How does this 3-ingredient banana pancake recipe work?
A classic pancake recipe has flour, sugar, milk, egg and a pinch of bicarb. Overripe bananas have loads more sugar than their less mature versions. This means you can skip adding a sweetening agent. Also, while you wouldn’t guess it, bananas are about 75% liquid. This takes the place of the milk, and the egg just binds it all together. One thing to note, bananas are alkaline not acid. It’s the acid element that reacts with the self-raising flour to create the little bubbles that appear on regular pancakes, telling you it’s time to turn. Instead, just slide a spatula under your 3-ingredient banana pancakes after about one-and-a-half minutes’ cooking. If they’re golden brown give them a flip.
Is there a trick to making 3-ingredient pancakes?
When cooking regular pancakes, you rest the batter for 30 minutes. This is to allow the flour to gently soak up the wet ingredients. Because this 3-ingredient banana pancake recipe doesn’t have any milk we don’t want to let it sit for too long before cooking. Instead, just set aside for 5 minutes.
Why do you use wholemeal flour?
When processing white flour, the bran and germ are removed. With wholemeal they are left which means it contains more fibre and nutrients. The slightly nutty flavour of wholemeal flour also works well with the banana. Just a tip, because wholemeal flour is less refined than white, it retains more natural oil, which makes it more likely to become rancid. If you’re not going to use it quickly, store it in the fridge or freezer.
Why are my banana pancakes mushy?
If your 3-ingredient banana pancakes are mushy inside, it probably means the cooking temperature isn’t right. Standard pancakes only have a small amount of sugar, but the natural sugar in the banana tends to brown the pancakes quite quickly so you need to cook on a lower temperature. If the heat is too high the pancakes will be cooked on the outside but be mushy and undercooked inside.
What should I serve with 3-ingredient banana pancakes?
Like regular pancakes, our 3-ingredient banana pancakes can be dressed up or down depending on your mood and what’s in the fridge or cupboard. You could simply top with a knob of butter or extra sliced bananas or use fresh berries or maybe a drizzle of maple syrup. Whipped ricotta is always a treat on top of pancakes, especially when then drizzled with honey. Banana and chocolate are great mates so how about folding some choc chips through the batter?
