Yesterday morning, it was raining. To take another line from the Jack Johnson song I so blatantly got my post title from, "ain't no need to go outside."
So rather than moan about the very non-summer weather we've been having, I made banana pancakes and pretended it was the weekend.
I very rarely make pancakes, maybe once a year, which surprises me because I love them and they are actually very easy to make. You can even do the whole lot in one bowl if the thought of having to wash up more than two things makes you feel like just forgetting the whole thing and making toast.
I normally dismiss any breakfast recipe that calls for the separation of eggs - it's best to keep things simple in the morning for a non-morning person!! - but I promise it really isn't much extra work, just one more bowl. And it really does turn these little pancakes, which taste a little bit like the banana fritters you could get for dessert in the Chinese restaurants I went to as a kid, into little fluffy clouds. It's really worth it!
You don't need to limit yourself to bananas either - you can add berries, apple slices, flax seeds, chia seeds or anything else you think might work.
Banana pancakes
for 1 or 2
1 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
170g yoghurt (I used a TOTAL 0% pot which had a strawberry puree on the side, which I poured over the top when serving)
1/2-1 cup milk (I used oat milk)
Dash of cinnamon
1 egg, separated
1 banana
Cooking spray
Yoghurt, fruit, maple syrup, to serve
Mix flour, baking powder, yoghurt, cinnamon and egg yolk in a bowl, add milk to get to a cake-batter like consistency. If you want to stretch the batter a bit more than pancakes for 1 or 2 people, add more milk. Otherwise, it should be a fairly thick batter.
Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form. Fold it through the batter, being careful not to over-mix.
Heat a large frying pan and spray lightly with cooking spray. Pour the batter in to desired size. Place banana slices on top, like so:
Cook until bubbles appear then flip and cook on the other side. The banana slices will go all soft and crusty and caramelised, absolutely delicious! They might go a little dark but don't worry, they will still be nice. Just keep an eye on it - the second side of the pancake always cooks faster than the first for some reason anyway!
Keep the cooked pancakes warm until all the batter is used. This made 4 decent sized pancakes - I had two for breakfast and wrapped the rest in foil and put them in the fridge, either for afternoon tea or another breakfast!
Serve on warm plates with yoghurt, fruit and syrup. Preferably with coffee and papers alongside, if you're pretending it's the weekend.
