Banana Split Pancakes

I know I might seem obsessed with banana split items recently. That's because I am. I just love the combination of bananas, chocolate, vanilla and maraschino cherries. These pancakes started out innocently enough as some overripe bananas. (Don't so many banana food items start out that way?) I wanted more instant gratification than banana bread, so I decided on banana pancakes. The pancakes by themselves are plain delicious. You can really taste the banana flavor and they taste so good plain or with maple syrup and peanut butter. Mmmm. Plus, with so much mashed banana in the recipe they have very little oil and could almost past as healthy.


Until I came across the idea of putting ice cream on them, that is.

Our neighbors have waffles with ice cream and strawberries every Saturday morning. When they told me this I thought it was the weirdest thing until I tried it, and then I realized that you can put ice cream on just about everything and it works. On the banana pancakes it gets soft and melty and makes the pancakes taste something like bananas foster. With chocolate syrup, of course. And maraschino cherries. So more like a fancy banana split. It was one of those great ideas that I was almost sad for having because I ruined a perfectly healthy breakfast. And I loved every minute of it.

Banana Split Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
Vanilla ice cream
Chocolate syrup
Maraschino cherries

Directions:

1. Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and bananas.

2. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.

3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium-low heat. (These pancakes turn out better when cooked slower on lower heat that regular pancakes so the insides get a chance to cook before the bottom burns.) Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides.

4. Serve pancakes hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and maraschino cherries on top.    

Yield: 8-10 pancakes        

Recipe Source: Pancake recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Posted in: Breakfast