Bananas Foster Pancake

Breakfast — the most important meal of the day. Right? Tell that to Andrew.
He has been having a hard time eating due to his medications. He is wasting away. Before I give him his a.m. medications (while he is screaming, pacing and out of control) I try to get a hot breakfast into him. It’s like being front row center at a Gallagher concert – remember him? (at 4:49 you’ll see what I’m talking about).

Yesterday, I decided to do a Bananas Foster Pancake. Something different to intrigue him. I was prepared for “this is not delicious” what I got was “this is the best pancake ever”.

It was a hit.

If you want to hear this is the best pancake ever – do the following. Note: if you don’t like bananas….don’t make this. (Sadly, I feel like I have to put a disclaimer on everything these days. My batter was too runny. Add more flour. My batter was too thick. Add more milk…but really just go to IHOP and save yourself the trouble and me the headache.)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter
milk, just enough to make pourable batter – about the consistency of pudding
1/2 tsp of rum extract (optional) or 1/2 tsp of vanilla
Topping:
Brown sugar for dusting
Banana slices (not overly ripe)

Preparation:

Combine dry ingredients. Stir in the beaten egg, melted butter, and enough milk for batter to pour easily — about the consistency of pudding mix (before it sets up….oy) Mix lightly to blend. Pour pancakes onto hot, buttered (or greased) griddle or pan.

While the pancake is cooking on the plain side arrange banana slices (about five on each pancake–depending on how big the pancakes are). Then top with a sprinkle of brown sugar. When the bubbles are coming through – flip the pancake carefully and allow to cook and caramelize on the other side.

This recipe for pancakes makes 2 to 3 servings, and can be easily doubled for a family. For Andrew I drizzle with a little maple syrup but when I have adults over for breakfast – I will warm some maple syrup with a little rum for these incredible pancakes.

Note: I think the integrity of the pancake would suffer if you placed some bananas in the pan with brown sugar poured the batter – and then proceeded to banana and brown sugar the top…Andrew would think it was too mushy and so would I…but go for it. (I just used banana as a verb…go me!)

Last week, was a tough week with Elle’s passing so I’m not going to do a full post on the Classic Chicken and Wild Rice Hot Dish from Amy Thielen‘s wonderful book, The New Midwestern Table. This Classic Chicken and Wild Rice Hot Dish was great. We all loved it. The recipe can be found here. If you want to join us as we cook along – come join us here.