Chocolate banana pancakes filled with bits of banana and extra crunchy from chopped walnuts. I call these our Funky Monkey Pancakes after our favourite Booster Juice Smoothie.
Pancakes are not for busy weekday mornings. Or even busy weekend mornings when there is soccer games to go to or yard work to get done. A day off requires pancakes.
Pancakes are for days without crazy agendas and to-do lists. When you see pancakes it means we sat in our PJs, drank coffee and just vegged until noon. I'd like to say we read books or the newspaper (somehow there is a sense of productivity to that) but in all likelihood, the kids played video games or watched mindless TV while J and I fought over the Ipad. In our house, there is an unspoken rule that the loser has to make breakfast. Since I tend to get up earliest I can usually stake my claim to the device of my choice so J makes breakfast. J makes the best pancakes.
These chocolate banana pancakes reminded us of our favourite Booster Juice smoothie - the Funky Monkey. Chocolate pancakes filled with bits of banana and extra crunchy from chopped nuts. We used a blend of pecans, almonds and walnuts because we couldn't decide what we would like the best. Feel free to use just your favourite.
This is a double recipe. So unless you have a large skillet or use two frying pans at the same time, you will have to cook in small batches. Cooked pancakes can be stored in a heat-proof dish in a warm oven until you are ready to serve. We usually just line up and wait for J to dish them out and eat them as they come off the griddle. But, perhaps this is a bit rude if you were hosting and feeding guests.
We store our leftovers between sheets of wax paper and freeze. Frozen pancakes reheat fairly well in the microwave - not the same as fresh but good enough on one of those busy weekday mornings when you need a sweet breakfast treat. But if you wanted to half the recipe go with 2 eggs (instead of 3 plus 1 white) and 1 cup soy milk.
Serve these pancakes with sliced bananas, a sprinkle of chopped nuts and maple syrup.
Funky Monkey Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder sifted to remove lumps
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup pecans
- ⅓ cup almonds
- ⅓ cup walnuts
- 3 eggs + 1 egg white
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2-¼ cups soy milk or other non-dairy milk
- 1 large banana finely chopped or mashed
- 3 tablespoons melted vegan butter like earth balance
- additional bananas for serving
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a whisk - flour through salt.
- In a food processor or blender, add pecans, walnuts, and almonds and pulse a few times or until you have fine crumbs. Add ½ cup of the nut-mixture to the dry ingredients. Reserve the remaining nuts for topping.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla and soy milk. Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. You should have no lumps, but don't over mix.
- Stir in mashed banana and melted butter. Let batter rest 15 minutes before making pancakes.
- Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. You can brush skillet with additional butter if you want at this point, I don't usually bother.
- Using ¼ cup for each pancake, poor into skillet and cook until bubbles form on top before flipping to the other side.
- Makes 2 dozen 4 inch pancakes
Kayle (The Cooking Actress) says
Ahhh these pancakes look SO yummy (and pretty)! Obsessed.