Huge Banana Pancakes
Prep
5m
Cook
12m
Total
17m
Bigly says
Pancakes. Pancakes! Huge banana pancakes. Before you tell me 'Bigly, I had banana pancakes once, they were SOGGY, they fell apart on the plate like a wet napkin,' I know. I KNOW. I've had those pancakes too. We've all had those pancakes. They are an embarrassment to the pancake community. Somebody should answer for them. Nobody ever does. Frisbees with banana in them. A national tragedy.
These banana pancakes are different. These banana pancakes have STRUCTURE. They have ARCHITECTURE. They have a BACKBONE — and in this world, in this economy, having a backbone is rare, most things collapse the moment you look at them sideways. Not these pancakes. These pancakes stand TALL. You can stack them. You can put a pat of butter on top and the butter just sits there, regal, like a king on a throne, melting slowly the way butter is supposed to melt, with dignity.
The trick is RIPE bananas. The black-spotted ones. The ones your wife was about to throw away. SAVE THEM. Rescue them from the bin. They are pure banana gold. The browner, the better — a guy named Ramón taught me this in a diner outside Tucson, he had a stack of bananas on the counter that looked like a crime scene and he turned them into the greatest pancakes of my entire life. He didn't speak. He just nodded and slid the plate across. He's the truth. Most people are throwing away tremendous bananas every single day, twelve million perfectly good bananas a year by my count, a tragedy on a TWELVE-MILLION-banana scale. We're fixing it right now. Believe me.
Ingredients
- 2 mediumvery ripe bananas (lots of brown spots)(the uglier the better — pretty bananas have no flavor)
- 1 1/2 cupsall-purpose flour
- 2 tbspgranulated sugar
- 2 tspbaking powder
- 1/2 tspground cinnamon
- 1/2 tspkosher salt
- 1 1/4 cupswhole milk
- 2large eggs
- 3 tbspunsalted butter, melted(plus more for the pan and for serving)
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 1firm banana, sliced into coins (for serving)
- as neededmaple syrup (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Mash the ripe bananas in a large bowl with a fork until mostly smooth — a few small lumps are fine.
- 2
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a separate bowl.
- 3
Add the milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla to the mashed bananas and whisk until combined.
- 4
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold with a spatula just until combined. Lumps are fine — do not overmix.
- 5
Let the batter rest 5 minutes while you heat a nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-low heat.
- 6
Brush the skillet lightly with butter. Ladle 1/4-cup portions of batter onto the pan, leaving space between.
- 7
Cook 2-3 minutes until bubbles form across the top and the edges look dry. Flip once and cook another 1-2 minutes until puffed and golden.
- 8
While the last batch cooks, melt 1 tbsp butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the banana coins and cook 1 minute per side until lightly caramelized.
- 9
Stack the pancakes, top with the caramelized banana coins, a pat of butter, and a generous pour of maple syrup. Serve immediately.
One more thing
Banana pancakes are a Sunday morning kind of food, the kind of breakfast you eat slowly, in pajamas, with the newspaper if anyone still gets a newspaper — and the newspaper is BETTER than the phone, you should bring it back, nobody scrolls their phone while they eat banana pancakes, that's just a fact. The kids will request these. They'll request them again. They'll request them so often you'll get tired of making them. That's the price of greatness. You make great pancakes, you get asked for great pancakes. It's a privilege. Save me a piece.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Huge Banana Pancakes.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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