Fluffy Banana Pancakes

Hey foodies, I’ve missed you. I know, I’ve been gone for long but great thing is I’m back and with new recipes to boot.

I have been meaning to share this recipe for a while now but I kept on postponing. I have made banana pancakes before but I used to blend the ingredients together to ensure the bananas were completely mashed. This one time, I was in a rush so I decided to just roughly mash the bananas and the result was genius. I had guests over and would you imagine they finished the pancakes even before the chocolate cake was over.

The cast of characters

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg powder – optional but you don’t want to leave it out

3/4 cup milk/ water – I used water

Vegetable oil for frying

 

Start by mashing the bananas. In a bowl, using a fork mash the bananas.

After a few minutes of mashing;

One by one, beat in the eggs.

Then stir in the vanilla essence.

Add the sugar.

In another bowl mix the flour, baking powder and the nutmeg.

Add a third of the flour mixture into the banana and egg mixture then add half of the milk/ water and stir. Repeat this step then finish with the flour mixture.

in goes the flour.

Note: In case you find the batter a bit viscous, you can add more milk/water to achieve your desired consistency. Since, I was aiming for fluffy pancakes I didn’t add more water.

The batter is done

Now to the cooking, if you have a non stick pan use it, in case you don’t have one like me start by pre heating your pan. This will prevent the batter from sticking. Once the pan is heated add about a tablespoon of oil and let that heat. Then add the batter, as for the size it all depends of your ability to flip the pancakes over 🙂 .

Since the batter is thick, you can spoon it over to get drop scones or you can pour it out to get a pancake. I tried both methods.

Cook lightly on both sides, when bubbles appear on the top side the pancake is ready to be flipped. Keep a keen eye since pancakes tend to burn if not turned at the right time.

The flip side

And we are done!

Finally serve them up warm and drizzle over your favourite syrup. I just top them up with honey.

Verdict:

Extremely fluffy and the banana and nutmeg flavour, spot on. I dare you to try them.

Buttermilk Pancakes

It’s been a while since I made pancakes. I have been a bit swamped with both school and work so these days we mostly have muesli or brawn sandwiches for breakfast.

This is a very simple recipe and other than the buttermilk which is a bit foreign the rest of the ingredients are easy to get. Essentially one can buy buttermilk but I’m yet to discover where 🙂 . In case you don’t manage to buy the buttermilk, you can do what I did, make some yourself.

Note: I have recently learnt from Lydz that you can use fermented milk (mala) which is the same as buttermilk. Also Cici reminded me that you can substitute the lemon juice with white vinegar. Thanks Cici and Lydz

For the buttermilk

2 scant cups milk

4 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

In a jug, pour in the milk then stir in the lemon juice. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

For the pancakes

1 egg

2 cups buttermilk

1/3 cup orange juice – freshly squeezed (you can use water)

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons chocolate shavings, optional

Vegetable oil for frying

In bowl, mix in all the dry ingredients, flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking powder.

In the jug with the buttermilk mix in the wet ingredients, egg, vanilla essence and orange juice.

Make a well in the dry ingredient mixture then pour in the wet ingredients.

And we are ready to cook these babies, oh sprinkle over the chocolate shavings.

Pre heat your skillet, then add a tablespoon of oil.

Gently pour in the batter and cook.

It’s worth noting that, my batter was a bit viscous. In case you prefer crepes you can thin the batter by add more water/orange juice till you achieve your desired consistency.

Done

Ready for breakfast. You can serve as is or drizzle over some honey or maple syrup.

Verdict:

Super soft and fluffy.

Drop Scones for Dinner

My friend Kui asked me if I knew how to prepare drop scones, at first I told her no but after researching I realised one just uses the basic pancake batter. The difference is in the size. You use a spoon to drop the batter into the pan and voila drop scones.

During my research, I landed on a you tube video that even had serving suggestions. The chef made some caremelised pineapples to serve with the drop scones. I just had to try out the recipe. So on our way home I tell hubby that we’ll have pancakes for dinner and surprise surprise he is ok with it. Well before you go to think I was going to make pancakes without a back up plan you are mistaken. I knew I had some leftover food in the fridge so in case he wasn’t full I’d re heat that.

For the drop scones, I used my basic pancake recipe:

1 1/2 cups all purpose

2 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

zest of one lemon

1 cup water (The batter should be a bit thick)

Oil for frying

In a bowl combine the flour, sugar and baking powder. Then add in the eggs.

Add the eggs to the flour, sugar and baking powder mixture

Add the vanilla essence, lemon zest and the water.

sorry about the shadow

So now, heat your skillet and prepare to cook the drop scones.

Using a tablespoon, scoop the batter and drop/pour over the heated oil in the skillet.

Drop! Drop!

For the caramelised pineapples you’ll need:

Pineapple chunks

11/2 tablespoons sugar

A pinch of cinnamon

1 cup pineapples chunks

In a pan over low heat, caramelize the sugar.

Sugar in the pan

So don’t do what I did and burn the caramel, the pineapples will have a sort of burned taste like mine did :-(.

Sprinkle some cinnamon over the caramel and add the pineapples.

Caramelising

Stir the pineapples to ensure all are coated with the caramel.

All coated 🙂

Everything is set. Plate the drop scones add the pineapples and drizzle some of the caramel over the pancakes. We also drizzled them with some honey.

Dinner is served 🙂

Drop scones

So, I take the dinner to hubby and again I mention that there’s food in the fridge in case he feels he won’t be satisfied.

Great thing, he didn’t ask for the food. He loved the meal. Yippee!!

Yoghurt Pancakes

Yep!!! One can apparently put yoghurt in pancakes or so I ‘invented’. I had some leftover plain yoghurt from a previous recipe so I decided to add it into the pancake batter. Have I mentioned that it was to expire in 2 days, yeah, hence the reason I had to  use it and I had no fruits to make a smoothie with it.

This recipe is a bit different from my previous pancake recipes mainly because I also added some corn flour but not to worry you substitute it with all purpose flour.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup corn flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

4 tablespoons plain yoghurt

A handful of raisins

5-6 halved grapes

Oil for frying

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, except for the raisins and grapes.

flour,corn flour,sugar and baking powder

In a jug mix in the wet ingredients.

eggs, yoghurt and vanilla essence

Make a well in the bowl with dry ingredients, then pour in the wet. Mix well. In case the batter is too viscous add some few tablespoons of water to your desired consistency.

Add the chopped up raisins.

raisins

Heat your skillet to prepare for frying.

At this point I was ready to start cooking them, then hubby my well and able sous chef suggests I add some grapes. Being the risk taker that I am I complied. You can totally eliminate them.

Some few halved grapes. Colour splash of sorts

Frying them. Always saves time to fry more than two at a go.

Breakfast 🙂

Verdict:

Super fluffy, I think that was mainly cause of the yoghurt. The raisins were a nice addition. I didn’t quite taste the grapes. Hubby loved them. Very filling.

If I could do it all over again:

Eliminate the grapes. (Sorry hubby)

Tip: Don’t be fooled to think I wake up to prepare these on a work morning, the secret lies in making them at night while waiting for dinner to cook. So ladies and gents that is how you have a filling breakfast and save time 🙂

Fruit Pancakes

My love for pancakes always drives me to try out new ways to make them even sweeter. Some weeks back on a weekday, I prepared these pancakes, I have to say that was pretty ambitious of me since it was a work day #superwoman (as if).

The recipe is just like for the cinnamon pancakes, except instead of the cinnamon I used apples, sultanas and some lemon zest.

So in a bowl,mix all your dry ingredients, flour,baking powder,sugar and lemon zest.

the dry ingredients

Then fold in the chopped apples and sultanas.

in goes the apples and sultanas

In a separate jug mix the wet, eggs,vanilla essence.

Make a well in the dry ingredients then pour in the wet ingredients. The amount of water to put is dependent on the consistency of batter desired. I like when my batter is a bit viscous.

On a hot skillet heat some oil and you are ready to fry the pancakes.

always saves time to fry many at a go 🙂

Serve while hot, sprinkled with some honey or your favourite syrup.

Delicious

Verdict:

Very sweet. I even carried some for lunch that day and they were pretty filling.

Hubby suggested that the next time I should try grating the apples instead.

If I could do it over again:

Grate the apples 🙂 .

close up look of the sultanas and apples in the pancakes

These pancakes can be easily prepared for a light dinner or brunch.

What do you add in your pancakes?

Cinnamon Pancakes

Saturday breakfast are always the best since I’m never in a rush to prepare breakfast so I get to try something elaborate.

Last Saturday was no different, I woke up in the mood for pancakes, normally i make lemon pancakes by just adding some lemon zest and juice in the batter but this time I decided to try cinnamon as the main flavour.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder

1 tbsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

 400ml of water

oil for frying

In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients.

(forgot to take pics 😦 )

In a jug mix all your wet ingredients. Then make a well in the bowl with dry ingredients then pour in the liquid  and combine. The consistency of the batter is left to your preference. I like my pancakes fluffy so I left the batter to be a bit thick. Don’t worry about any lumps formed, I’ve read that they aid in fluffiness..not sure about that though.

Then i transferred the batter into the measuring jug that way it will be easy to pour the batter onto the pan.

i remembered to take the pic when i was almost done hi hi hi

Heat some oil on a pan. Then add the batter

I like cooking several at a go…saves time 🙂

Wait till bubbles have formed then flip them over for the other side to cook.

Then serve,

ready to eat

See how golden they look, perfect american pancakes.

We love sprinkling honey over them 🙂

Verdict:

Best pancakes I’ve made thus far *victory dance*. They were fluffy and the taste of cinnamon was just on point.

Hubby loved them.

If I could do it over again:

Wouldn’t change a thing 🙂

Note: When using cinnamon, always use small quantities since it has quite a strong taste and anything more than a teaspoon would be too overpowering.