Not everyone around the world thinks about business that way.  In many places the goal of production is not about quantity, but quality.  The idea is to do whatever you are doing with absolute perfection.  If perfection means hand grinding whole spices rather than buying them pre-ground in bulk - then that's what we do.  This means smaller, hand-crafted batches and prices that reflect value rather than factories and cutting corners to strive against rivaling competition.  This is boutique.  This is our culture.  We invite you!

Our Story

Our story begins here -

A baby girl was born to us!  What a complete joy and gift she has been. She loves life like no one I've ever seen, but by her first birthday, it was apparent that she was special for other reasons as well. She endured chronic rashes, eczema, infections, and shortness of breath, which became a cause for great concern. We discovered through doctors and testing that she had an immunity dysfunction which had caused her to develop 50-60 food allergies by the time she was three years old. That's right - 50 to 60. Why the range? Well, we tested for 70 and lost count after 50, so I figure 50-60 is a safe bet without risking over-exaggeration! Basically she was allergic to just about everything and nobody had any real answers for how to make her well. 

Prior to this we were just a regular American family. We ate frozen  dinners, fast food, canned veggies, and used artificial seasoning packets in nearly everything we cooked. Baby girl changed all of that.  

You have no idea how much the world and your culture revolves around food until you have to cook every single thing your child eats from scratch with the same seven ingredients!  It was tough to say the least, but through this adventure, I was forced to learn to cook. I followed great teachers of whole-food, ingredient-driven cooking like Lidia Bastianich and Jamie Oliver. Those guys know how to slap five things together from the garden and make something great.  I learned process and flavor profiles from chefs like these and every day was an adventure in the kitchen.

Out of that time I gained a very strong appreciation for all-natural cooking. The seasoning packets I used to depend on began to taste artificial and chemical to me. I started to study shows like America's Test Kitchen for natural ways to season things like tacos and roast. 

I learned to make my own ranch dressing and chili mix. Pretty soon my spice cabinet was full of natural spice blends and my garden was full of fresh herbs, which I used to make cooking easier, healthier, and more resourceful. Dinner parties with friends and family became a common occurrence and jars of spices, mixes, and flavored sugars went home with them for birthdays and Christmas. It was soon thereafter that I realized the treasure that had been born out of a truly great trial, and I set my mind to perfect these recipes.

Et voila! Here we are. Boutique Treats officially launched in January of 2014 with an ever-developing line of artisanal and hand-crafted specialty goods. Our specialty sugars are just the fantastic beginning of many things to come.  

And what about that baby girl?
Well I'd say she's doing just fine! It was an incredibly difficult journey, but she overcame it with an uncommon courage that sustained us all. She outgrew most of those allergies in time and continues to charm and amaze the world with her tenacious joy and fervor for life.  She's the inspiration to what has started here and we hope to share it with you.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting the Boutique Treats @home blog!  This is where you will find information, ideas, and community regarding our products and service.  We take a local, whole-food, hand-crafted approach to what we make. To us, "boutique" means small batch, artisanal, and high-quality craftsmanship with an approachable price and face-to-face service.  We hope that our products inspire more creativity in the kitchen, coffee time with loved ones, and home-cooked family meals. We also hope you'll subscribe to or revisit this blog for fun gift and recipe ideas!

To inquire about or order products, please visit our Facebook page/IG  or e-mail address: www.facebook.com/BoutiqueTreatsSugar
BoutiqueTreats@yahoo.com