Banana pancakes

This is really yesterday’s recipe, but I didn’t get a chance to write it up, so here it is today. As usual for Saturday breakfast, Ninka asked for pancakes. Turns out I didn’t have enough kefir. Barely 100 ml (maybe even a bit less). Still, where there’s a will, as they say.

So I experimented. And it worked. Rather well, actually, I have to admit. I figured a good ripe banana and a little fresh cream would make a nice pulp, and if I added flour to that, it might just work.

That’s how I ended up with these banana pancakes. They have the taste and look of classic pancakes and the flavour of banana bread. Really nice. I was a bit worried Ninka might spot a difference and start grumbling. But she always eats them with Nutella, and this time I put strawberries on top and dusted them with icing sugar too, so who knows whether she noticed? She certainly didn’t say anything, and she even admitted they were OK. Plus she ate more than I did (three, no less).

So yes, I recommend them. Easy, tasty and perhaps even better than the classic “pancakes”.

At a glance: 

Prep time: 25 minutes

Serves: makes exactly 8 pancakes, 18 cm across, so enough for 4 people?

Calories: hmm… strawberries are good for you

Ingredients for pancakes à la banana bread:

• 100 ml kefir
• 1/3 of a small carton of fresh cream (30% fat)
• one large banana (very ripe)
• half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 6 tablespoons of flour
• a large egg
• two teaspoons of sugar
• a heaped tablespoon of butter

How to make some great pancakes:

Banana pancakes are made the opposite way to what logic dictates: you don’t pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones. You do it the other way round 🙂

I started by melting the butter in a small frying pan and setting it aside to cool.

I blended the banana with the kefir, poured in the cream and kept blending. Then I added the whole egg and blended again.

I put the bicarbonate of soda, sugar and flour into the beaker with the banana mixture (I added the flour a tablespoon at a time, stirring as I went so it wouldn’t get too thick. In the end I used 6 level tablespoons. The photo below gives you an idea of what the finished batter looks like). I blended it, added the butter and blended again.

I heated the pan (on “flame” setting 6 on my scale of 1–10) and spooned in batter to make pancakes about 18 cm across. I turned them after about 1–2 minutes, when the tops were drying out. I served Ninka hers with Nutella, strawberries and icing sugar. I had mine with icing sugar. I think they’re good plain too. Enjoy!