My mornings begin way too early. I get up at 530am every day and allow myself just 15 minutes to wash up and change. I need to wake my son up at 6am so that leaves me another 15 minutes in between to prep breakfast for my oldest. I try to get him down for breakfast between 615-620am. His school bus comes by at approximately 637am every day, so he only has 15-20 minutes to wolf down breakfast, leaving me just a couple of minutes to cook.
I’ve worked out a regular rotation of easy to prepare, fast to finish off dishes, including things like ham and cheese toasties and scrambled eggs with buttered toast. Both older rug rats love pancakes, so I’ve also worked them into the rotation. I’ve actually made them so many times that I can pull together all the ingredients and make the batter within my alloted 15 minutes.
For years we’ve been using a buttermilk pancake recipe that Su-Lyn adapted from a Rose Levy Beranbaum recipe. But recently, I decided to try out a new version.
Su-Lyn has written, both on this site and on her Instagram feed, how we always seem to have a mountain of bananas in our kitchen. For some reason, it’s the fruit my mother loves to buy. She stocks our house with so many bananas I could easily feed an entire troop of monkeys. And since bananas ripen quickly, we always seem to have a good percentage of our bananas destined to be turned into banana cake. But, I thought one day, why not use some of these very ripe bananas to make some yummy banana pancakes? I figured the kids like pancakes and they like banana cake, so they should enjoy banana pancakes.
The day I first tested this recipe, we didn’t have any buttermilk in the fridge. So I grabbed a tub of Greek yogurt and used that. The pancakes came out really well. So good in fact that I’ve been making these much more often than normal pancakes. Not only do they taste great but I like the fact that the kids are ingesting a little fruit as part of their brekkie.
The portions I’m listing in the recipe below are exactly what I use in the mornings. It makes just enough for both older (solid-food eating) kids and me. But bear in mind my kids are 7 and 3. So if you’re feeding bigger kids or a larger number of people, please scale the recipe accordingly.
Banana Pancakes
Enough for two very hungry people.
56g cake flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg, separated
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
2 very ripe small bananas (pisang mas)
25g butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
When you separate the egg, you’ll want to place the egg white in a large mixing bowl. The yolk can be kept in a smaller mixing bowl or measuring jug.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together in a bowl. Set aside.
Mash the bananas and mix into the egg yolk. Pour in the yogurt and mix until smooth. I find using a stick blender gives me a super smooth consistency in a few seconds.
Using a whisk (ideally stick blender with a whisk), start beating your egg white. Once it’s frothy, add in the cream of tartar. Then whisk until the white is very white, very fluffy and has peaks that hold their shape.
Incorporate the banana-yolk-yogurt into the flour mixture. Stir until everything is combined but don’t over stir. Lumpy is fine. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. Then, using a spatula, gently fold the egg white into the batter. Make sure all of the white is evenly incorporated into the batter.
Set a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Melt a small pat of butter in the pan. You want just enough to coat the full surface of your pan. When hot, use a spoon to drop batter onto the pan. I tend to like to make small pancakes that I can stack.
When bubbles start to appear on the surface of the pancakes, and when you jiggle the pan, they slide easily, it’s time to flip. Gently flip the pancakes. At this point, I like to lower the heat a little. Cook for a minute and then transfer your banana pancakes to a plate.
Drizzle with your favorite maple syrup or serve with jam, poached fruit or whatever else you love to eat with pancakes.
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!
