Teff pinwheels with apricot tahini and cardamom cream

These nourishing teff pancakes filled with an easy tahini and and apricot sauce are my take on the peanut butter and jam sandwiches that I used to tuck into after school. So you don’t eat too many of them, we’ve rolled them up and sliced them to make pinwheels – perfect for little fingers, too! Apricots are great for all the Doshas but they’re not the easiest fruit to find nice and ripe as they have a short season; this dried apricot cream is brilliant and lasts for up to a month in the fridge.

Serves 4

125g (¾ cup) teff flour

1½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of sea salt

1 tbsp maple syrup

120ml (½ cup) whole milk, nut milk or water

2 medium eggs, beaten, or 3 flax eggs (see here)

1½ tbsp melted ghee, butter or coconut oil, plus extra for greasing

75ml (⅓ cup) water

zest of l½–2 lemons

FOR THE CREAM

450g unsulphured dried apricots

250ml (1 cup) boiling water

seeds of 20 cardamom pods, ground

60g (⅓ cup) tahini or more

1 To make the cream, soak the apricots in the boiling water for 30 minutes or until soft. Blend with the soaking water, cardamom and tahini, adding a little more tahini if needed to reach your desired consistency. To increase the cream’s shelf-life, transfer to a small, heavy-based pan and cook it through for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

2 Mix the teff flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients, apart from the ghee. Add them to the bowl and stir well to combine.

3 Heat a large ceramic-lined or seasoned cast-iron frying pan over a medium heat and grease with ghee. When hot add a ladleful of the batter, then immediately swirl the pan around and lightly smooth with the back of a spoon to create a thin pancake. Cook for l½ minutes on one side, then using a spatula flip over and cook the other side for about a minute. The mixture makes enough for six thin pancakes.

4 Spread each pancake with 2 tablespoons of the cream, then roll up the pancakes to create a long cigar. Cut the cigar into 2.5cm (1in) slices and serve as little pinwheel bites, garnished with lemon zest.

5 Store leftover cream in a clean, sterilised glass jar in the fridge for up to a month.

FEELING
KAPHA

Swap the tahini for pumpkin or sunflower seed butter – or leave it out altogether and stick to plain apricot spread, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds for flavour.