If you ever drop by our house mid-morning on a Sunday, you will most likely find us in the kitchen, creating something decadent.  Regardless if I work that evening, I make sure that Sunday is a day for gratitude, enjoyment, celebration, and general relaxation.  I want to savor those feelings and take them with me for the rest of the week.  Why wouldn’t you?

With blood oranges showing up everywhere lately, I was immediately inspired to do something creatively with them last Sunday.  Blood orange butter sounded just about right, paired with thyme-infused maple syrup over whole wheat pancakes.  This brunch spread sounds complicated, but it all took under 45 minutes and was completely worth the effort.

I adapted a recipe for whole wheat pancakes from Fifteen Spatulas and added toasted pecans, a touch of cinnamon, and some delicious vanilla extract, locally crafted by Ashlae of Oh, Ladycakes.  I think I ended up eating about five!  No regrets.

Whole Wheat Pancakes – adapted from Fifteen Spatulas

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
•  1 cup buttermilk {or 1 cup milk, plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice}
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons melted butter, plus a little extra for cooking the ‘cakes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Firstly, if you do not have any buttermilk available, combine 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, stir, and set aside, while you prepare the other ingredients.  Sift the dry ingredients.  Whisk the wet ingredients together.  Combine the two, leaving plenty of lumps.  The lumps give pancakes their fluffiness factor, so don’t whisk them away.  On a hot griddle, melt a little butter and pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter, flipping them over, once their sides are bubbly.  Serve with blood orange slices, thyme maple syrup, and blood orange butter.

Blood Orange Butter – adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

• zest from 1 blood orange
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice {citrus is easier to juice at room temperature and releases the most juice}
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur {I used Leopold Bros. orange liqueur}

Whisk the sugar and butter in a standing mixer, until light and fluffy.  Add the blood orange juice, salt, and orange liqueur, incorporating completely.  You may store the butter in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks or freeze the butter for future use.  My boyfriend handed out some of the leftover blood orange butter to friends at work last week.  Many of them ate it directly out of the jar, and several friends suggested spreading it on top blueberry muffins or serving it alongside steamed Dungeness crab.  I think having this on hand will prompt many creative opportunities!

Thyme Maple Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quality, grade B maple syrup {why grade B is better}
• 2 sprigs of fresh, organic thyme
• pinch of salt

In a saucepan, combine the maple syrup, salt, and the fresh thyme.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about five minutes to “steep.”  Strain the sprigs through a chinois or strainer and keep the syrup warm on the stove, until you are ready to serve the pancakes.  Keep any unused syrup in the refrigerator for up to a week and simply heat, when you are ready to make some more pancakes.  We didn’t even have to run to the store for this one!  Despite the recent cold weather, there were several sprigs from our perennial thyme plants in the garden, ready for picking.

What brunch recipes are you enjoying?  Have you been obsessed with all of the readily available citrus?  As I type, I am sipping a jalapeño blood orange margarita, while tangerine and habañero marmalade is cooling in the kitchen.  I think I’m officially infatuated.  If only I lived back in Florida, where I could merely pull over at any given fruit stand and enjoy them as fresh as possible!  Florida friends, you are more than invited to box up some citrus and send it my way!