I know, I know, I know I’m more than a little fashionably late for Pancake Day….but I had very much intended to write this blog quite some time ago!. Pancakes are big business in our house and barely a day goes by without a pancake request (breakfast, lunch or dinner!). But seeing as these days the monsters will only eat them with a gargantuan spreading of the not-so-healthy but so well-known Hazelnut and Choccie Spread, I’m loath to make them often. So I’ve been experimenting with healthier options and these Banana Pancakes have happily been gobbled down with great success minus any need for the naughty stuff. I’m certain they’d taste sublime with a decadent spreading but I’m not going there, these pancakes are served with fruit and fruit only at Chez Foti, plus a wee drizzle of honey or maple syrup and a dollop of creme fraiche naturally. Happy days.
Anyone who’s ever travelled any the more popular backpacker routes of Asia or Latin America should be familiar with the ubiquitous Banana Pancake. They seem to crop up on pretty much every hostel or backpacker cafe breakfast menu, and I must have tirelessly munched my way through an inordinate amount in the totality of my two and a half years of traveling. Making them myself has wonderfully taken me back to those heady days, albeit life is rather more different now than then!
I may be late for pancake day, but I’m hopefully not too late to enter my pancake recipe to this month’s No Waste Food Challenge, an event held by Kate from Turquoise Lemons and this month hosted by Elizabeth’s Kitchen and the no waste ingredient being eggs!. Now we’ve always got eggs to use up from our hens and pancakes are the perfect answer in my book. Plus these pancakes are a great way of using up blackened and over-ripe bananas too. Since our eggs are so local (the hen house being approximately ten meters away from the kitchen door) I’m also entering my pancakes to this month’s Breakfast Club which has the theme of ‘local’. The challenge is the baby of Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and is being hosted this month by Heidi at Kitchen Talk.
Banana Pancakes
Great as a Finger Food for very little littlies, Toddlers & Young Children, Bigger Kids, Family Breakfasts, Sleepovers (I’m too scared to go there yet!), Grown Ups
Enough for a Family of Four:
20g of Butter, plus a little extra for greasing the pan
175g of Self-Raising Flour
½ a teaspoon of Baking Powder
a tablespoon of Soft Light Brown Sugar
2 free range Eggs
170ml of Full Fat Milk
2 Bananas, preferably very ripe, mashed with the back of fork
To Serve: Creme Fraiche or Yogurt, Honey or Maple Syrup, Berries or other Fruits
Melt the butter and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix together.
In another bowl or jug lightly whisk the eggs, then whisk in the milk and cooled butter.
Whisk the wet mixture slowly into the dry mixture and when you have an even consistency stir or whisk in the mashed bananas.
Heat a frying pan until hot. Grease with a little butter and gently drop in a tablespoon of the batter at a time. You should be able to cook three to four at once, depending on the size of your pan. Allow plenty of room between each pancake as they do spread a little. Once each pancake is a little risen and you can see bubbles appear on the surface carefully turn over with a spatula and cook the other side. Each side should be pale golden-brown.
Either serve immediately or keep warm in a low oven until you’re ready.
Perfect served with a drizzle of maple syrup or honey, a (generous) dollop of creme fraiche or yogurt and fresh berries or fruit of your choice. Absolutely no Nutella required.
Master J sabotaging my photo!
Chez Foti 
March 29th, 2013 at 8:31 pm
Your photos look wonderful! This recipe is so nice and easy….I may even manage it one morning (which would be a challenge seeing as I am not a morning person) Would make a nice change to the normal breakfast fodder.
March 29th, 2013 at 8:39 pm
Thanking you kindly! I’m not too great in the mornings either which is why this happens to be my first ever breakfast recipe, and I’ve no idea how many times I must have made them but failed to get it together to take any photos! On this occasion it happened to be a very late brunch…..
March 29th, 2013 at 8:52 pm
The pancakes looks so good who needs the nutella, I just love pancakes, any time of day, have never tried creme fraiche with them, sounds really delicious!
April 1st, 2013 at 8:17 pm
Oh creme fraiche is AMAZING with pancakes, especially with a cheekie drizzle of maple syrup or honey and some fresh fruit!
April 1st, 2013 at 9:27 pm
Next time I make pancakes I am going to try it. Love creme fraiche.
March 29th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
Pancakes are very popular in our house too and these look delicious as well as healthy. Very keen to try them for brunch over Easter hols. I foolishly introduced nutella to Ruby on pancake day this year (had forgotten how fab nutella pancakes were myself) though so fingers crossed the yumminess of these makes her forget!
April 1st, 2013 at 8:18 pm
Very much wish my kids had never been introduced to Nutella too, they’re sooooo addicted (as am I on the quiet!). But at least they’ll happily scoff these ones too.
March 29th, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Pancakes are an essential part of sleepovers in our house (although why they call them sleepovers still puzzles me – there seems to be very little sleeping involved!) Your banana pancakes look delicious – I’m almost looking forward to the next sleepover so I have an excuse to try them!
April 1st, 2013 at 8:20 pm
I’m sure all kids love pancakes don’t they….and these are fun to load up with plenty of toppings. I usually have lots of bowls of different fruits around, yogurts, creme fraiche and honey and maple syrup….which always go down a storm with kids of all ages. So not brave enough to attempt a sleep(less)over yet!.
March 29th, 2013 at 11:23 pm
The Jack Johnson song of the same name is one of my girls’ favourite tunes and I’ve beenn promising to make them banana pancakes for so long. Now I have the perfect recipe – thank you!
April 1st, 2013 at 8:22 pm
Ha ha, I must confess to singing along to the song too every time I make them!.
March 29th, 2013 at 11:56 pm
I am scared to go the sleepover route yet as well … But this is sure to be a hit with the kiddies. Happy Easter!
April 1st, 2013 at 8:24 pm
Oh me too, my daughter’s four and a half and has been begging me for about six months now….but I absolutely know there’ll be very little sleep involved being the monkey that she is!
March 30th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
You have just saved me from having to make banana bread yet again……Perfect timing for my overripe bananas!
April 1st, 2013 at 8:26 pm
The perfect usage for overripe bananas! I too was getting a tad bored of banana cake when I suddenly remembered all the wonderful banana pancakes of my travels 🙂
April 1st, 2013 at 8:07 pm
These sound fantastic! Bookmarked! Thank you for entering them into the No Waste Food Challenge.
April 1st, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Thanks Elizabeth! Hope you like them 🙂
April 6th, 2013 at 7:25 am
This recipe looks wonderful! Love the idea of adding mashed bananas in pancakes. Your pancake photos look lovely! Great post Louisa.