Fit Mom: The best pancakes I’ve ever had

As a kid my favourite weekend breakfast was pancakes. I asked for them every Saturday and Sunday morning and being the foodie that my mom is, she would never dream of making them from a mix. She’d get out her recipe book and make the mix from scratch, until I got to be 10. That’s when she handed me the cookbook and said, ‘If you want to have pancakes, then you need to make them.’

To this day, I still have the battered recipe book but I don’t even need it because I’ve had that pancake recipe memorized since way back then (2 cups flour, ¼ cup sugar, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 2 cups milk, 1 egg). It’s the only recipe that I know by heart and every weekend I make these pancakes from scratch for my family. But last weekend, for Father’s Day, my father-in-law made us pancakes (yes, he did the cooking’we’re a little backwards) and I have to say as something of a connoisseur, I think they are the best I’ve ever tasted. He got the recipe from the Looney Spoons: Low Fat Food Made Fun cookbook by Canadian authors Janet and Greta Podleski. These have banana and buttermilk. I’m not a fan of bananas on their own but in these pancakes they’re stellar. I think the banana/buttermilk combo must be the key to making these beauties so moist (we saved the leftovers in resealable bags, put them in the fridge and ate them for breakfast for two days). Here’s the recipe’I’m going to memorize this one, too. (Check out these pancake recipes, too.)

1 1/2 cups  (375 mL)   All-purpose flour
1/2 cup    (125 mL) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp    (7 mL) baking powder
1/2 tsp   (2 mL) baking soda
1/2 tsp   (2 mL) salt
1 3/4 cup  (435 mL)  buttermilk
2 Tbsp    (30 mL) butter
1         egg
1 Tbsp    (15 mL) honey
1/2 cup   (125 mL)  ripe banana, mashed

Method: Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. Combine all wet ingredients, fold in banana. Combine dry and wet ingredients. Spray or grease frying pan or griddle. Heat to medium high heat. Pour ½ cup of batter on pan to make each pancake. Cook until lightly browned. Makes about 10.

What’s your family’s favourite breakfast recipe?

Related:
‘ Healthy summer cooking tips from Janet and Greta Podleski
‘ Our best healthy breakfast recipes
‘ 4 breakfast excuses and how to beat them