Banana Pancakes {paleo, GF}

I have vivid memories of pancakes from my childhood. I grew up eating pancakes. My mom and grandma both made a fantastic buttermilk pancake but they always turned out sort of flat. The vivid memories of flavored pancakes take me back to sleepovers I had as a child. For about a year or so, I had a best friend named Jackie who lived down the road from me. She moved to a neighboring town when we were in the early years of grade school and I never saw her again but to this day I remember him mom’s banana pancakes. They were super thick and banana-y. When I asked my mom to recreate them at home she just couldn’t. They weren’t the same.

Do you know that the difference was? Jackie’s mom used a pancake mix while my mom’s pancakes were made from scratch. I had never heard of boxed pancakes until Jackie’s mom made them for us on a weekend morning. And I liked them. I really, really liked them.

Then as I was growing up I got a different best friend. To this day she is still my best friend. Her mom also made boxed pancakes but her treat was to make them with chocolate chips. So back at home I would ask my mom to make chocolate chip pancakes. And they were good. But they were not Kristel’s mom’s boxed mix chocolate chip pancakes.

Do you know what her secret was? Milk chocolate chips. I had never heard of milk chocolate chips until Kristel’s mom made pancakes using those chips. And she would make cookies with milk chocolate chips too. I grew up eating semi-sweet. I thought everyone ate and baked with semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I digress. Back to the pancakes on my plate 30 years later. I have created an amazing basic recipe for paleo pancakes that you can make with what seems like any kind of starchy fruit or vegetable. I’ve made sweet potato, pumpkin and squash and now I’ve moved on to banana.

For this recipe I whirled everything in my blender and got a silky smooth but thick batter. Then I dotted the pancakes with additional banana slices, much like Jackie’s mom did when I was a child. For the finished product, I topped the pancakes with grass-fed butter, pure maple syrup and chopped walnuts.

Heavenly. Really. That’s all the more I can say.

ingredients.

1 ½ c. mashed banana (I used one large and one medium whole bananas)
3 eggs
1 T. ghee, melted
1 T. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or any non-dairy beverage)
1 ½ c. almond flour
½ c. tapioca flour
1 T. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
Grass-fed butter, ghee or coconut oil for cooking
Grass-fed butter or ghee, for serving
Pure maple syrup, for serving
sliced banana, for garnish
chopped walnuts (or other nuts), for garnish

directions.

Add eggs banana, honey, vanilla, almond milk and ghee to a blender and pulse to combine. Add almond flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Pulse until combined. Add more flour or milk to adjust the thickness of your batter.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Melt 1 teaspoon of butter or coconut oil in skillet. Pour approximately 1/3 cup of pancake batter into skillet. Dot pancakes with sliced banana and push lightly into the bubbling batter with a spatula.
Cook 2 to 3 minutes until the pancake is browned on the bottom and starting to bubble on top. Use a spatula to flip and cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat until all batter is gone. Serve hot with extra butter, sliced banana, chopped walnuts and pure maple syrup.

All of my paleo pancake recipes can be used in your waffle iron if you prefer waffles or just want a change of pace. For leftover batter, I stick it in the fridge (still in the blender). Within a day you’ll probably want to use the remaining batter. I stick the blender container back on top the blender, give it a whirl and cook up another fresh batch of pancakes the next day.

I think what I love most about these pancakes, aside from the childhood memories they conjure, is that they do not taste like they are gluten-free.

Recipe rating: 