Banana Bread Pancakes

These banana bread pancakes are fluffy, sweet, and packed with banana bread flavor. Make them on a lazy Sunday or add them to your meal prep for an easy to reheat, weekday breakfast.

The grab and go breakfast has been a lifesaver lately. One, we’ve been hella busy – new place, new job, new, tiny life on the horizon and all that. And secondly, when mama is hungry it’s sincerely no joke. Contemplating the time it takes to cook an egg may or may not send me into an emotional shit storm, depending on the day. So being prepared seems like a good idea for everyone involved.

Now I know that pancakes are really more of a weekend deal, and while these hit all those lazy Sunday buttons for sure, normally we can only eat so many in a sitting, which means we’ve got leftovers on our hands. But leftover pancakes are kind of the best though, right? Much like the frozen waffle of my youth (and occasionally adulthood) a leftover pancake can go straight from fridge or freezer, take a pit stop at the toaster oven or microwave, and then bee line it straight to my hormonal, hungry mouth. So whether it’s a day with nothing on the agenda or one where the to do list seems never ending, there’s always room for a pancake or two. Oh, and did I mention these taste like fluffy little discs of banana bread?

Banana Bread Pancakes

This recipe ups the ante on your typical stack o’ pancakes. Banana bread is beloved for a reason, well many reasons. But the appropriate excuses to drown a slice in maple syrup are few and far between. So, what if we took a square peg of banana bread and jammed it (lovingly of course) into a round, pancake-shaped hole? Well, you’d have these pancake more or less, and then we could drown them (judgment free) in syrup! See what I did there?

In all seriousness though, these are delicious. They’re lightly sweet, pleasantly nutty, and flecked with slices of fresh banana. Also, you can have a fat stack sitting in front of you in a cool thirty minutes, which to me sounds pretty glorious.

What You’ll Need

The list of ingredients here is generally standard – most of what you’ll need for a light and fluffy pancake, plus some banana bread type add-ins, because obvi.

• Flour – all purpose for this, but you could swap in 1/3 whole wheat if you preferred.
• Leaveners – A little baking powder as well as a touch of baking soda.
• Salt – ALWAYS.
• Cinnamon – Not a ton. This isn’t a cinnamon pancake after all.
• Sugar – (wo)man cannot rely on syrup alone. You need a little sugar to help with browning as well as add a touch of sweetness.
• Milk – Whatever you have laying around is fine, although I might judge you if you’re a skim milk household…like, why?
• Yogurt – The slight tang gives it depth, and the acidity of the yogurt helps make the pancakes tender instead of tough.
• Eggs – Well, one egg to be precise. Always a large egg, unless otherwise indicated in the recipe please. Also, room temp is best, but don’t sweat it if you forget it.
• Vanilla – Because it makes things taste better, or something.
• Butter – Unsalted and melted. Plus more for cooking the pancakes. Plus even more for eating the pancakes!
• Bananas – Bet you thought I missed them, huh? We’ll use one directly in the batter and one will get sliced up pretty and dotted right on top of each pancake as it cooks.
• Pecans – Optional, but like, NOT optional (unless they’ll kill you of course).
• Syrup – Your favorite kind, grade B if possible (ie: less refined and more maple-y), and warm if you’re a baller and you’ve got the time.

Making Delicious Pancakes

The actual process is pretty simple. Whisk together dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another. Pour wet into dry and mix just until you don’t see dry flour anymore. But because I’m not here to leave you hanging, nor to be brief or concise in any way (did you read my 2300 word thesis on Detroit Style Pizza?) let’s walk through it in a bit more detail.

1. Grab a non-stick or cast iron skillet and place it over a medium-low flame. It needs a little time to get warmed up, and you don’t want to have your pancake batter just waiting for your pan.
2. Melt your butter in the microwave and mash one of your bananas in a small bowl. This would also be a great time to chop your pecans.
3. In a big bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar.
4. In a smaller bowl (or a large glass measuring cup), whisk together the milk, egg, yogurt and vanilla. Don’t add the butter just yet. Even though it’s technically a “wet” ingredient, it will seize up when it hits the cold milk, so best to leave it for a minute.
5. Pour the milk/egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until about halfway mixed. Then add the banana, butter, and chopped pecans. Continue mixing until everything is incorporated and no dry flour remains. Don’t overdo it, or things will get tough, and we want tender, fluffy pancakes, not dense, chewy ones.
6. Butter up your skillet, and notice whether the butter spatters and browns immediately or just slowly melts, without so much as a bubble. It should be somewhere in between, active and bubbling, but not smoking or burning.
7. Scoop batter onto your buttered pan and use the back of the measuring cup (or a spoon) to gently coax the batter into a circle about 5 inches in diameter. The pancakes won’t spread too much at this point, so you have a little wiggle room when it comes to placement. Place a few pieces of freshly sliced banana on the uncooked side of the pancake.
8. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until the edges start to get dry and the underside is a nutty, golden brown. Flip with confidence, using a flick of the wrist, rather than your whole arm (this helps keep the pancake in more or less the same position in the pan).
9. Cook the second side for 1-2 minutes, or until the bottom browns and the pancake looks risen and fluffy. Transfer to a wire rack in a low oven to keep warm while you finish the rest.
10. Serve with butter, banana slices, more pecans, and as much syrup as makes your inner child happy.

Reheating Leftover Pancakes

So Sunday came and went and you made a batch of these and maybe you have a few leftover.

• Toss em in a zip top bag (or wrap in plastic wrap and foil) and chuck them in the fridge (for short term storage – like a few days) or in the freezer (for pancake cravings that hit in a month or three). If you’re going the freezer route, wrap them individually, otherwise you’ll be met with a stuck together pancake mountain.
• When you’re ready for a quick and easy pancake breakfast, unwrap your pancakes and place them on a microwave safe plate. Zap for 30 seconds to take the chill off. You can finish them in the microwave (just flip them and nuke for another 30 seconds) and eat them just like that.
• Or you can gild the lily a bit and pop them in a toaster or toaster oven on the lowest setting. This will re-crisp the edges and make the surface hot enough to melt a pat of butter like a champ.
• Serve immediately with syrup and be on your way.

What to Serve with Banana Bread Pancakes

Anything you’d like! I like mine with a side of crisp bacon personally. But if you’re going all out for brunch check you could totally round out the spread with one of these:

• Easy Flatbread Brunch Pizzas
• Apricot Chocolate Chunk Scones
• Sausage and Peppers Breakfast Hash
• Spring Asparagus and Ham Frittata

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