Save Those Over-ripe Bananas
Ooo, they’re squishy!
Oh, sure, you can Google a recipe for pancakes which says add some slices of banana to the top of the pancakes on the griddle. Big whoop! Not the best ever. That’s not, even a banana pancake.
This is! 
Bananas are peculiar fruits. No one would wait for an apple to get brown and soft and smell oh, so delicious. But, we, that is I, do just that very thing with bananas.
My family likes them when the still look like Big Bird. Yellow as the sun, not feathery. I prefer my bananas to actually have flavor so I wait. I wait until they look like this. That’s a ready to eat banana.
In a few more days, they then get frozen. If you’ve read the banana muffins recipe, you learned what to do with them after they thaw: squeeze out the guts and that’s the good stuff for baking and griddling.
My primary goal was to invent a recipe which used the bananas I had in the freezer and the skills of my children to make deliciousness everyone can make. This is that. On a Sunday when I went morel mushroom hunting (successfully) I left the recipe and detailed instructions for the 11 YO to mix and cook the pancakes. She did so with aplomb.
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Now, after having eaten this recipe enough to verify it works, I offer it to you. Easy doesn’t mean not good. It does mean the ingredients, primarily bananas, are fit to be frozen. Wait as long as you can and suppress those urges to throw them away. You can add some browned butter, which would be a great flavor addition, but that was more than I felt the 11 YO could handle alone. The recipe had to be one she could do all by her onesy.
We added chocolate chips to ours and some got pecans and another batch some were adorned with blueberries. Tweak as you like. Send me pictures of what amazing ideas you’ve had.
Banana Pancakes
Best ever and super easy. The bulk of the ingredients is mashed banana so the banana flavor is in every bite. Now worrying about slicing banana pieces and making a mess with the pancake batter. Who wants that?
This recipe can easily be cut in half if you are few in the house. This batch makes 24-ish average sized pancakes. They reheat very nicely the next morning.
Banana Pancakes
-
160
g
Banana guts
2-ish bananas
-
2
T
Granulated sugar
-
.5
t
Salt
-
2
ea
Eggs
large
-
13
g
Baking soda
-
4
g
Baking powder
-
2
C
Buttermilk
-
290
g
All-purpose flour
-
1
t
Vanilla extract
-
2
T
Browned butter, cooled
Optional
Make the mix
-
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and powder.
-
Squeeze the thawed banana guts into a bowl. Add the sugar and whisk to incorporate the sugar and mash the banana pulp.
-
Add the eggs and mix again. Add the cooled browned butter, if you are using it, and mix well. The batter should start to look shiny and come together.
-
Add the buttermilk and stir in well.
-
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and fold the two together. Use large strokes with the spatula to make sure you get the bottom mixed well. The trick is to do an excellent job with fewer than 12 folds.
It is perfectly fine if there are a few small patches of flour.
-
Let the batter rest for at least 5 minutes while you heat the griddle.
As you dig deep with the dishes or scoop to fetch the pancake batter, that action is a final stirring action, mixing the flour one last time. Over mixing does, in fact, create tough pancakes. It sounds silly until you eat one and then the Aha! moment happens.
-
Garnish as you wish: berries, chocolate chips, nuts or naked.
-
We prefer the real deal maple syrup. Honey would be nice or whatever is your favorite topping.
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You almost certainly have a favorite herb. Each of us has a preference for whatever the reason. I’ve a few I really appreciate above the rest, including lavender leaves and chervil. But, perhaps my most favorite is marjoram.
