Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Pancakes Topped with Banana

My husband wanted pancakes this morning so that is what we had. I decided that we were going to ignore the fat restrictions this morning and go for it.

I haven’t made pancakes in a long time (possibly years) so I needed a starting recipe. I used my ancient New York Times Cookbook (copyright 1961) and started making changes. The resulting pancakes are nothing like the original, but it worked so what the heck.

Of course I used whole-wheat pastry flour in place of white flour. I don’t keep white flour in the house, so that wasn’t going into breakfast. I used ground flaxseeds in place of egg, canola oil in place of shortening (and less of it), and almond milk in place of whole milk. Then I added peanut butter, cinnamon and ginger.

I changed so many things I really wasn’t certain how these would work. Shockingly, these turned out great. I liked the peanut butter taste in the pancake, combined with the banana on top. I don’t really think the peanut butter on top was necessary so I may omit it next time.

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Pancakes Topped with Banana
Serves 2 big appetites (makes 8 – 5 inch pancakes)

Dry Ingredients:

¾ cups of whole-wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
½ teaspoon of cinnamon, ground
¼ teaspoon of ginger, powdered

Wet Ingredients:

2 tablespoon of golden flaxseeds, freshly ground
1 ¼ cups of almond milk – or enough to get the correct consistency, don’t add all at once
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 tablespoons of peanut butter

Topping ingredients:

2 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 banana, sliced
1 teaspoon of agave, or to taste

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients and whisk to evenly distribute the leavening agent (baking powder). Set dry ingredients aside.

In another bowl combine the wet ingredients (using only ¾ cup of almond milk at first) and whisk to completely saturate the flaxseeds and to distribute the peanut butter.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and stir to combine. If you have any large areas of flour that are still dry add the remaining milk a little at a time until you have only small lumps of flour. Don’t beat your pancake batter to remove all the lumps, this makes a tough pancake and you don’t want that. How much milk you will need to use depends on the moisture in your flour. I keep my flour in the freezer so it tends to be very dry and therefore I need more liquid than most recipes call for.

Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium high heat. I used a cast iron griddle that I lightly wiped with a tablespoon of canola oil on a paper towel.

Dollop the pancake (approximately 1/4 cup per pancake) on the hot griddle and cook on the first side until bubbles form on the top of the pancakes (about three or four minutes depending on the pan you use and your heat level). The bubbles are an indication that it is time to flip the pancakes. Cook on the other side until the bottom is lightly golden (about another 2 minutes). It is best if you flip the pancakes only once.

I served this immediately with a bit of peanut butter, sliced bananas and a drizzle of agave. Yummy!

Nutritional Information (assumes 2 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 608.98
Calories From Fat (53%) - 321.59

Total Fat - 37.28g
Saturated Fat - 5.04g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1084.9mg
Potassium - 732.41mg
Total Carbohydrates - 59.89g
Fiber - 13.19g
Sugar - 10.48g
Protein - 17.59g

Comments:

My husband, who is not prone to gushing, thought these were “very good”. He liked the texture and the flavor, but thought they needed more agave on top (he does have a vicious sweet tooth though). We like the peanut butter and banana combination at our house so it should be no surprise that these were well received. This is definitely a breakfast that will show up again at our house.