Recipe · BREAKFAST
2-Ingredient Banana Pancakes
These work, but it is worth being honest about what they are. There is no flour, which means no gluten network, which means nothing in the pan is holding these together except set egg protein and banana starch. They are structurally closer to a thin omelette than to a pancake.
Everything follows from that. They have to be small, because a large one cannot support its own weight when you slide a spatula under it. They have to be left alone for a full two minutes, because the only thing that will hold them is a set surface, and prodding an unset one tears it. They can only be turned once.
Use a banana that is properly overripe — brown, not just spotted. As it ripens, starch converts to sugar, and the extra sugar both tastes better and helps the surface set and colour faster, which gets you to a turnable pancake sooner.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 very ripe banana
- 2 eggs
- A pinch of salt
- Butter, for the pan
- Thick cream or yogurt and ground cinnamon, to serve
Method
- Mash properly. Mash the banana until there are no lumps left at all — any lump is a place the pancake will tear when you turn it.
- Beat in the eggs. Add the eggs and the salt and beat until you have a loose, even batter. It will look far too thin. It is meant to.
- Keep them small. Melt a little butter in a pan over medium-low heat and drop in tablespoons of batter, no wider than 7 cm.
- Leave them alone. Cook for a full 2 minutes, until the edges look dry and the underside is golden. Turn once, cook 1 minute more, and do not press them.
- Serve. Stack with cream or yogurt and a heavy dusting of cinnamon.
Worth knowing
- There is no flour here and therefore no gluten holding anything together. Small pancakes and patience before the first turn are the entire technique.
- The riper the banana the better these taste and the better they hold — the sugar helps them set at the surface.