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Gin for breakfast?

November 03, 2022

If you’ve followed our gin-making journey for a while (or you’ve been on the receiving end of one of our experiments) you’ll know that we love cardamom here at Hotham’s HQ. Our best-selling Hotham's Cardamom Gin is award-winning for its distinctive taste, and Simon, its inventor, is always trying out new cocktails and recipes or adapting old favourites with it.

Like lots of people, we tried out those lockdown foodie trends - some with more success than others - and added our own distiller’s twist. Far too many espresso martinis featuring Hotham’s Cardamom Gin were consumed over Christmas and new year, and cardamom cupcakes went down a storm. Baking’s meant to be a great stress reliever - even more so when the end result is a boozy treat like gin and lemon drizzle cake!

Tradition in our house is that on Sundays, I make breakfast, but a couple of weeks ago Simon decided to take over and came up with this stunner: pancakes with cardamom gin and orange syrup. “Gin for breakfast?” I hear you cry, some in horror and some with glee. Yes, gin for breakfast - if it’s on a plate not in a glass, it’s perfectly acceptable on the breakfast menu. Here’s the recipe - it couldn’t be simpler. Have a go (maybe save it for a weekend) and let us know what you think…

Pancakes (dairy and egg free*)

250g plain flour

530ml oat milk

30ml coconut oil (melted)

2-4 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Oil for cooking

Mix together the flour and sugar to taste in a bowl. Add the melted coconut oil and the vanilla extract to the milk, and slowly pour this into the flour mixture, whisking until you have a smooth batter with the consistency of single cream.
Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, then add a small ladleful of the batter. Swirl it around the pan for bigger, thinner pancakes, or leave it as it is for smaller, fatter pancakes.
Cook until the edges are set and bubbles start appearing on the surface, then flip over and continue cooking for another couple of minutes until golden on both sides - make sure they’re cooked through.
Repeat until you’ve used up all of the batter, and keep the pancakes warm in the oven until you’re ready to eat.

Cardamom and orange syrup

This really is as easy as it gets!

Put 4tbsp marmalade (a bitter one is best - we chose Frank Cooper) and 2tbsp Hotham’s Cardamom Gin in a small saucepan and melt slowly. Don’t be tempted to stick it in the microwave - it might go bang and cover your oven with a rock-hard treacle that will take forever to get off…Be careful not to over-heat - you just want the marmalade to melt and form a syrup with the gin.
Drizzle generously over the pancakes, roll them up (we made thin ones) and eat while warm.

*We made dairy and egg free pancakes, and we used GF flour, but your normal pancake recipe will work just as well.

If you've enjoyed making our delicious pancakes with cardamom and orange syrup, try our other amazing gin recipes!