🥞 Fluffy Banana Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- Butter for the pan
- Maple syrup
- 1/2 cup flour (pantry staple)
- Sugar (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Mash bananas; whisk in eggs and milk.
- Stir in flour, a spoonful of sugar, and a pinch of salt until just combined.
- Cook ladles of batter in a buttered skillet until bubbles form; flip. Serve with syrup.
Tips
- Use bananas with heavy brown speckling. Yellow ones haven't converted enough starch to sugar and the pancakes come out bland and gummy.
- Stop stirring while the batter is still lumpy. Overmixing develops gluten and makes pancakes tough and flat — the lumps disappear in the pan.
- Rest the batter 5 minutes before cooking. The flour hydrates and the pancakes rise noticeably higher.
Substitutions
- Milk
- Any plant milk, one-for-one. Buttermilk makes them tangier and fluffier — add ¼ tsp baking soda with it.
- Flour
- Half whole wheat gives a nuttier, denser pancake. A 1:1 gluten-free blend works; rest that batter 10 minutes rather than 5.
- Eggs
- 2 extra tablespoons of mashed banana per egg. Denser, and they need slightly lower heat.
- Maple syrup
- Warmed honey, yoghurt and berries, or a spoonful of peanut butter while they're still hot.
Storage & reheating
Cooked pancakes keep 3 days refrigerated and freeze for 2 months — stack with parchment between so they separate. Reheat in a toaster, which crisps the edges. Don't keep raw batter overnight; the banana oxidises and the leavening goes flat.
Common questions
Why are my pancakes raw in the middle but dark outside?
The pan is too hot. Banana batter browns fast because of the sugar — cook on medium-low and give each pancake 2–3 minutes before flipping.
How do I know when to flip?
When bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set and matte rather than wet. Usually 2–3 minutes.
Can I mix the batter the night before?
Not with banana — it browns and the texture suffers. Mix the dry ingredients ahead and add the wet in the morning; that takes two minutes.