No Fuss, No Grain (Banana) Pancakes

I love pancakes with all my heart, and have written about them at great length in a previous post.  In my searches to find a good, healthy, preferably grain-free, pancake I've found that the internet only seems to host recipes sitting at extreme ends of a very odd scale. On the one hand, there are ingredients lists typical of many gluten free endeavours: five kinds of flour, two or three raising agents, and at least one kind of gum you can't pronounce. On the other hand, there are those who oversimplify: one or two ingredients, boldly going where no gluten free chef has gone before!

I have to admit that this recipe for banana pancakes sits on the latter end of the spectrum, and is offspring of the dreaded "two ingredient miracle pancake". You know the one.  Headlined by bold claims like "these really work!", "won't burn in the pan!" and "so quick and easy!". I had expectations of that recipe.  I read tips on paleo and gluten-free forums. I tried, internet, I really did. The trick is to use ONE egg. No, three! The pan needs to be extra hot! Extra low! Use lots of oil, no oil, try adding baking powder, maybe there's something wrong with your spatula?
How about, maybe, there's something wrong with your recipe?

pancakes made with mashed pumpkin, sweetener, and cinnamon

The "two ingredient miracle pancake!" is a myth and I am here to debunk it. You can not make pancakes with a banana and an egg.  After a very small amount of tweaking, and the addition of a few pantry staples, I found a ratio of ingredients that works every time and perfected a flipping technique that's simple and effective. A bonus with this recipe is that you aren't stuck using bananas! Other starchy vegetables, like pumpkin and kumara work really well too, so you can have a bit of variety in your breakfasts and desserts. I recommend added a bit of stevia and spice if you go down that route as bananas offer a lot in the way of flavour and sweetness, but knowing you can sub in other veggies gives you another means of using up leftovers!
The below recipe serves one, and makes a complete breakfast, packed with proteins, fats and carbohydrates to keep your appetite at bay all morning.

Did Someone Say Brunch?

The year before my family emigrated from the UK to New Zealand, we spent a summer over here staying with my mum's cousins.  Our first ever Kiwi Christmas, we were served up pikelets for breakfast.  New to summer Christmas customs, I remember Mum asking if a pancake breakfast was tradition and my 'aunty' Audrey saying, "It is now!".  Fast forward sixteen years and pancakes and pikelets have become synonymous with special occassions.  Every birthday, long weekend and Christmas morning we have a spread of pancakes, pikelets or waffles, hot berries, fresh Greek yoghurt  or cream and golden syrup.  Consequently, I love pancakes!  Not just for what they represent, but for the endless topping possibilities and my uncanny ability to eat my weight in them without getting full.

Mum's pancakes were thin crepes, designed to make a couple of eggs and a cup of flour feed a family of five, and perfect for filling with chocolate chips, rolling up and dipping in yoghurt!  There is no recipe in the world that can replicate the fun of sharing a table with family, eating pancakes with sticky fingers on a holiday weekend, but that doesn't mean there's no place at all for pancakes on a normal day.