Maple and Banana Nut Pancakes

It's been a little bit since I've had you over for breakfast, so when I woke up this morning, I decided to make a pancake recipe that caught my eye a short while back.  Now that I have this picture posted, I wish I had sliced up some bananas to pretty up the plate and to show that these really are banana pancakes and not  look like all the other pancakes I've posted on this blog, but hindsight is 20-20.  I'm going to have to ask you to use your imagination here.

Gosh, these were good; Ole Sweetie-Pi and I liked these a lot.  They remind me of  banana bread, so if if you like banana bread, I think you'd like these pancakes.  The maple that is added to the batter adds the right amount of sweetness, sour cream makes them tender, and the banana flavor, while present, is subtle.  I like the addition of the whole wheat flour; to me it revs up the nutrition as well as deepening the flavor. 

These were a little tricky to cook; I ruined the first half dozen I tried (recipe states it makes 14 four-inch pancakes). Even though I had the heat on medium, the first batch burned rather quickly and badly; the second batch didn't burn quite so badly.( I presume it's because of the high sugar content of the maple syrup and the bananas.)  I  reduced the  heat to a medium low, thinned the batter a tad, reduced the size (to the four inches recommended in the recipe, grins)  and it seemed to work much nicer. 

Maple and Banana Nut Pancakes

(Maple Syrup Cookbook by Ken Haedrich)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

2 eggs
1 1/2 to 1 1/3 cups milk
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 tablespoons butter, (one half stick)  melted
1 ripe banana, mashed

In a good-sized mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, stirring to blend.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until forthy, then whisk in 1 1/3 cups of the milk, the sour cream, maple syrup, melted butter and mashed banana.  (I used an egg beater here to mix the wet ingredients and to further mush up the bananas.)

Make a well in the dry ingrdients and add the egg mixture.  Stir, just to blend, taking care not to overmix.  You may want to add a little more milk, a drop at a time, to achieve a desired consistency.  The batter will foam up, that's okay, it's supposed to.  Let the batter rest for a couple of minutes.

In the meantime, preheat a large skillet or griddle on medium high heat. (I found this to be too high.)  Butter or oil lightly.  Drop the batter by heating tablespoonfuls and cook until the pancake bottoms are golden and bubbles are popping on the surface, about one minute.  Turn and cook the second side one minute more.  Repeat with remaining batter.

This is best served with warmed maple syrup.  You can heat a small, microwave safe,  pitcher of it in the microwave for about 30 to 60 seconds, or gently in a saucepan on the stove.  Your food will stay warmer longer and taste better with warmed maple syrup.