TikTok creators have raised their breakfast game to a whole new level during lockdown. With schools closed, teenagers have thrown themselves into inventing breakfast ideas and sharing videos of them on the platform (when they’re not dancing, doing dog tricks or playing pranks). These breakfasts are mostly cheap, quick and interesting. They’re also pretty good fun. And some look as tempting as the brilliant TikTok craze for Dalgona coffee.
What’s ‘pancake cereal’ all about?
‘Pancake cereal’ is popping up all over TikTok. Tiny pancakes (which look a bit like cereal out of a packet) are tipped into a bowl and milk is poured over them. It sounds pretty odd, but since so many people LOVE them, it’s worth a try.
Challenge #1 is finding a decent bottle to squeeze out perfect drops of batter. Some TikTokers poke a hole in the top of a plastic water bottle with great results. If you don’t have one, a plastic condiment bottle works just as well (but remember to wash it – French mustard pancakes aren’t what you’re going for!).
Fluffy American pancake batter is best for this breakfast. The pancakes look a bit like cookies. They cook super-quickly, so don’t take your eye off the pan for a second! You don’t even have to flip them over, as they cook all the way through because of their size.
But these are just mini pancakes, right? So it’s time to make things more interesting. In the bowl they go, on goes the milk, and the texture is like, er, when you forget about your cereal and come back to a soggy mess. But it turns out that the more you eat, the better it tastes. By the time you’ve eaten the bowlful, you might even want more.
Challenge #2 is coming up with brilliant toppings. Many of the most popular videos on TikTok take things to ‘freakshake’ levels, adding chocolate milkshake instead of milk and topping with coloured sprinkles, biscuits, sweets and syrups. They’re very tasty with fruit and yoghurt, but you might as well make a large pancake and save some time. It’s all about trying different things!
The ‘breakfast sandwich’
TikTok is crazy about bread, eggs and cheese for breakfast. And it’s obvious why. Most of us have these ingredients, they taste great, and you don’t need much cooking knowledge to make breakfast out of them. Oh, plus they can be cooked quickly – which is important as TikTok videos are really short.
The ‘breakfast sandwich’ combines an omelette with a toasty. Winning idea! Start by tipping two beaten eggs into a frying pan and letting them cook a little. Before they set, put two slices of bread on top of them, next to each other. Flip the bread-omelette over, sprinkle on grated cheese and, if you want to, add extra fillings such as just-cooked bacon or fresh spinach. Simply put one of the slices of bread on top of the other, encasing all the fillings, and eat!
This is delicious and might even take less time than toasting the bread and cooking the eggs separately. The bread toasts nicely but stays soft in the middle, and your fillings won’t fall out as they are properly stuck together. Perfect for breakfast on the go.
The best breakfast wrap
This is a take on the breakfast sandwich – but using a wrap. You start cooking an omelette, then place a wrap on top before the egg has set. You then flip over the omelette, add all your fillings and roll up to eat.
You can even make your own wraps using this tortilla wrap recipe.
For a more substantial breakfast, probably closer to lunch or brunch, you can add more fillings than you can comfortably fit between two slices of bread. Experiment with finely chopped vegetables, sauces, cheeses and pre-cooked meats.
You could also fold the tortilla over to make a quesadilla-style breakfast, rather than rolling it up. This would make it easier to cut up and share.
Breakfast ‘churros’
Churros are delicious deep-fried dough strips, often served dusted with sugar or cinnamon as a snack. Some people love to dip them in hot chocolate, milky coffee or dulce de leche. But the deep-frying business means they can be a faff to cook at home, and you might not fancy letting the kids loose with all that hot oil. TikTok’s answer to this is, naturally, to use a slice of bread instead of the dough – and to ditch the deep-frying.
Cut the crusts off a slice of soft bread and flatten it completely with a rolling pin. Spread over chocolate spread, a nut butter or pieces of fruit. Roll it up into a sausage shape, drizzle over some oil and shallow fry for a couple of minutes, until golden-brown and crisp all over (or bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6). Sprinkle over a mixture of sugar and ground cinnamon and enjoy.
They have all the flavour (and close to the texture) of churros, but let’s face it, you’ll also be aware you’re eating bread. Nevertheless, these cinnamon rolls are a fun breakfast, especially for kids.
Cheesy baked egg toast
This breakfast is incredibly easy. Squash down the middle of a slice of bread, crack an egg into it, sprinkle over cheese and bake at 200C/180C Fan/Gas 5 for about 10 minutes, or until the egg is cooked and the cheese melted.
I can see why you’d make these if you were cooking for more than two people, but otherwise, toasting bread, frying an egg and topping with cheese would be way quicker. Why not take it a step further – eggs baked in avocados anyone?
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