Brace yourselves, guys. There's some major venting about to go down right now. Hell hath no fury like me when I can't get a recipe down right. Are you ready? Let's begin.
I hate life. Or I guess I should say I hate the part of life where I fail at making banana pancakes. Banana friggin' pancakes. Something that should be SO simple to make. But apparenty, it's NOT. Not for me anyway. Apparently, it's the equivalent to making macarons for me.
Allow me to elaborate.
Last week, I did the Dr. Oz 3 day cleanse. During the cleanse, I fantasized about being able to chew food again and decided that I would treat myself to some delicious banana pancakes first thing in the morning after Day 3. I also decided that I would post the recipe on here for you guys, since I haven't posted a pancake recipe in a while.
Well, I woke up that Saturday morning super pumped, thinking that this was gonna be no biggie. If you want to make banana pancakes, you just add some mashed bananas to regular pancake batter. Not a problem. Except it was the biggest problem ever, cause I guess there's more chemistry going on in the pancake batter when you add bananas that I wasn't aware of. Like something that causes all the pancakes to be uncooked in the middle. Yeah, not exactly the breakfast of champions I was looking forward to.
But that's not even the worst part. After my unfortunate failure, I did some research and when I thought I had everything down, I tried to make them again. Nope, said life. My second trial resulted in pancakes that were too runny to handle, and they browned way too quickly. My mother, who witnessed the sad failure, assured me that simply adding more flour would have solved the problem. So, I kept that in mind when I made my THIRD batch. Now, it's very uncommon for me to actually get back up and try again after failing twice at something. But I guess I was so angry about messing up, that it thrived my determination to get these right.
Gratefully, things actually started to look up when I made my third batch. The pancakes cooked all the way through, and they browned evenly. However, they didn't rise as much as I wanted them to. And they weren't as pretty as I hoped they would be. So, I said I'd try again one last time, this time increasing the baking powder by a bit.
I had really high hopes for the fourth batch, guys. I told myself, this is it, this is the one.
But of course, there would turn out to be a problem...like the fact that I didn't measure exactly how much flour I used during the third batch. And the fact that I thought that using a new skillet would result in prettier pancakes. Wrong. Well, I guess I'll let you guys be the judge. The pancakes that you see in this post are from my fourth batch. I rotated them to their nice sides to get these pictures, but truthfully, they weren't perfect circles (yes I'm OCD about that). And the reason for this, is because their batter was too thick. I used too much flour, so I wasn't able to spread them out well. And that combined with the fact that I couldn't get the new skillet heated right, meant another unsuccessful batch.
At that point, I had just about had it with these pancakes. I told myself that I was done trying. I took pictures of what I had, regardless of the fact that I'm pretty sure the second pancake from the top of the stack you see below was clearly undercooked. I told myself I would just tell you guys to use less flour, and that was that.
But then I thought about it, and I felt wrong giving you guys a recipe that I hadn't personally tried and succeeded at. So, today, I tried the pancakes one last time. This time, using my old skillet and being extra careful with the flour. And thank the Lord almighty, nothing went wrong. My pancakes were finally flawless.
I took this last picture for you guys to give you an idea of what your pancakes will look like this Saturday morning. Cause yes, you guys are going to make them. I didn't make five batches for nothing! You HAVE to try them.
Let me know how they turn out for you. But if it's not everything you've ever wanted in a banana pancake, don't tell me. I don't think my ego can take anymore hits this week.
Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Yield: 6 pancakes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons beaten egg
1 tablespoon oil
pinch of salt
1 small ripe banana, mashed (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, oil, salt, and mashed banana. Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and whisk until just combined. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and lightly coat with oil. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto heated skillet, and immediately spread it out with the back of a ladle or spoon to form an even, circular shape. Sprinkle on chocolate chips. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and edges are set. Carefully flip over and cook on the other side until golden brown and cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter, re-greasing the pan as needed.
Serve warm with sliced bananas, maple syrup, and additional chocolate chips.
Note: The bananas make these pancakes sweet enough already, so that's why I didn't add any sugar to the batter. Also, if you want, you can throw in some cinnamon or vanilla extract to make these extra fabulous.
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