The Many Little Joys

Perfect Banana Pancakes

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These healthy banana pancakes are a perfect breakfast recipe to use up brown bananas that have been hanging around on your counter for too long.These healthy banana pancakes are a perfect breakfast recipe to use up brown bananas that have been hanging around on your counter for too long. Banana pancakes, where have you been all my life? I’m not sure why it took me so long to actually make these. I’ve thought about it every time I’ve listened to the popular Jack Johnson song for the past decade, but somehow I never got around to it.

Well folks, I finally did it this week, and I’m never looking back. I now understand why the man wrote a song about breakfast food. I thought I liked pancakes before, but banana pancakes? They just take it to a whole new level.

It all started with a recipe I found over at Once Upon a Chef that looked promising. I experimented with it several times over the course of a week (I told you I like these pancakes a lot) to perfect it. I tried adding more banana because I wanted the banana flavoring to be clearly present, but I ended up going back to just using one because I didn’t want to sacrifice the fluffy texture of my favorite pancakes. I also increased the vanilla and added cinnamon because…well, it’s wonderful…and I wanted to pull in more of the flavor of banana bread. It was a really good choice.

As I usually do with pancakes and waffles, I also replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with ground flax seed, so I used 1 1/4 cups flour and 1/4 cup ground flax seed. You can just use the 1 1/2 cups flour called for in the recipe, but I really like the added subtle nutty flavor and health benefits of flax. See note below.

All my experimenting has yielded what I consider to be perfection in the form of a pancake. They will most certainly be making regular appearances at our breakfast table from now on whenever I have brown bananas that need to be used.

ENJOY!

These healthy banana pancakes are a perfect breakfast recipe to use up brown bananas that have been hanging around on your counter for too long.

Perfect Banana Pancakes

Yield: Approximately 14 pancakes (5-6 inch each)
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

These healthy banana pancakes are a perfect breakfast recipe to use up brown bananas that have been hanging around on your counter for too long.

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour (*see note)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 over-ripe banana, peeled (the browner, the better)
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  2. In a separate small bowl, mash your banana, then add milk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir to combine.
  3. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula, being careful not to overmix.
  4. Heat an electric griddle or a pan on the stove over medium heat. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto the pan and cook until bubbles begin to appear and pop on the surface (about 2 minutes). Flip pancakes carefully, and cook an additional minute or two, until both sides are golden brown.
  5. Serve immediately while warm (or keep warm in the oven) with your favorite toppings–syrup, fruit, nuts, whipped cream, etc.

Notes

I almost always substitute 1/4 cup of ground flax seed for 1/4 cup of the flour in my recipes for waffles and pancakes. Ground flax seed is a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids, lignans, and fiber. It’s an easy way to boost the health factor of these recipes.

To make school mornings super easy, you can also make these pancakes using my FAVORITE homemade pancake mix.

Source: Adapted from Once Upon a Chef, originally from Williams-Sonoma The Kid’s Cookbook.

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These healthy banana pancakes are a perfect breakfast recipe to use up brown bananas that have been hanging around on your counter for too long.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Rebekah

    These look so good! I love the tip about subbing in the flax seed meal! I’m going to have to try to convert these and use a gluten free flour, but I don’t think that should be to difficult. Yum!!

    Reply

    • Meg

      Jack Johnson is my happy music for when I’m stressed. There’s something about his Hawaiian infused tunes that just makes life seem to move a little slower and smoother. 🙂

      Reply

    • Meg

      I love a good weekend breakfast, and it makes me happy how many people have said they have brown bananas on their counters. Love how similar we all are in such simple ways.

      Reply

  9. Madi

    I have over ripe bananas in my kitchen right now! So I think I’ll need to make these tomorrow. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  11. MommaA

    Made these this morning minus the flax. Both my toddler and hubby gobbled them up! Will be making again! I am also thinking about making a big batch and freezing to whip out on busy mornings.

    Reply

  12. Laure

    These pancakes are absolutely Devine! I made switched out the sugar for light brown sugar, the butter for dairy and soy free coconut butter and the milk for almond milk. I printed out the recipe and I’ll add it to my book!

    Reply

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