Birch Syrup & Vegan Pancake Recipe

This Birch Syrup & Vegan Pancake Recipe is a really simple,  American style pancake recipe, that’s also vegan!

Great on their own for breakfast drizzled in lashings of birch sap syrup.

Click here for our Silver Birch Foraging Guide

Ingredients for our Birch Syrup & Vegan Pancake Recipe:

• 1 ripe banana
• 120g flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoon oil
• 120ml plant-based Milk

Click here to see the process of making Birch Syrup

Method:

1. Mash the banana, add oil and mix
2. Add the flour and baking powder and mix
3. Add the milk a little at a time, you should end up with a thick droppable batter.
4. Spoon into a frying pan, cook on a medium heat until you can see bubbles rising through the pancake flip over and cook on the other side. Repeat, the mix should
5. make 6-7 pancakes.
6. Drizzle with lots of birch sap syrup.Why not try adding some dandelion root powder or some cinnamon for a different twist.

Birch Sap Syrup

Making Birch sap syrup is one of the first things I do with wild food every year – it tells me we’re about to shoot straight in to the more serious collection of wild foods and is, at the moment, my only source of wild sugar to be used throughout the coming year.

The sap rises throughout March and can vary from year to year, but each area usually has a 2-3 week window to do this process, the easiest way to check if the sap is flowing is to stick a knife in the tree trunk at an upward angle, if sap leaks down the knife then you’re good to go.

Click here for our Silver Birch Identification Guide

Recipe to make Birch Sap Syrup

Equipment:

• Plastic tubing – 1cm in diameter and 40cm in length
• A drill, any will work manual or electric
• 1cm drill bit
• Container for collecting the sap – I use a 5ltr water bottle
• Piece of muslin cloth – big enough to cover the hole of your container
• A range of elastic bands or string

Method:

1. After checking the tree is flowing, about 1m up from the base of the tree, use your drill and drill bit to drill a 1cm width hole 8cm in to the tree
2. Push your piping in to this hole, making sure it’s at least 2cm in and secure
3. Secure your container at the base of the tree – either tie it to the tree, make sure it’s on flat ground or secure it by leaning rocks against the sides.
4. Secure the cloth around the top of the container, either using elastic bands or string.
5. Pop a hole in the middle of your cloth and feed the tubing through it so the liquid will drip in to your container
6. Secure the cloth around your tubing with either string or an elastic band (to ensure no insects can get in to your container)
7. Leave it overnight to fill up
8. Return to find your 5ltr container full of beautiful sap, remove everything and pop the lid on your container so you can easily carry it away.
9. Take a branch, the same thickness as the original hole (1cm in diameter) and sharpen the end, remove your tubing from the tree and hammer this branch bung in to the hole to bung up the tree.
10. Take your sap home and boil it down until it thickens and turns in to a syrup – up to 95% of the liquid must be boiled away so this can take a full day of boiling down. When it begins to thicken it needs constant stirring to ensure the sugars don’t burn. Alternatively it can be put in a plastic bowl and in the microwave, opening the microwave door every minute to release the steam (I find it’s less likely to burn this way)
11. When it’s reached a consistency your happy with, bottle in to sterilised bottles or jars and enjoy.