In the same way that I follow a recipe, I follow a certain schedule in the morning. I don’t watch the clock and record how long I take to brush my teeth, but I have a couple things that I always do in the same order. Unfortunately, I usually spend too long doing some things. The very last thing I do before I run out the door is eat breakfast, but it often gets compromised for the sake of time. I brush my hair, pack my backpack, and suddenly my ride is at the door.

Some days I throw a handful of dry cereal into a Ziploc bag and hurriedly pour some soymilk into a travel cup, and then I eat the cereal on the go. Other days I’ll swipe an apple from the counter and eat it during first period. And some days – this is worst of all – I simply go without breakfast. Besides dessert, breakfast is my favorite meal, so those are the days to watch out for my grouchiness.

On the weekends, though, I like to savor breakfast. I love to wake up to the comforting weight of a dog at the foot of my bed, and the sound of the heater gently creaking. I walk down the hallway in my still-warm cotton pajamas and fluffy pink socks to find the kitchen bathed in petal-soft light, and I appreciate how still and how refreshing the winter mornings can be.

My parents wait for me to wake up on my own before starting to cook. Mom starts the coffee and I begin slicing oranges for fresh juice. We plan our breakfast. Our favorites are bagels with cream cheese and lox, pork chops, or eggs (sunny-side up and just a little bit runny, please.) But somehow, inevitably, we frequently end up at pancakes. Pancakes used to always fall to me the way that scones and muffins are considered my territory. But nobody is foolish enough to let me make the pancakes anymore.

There is a special place in my heart for pancakes, but they seem to hate me the most. In fact, my ineptitude at pancake-making is famous in my house. Some recipes are more forgiving than others, but pancakes have no sympathy for me. I’ve made whole-wheat pancakes that ended up a soggy clump on what I thought was a nonstick pan. I’ve burned and undercooked pancakes of all flavors and sizes.

Hands down the worst pancakes I’ve ever made were these blueberry-corn pancakes, and I don’t really have the heart to relive that particular story. I even felt sorry for our trash can as I scraped the curiously gritty and soggy pancakes into the garbage.

Like the determined teenage baker I am, I’ve never stopped trying. I always offer to make the batter and cook the pancakes. But my parents steer me to the table, ask me to set out the plates, or try to distract me with gems like “Why don’t you just relax?” and “Wouldn’t you rather have some bacon?”

You know they’re just trying to keep me from destroying breakfast for everyone. I guess you can’t blame them.

Now my mother is the one who makes the pancakes in my house, and they are far superior to mine. Whatever I am doing wrong, she avoids those pitfalls, and her pancakes end up light and fluffy.

With several overly ripe bananas browning on the counter, we decided to have banana pancakes for breakfast one Sunday. I was allowed to pick out a banana pancake recipe, but after that my mother took over. I juiced tangerines and then, unable to help myself, made a Triple Berry Maple Syrup with some frozen berries still in our freezer from summer.

I sneaked surreptitious glances at my mother as we worked, trying to uncover her pancake secret. At one point she commented, “The batter is a little thick,” but before I could stick in my nose she had fixed the problem, and I went back to simmering the maple syrup.

Ten minutes later I set the table and arranged the plates of food. The orange juice was tart and satisfying, the bacon still sizzling, and the maple syrup a deep, rich purple. We stacked our plates three pancakes tall, poured the maple syrup, and took the first triple-layered bite.

With a thick drizzle of Triple Berry Maple Syrup and small, sweet bits of banana, there was no denying that the pancakes were delicious. They weren’t dense – they were fluffy – but they were deceptively filling. I was halfway through my pancakes and was surprised by how full I was feeling. The banana flavor was also much more pronounced than I’d expected, though not in a bad way. They were just intensely banana-y, in a way that I couldn’t imagine a recipe intending.

I glanced over at Dad, who seemed to be having the same thoughts. We looked at Mom at the same time.

“How many bananas did this recipe call for?” He asked.

She took a moment to remember, then furrowed her forehead. “We didn’t have enough bananas, so I had to halve the amount it called for.”

“…Halve the amount?” I couldn’t even fathom what pancakes with double the banana would be like.

“Yeah. The recipe called for 3-4 cups of banana, and we only had 3 large bananas, which was 1 1/2 cups.”

What?

I picked up the recipe still on the counter, scanned the ingredients, and then began to giggle. “Mom,” I managed. “Not 3-4 cups. Just 3/4 cup of banana – you doubled the amount!”

We had a good laugh, but since the pancakes were delicious anyway, we didn’t dwell on the mishap. I only have two thoughts on the whole thing – first, it’s a good thing that this family loves bananas. Second, how unfair is it that I somehow manage to ruin any pancake I touch simply by following the recipe, but my mom can double an ingredient and end up with delicious pancakes? The mysteries of life.

And in all honesty, when we make these pancakes again, we will probably double the banana to 1 1/2 cups. They were just so good.

Pancake recipes seem to always underestimate how many pancakes a person will eat. Since my family eats pancakes as the main breakfast, not as a side to meat or eggs, we need more than 3 little pancakes per person. Even if we hadn’t doubled the banana in this recipe, the “serves four” probably would have been inaccurate.

If you like banana, this is the recipe for you. The pancakes didn’t taste heavy or gummy, they tasted like light and fluffy pancakes meets fresh banana. If you’re not in the mood for something filling, I’d say make the pancakes the way they were originally intended, and I imagine they’d be lovely light pancakes with some banana chunks.

The maple syrup was really delicious and also a make-again. The color was such a gorgeous, luxurious purple and it was a snap to make. It was a great complement to the pancakes.

Double Banana Pancakes
(I’ve lost the original source, but I believe it was from a book of pancakes)
Makes 4-8 servings

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
4 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas [originally 3/4 cup]
Cooking spray or vegetable oil for the pan

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.

In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, and butter. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir by hand until the batter is evenly moistened. (At this point, the batter can be covered and refrigerated for up to 12 hours, or used right away.)

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and grease it lightly by brushing or spraying with oil. Right before you make the pancakes, fold the mashed bananas into the batter. Drop about 1/4 cup of pancake batter into the hot pan, spreading them slightly into circles. Leave about 2″ between pancakes.

Cook until small bubbles appear and the edges are set, about 2 minutes, then flip using an offset spatula. Cook on the second side an additional 2-3 minutes, or until the pancakes are golden brown. Serve at once with Triple Berry Maple Syrup.

Triple Berry Maple Syrup
Makes 2 cups

4 cups mixed berries, fresh or frozen
Zest of one lemon
1 cup maple syrup

If using frozen berries, rinse them to remove any ice or thaw beforehand. Combine the berries and lemon zest in a medium saucepan and simmer over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until most of the juices have been released and the mixture is saucelike, about 10 minutes. I used a spoon to smash the berries and break them up a bit.

Strain the mixture into a clean saucepan, pressing out all the juice you can. Return to a simmer and stir in the maple syrup. Simmer over low heat until slightly reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes. (Alternatively, for a more jamlike fruit topping mixture, simply add the maple syrup once the berries are soft and jamlike.)

Use immediately, or cool and store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Reheat over low heat or in a microwave before using.

Printer Friendly Recipe – Double Banana Pancakes and Triple Berry Maple Syrup

New feature! The other day I had to print out one of my own recipes from this site and realized how annoying it is. Either you have to copy and paste the recipe into a word document and print, or do what I did and print out the whole post, comments and everything. Twenty pages of text and images… not fun. So I’m going to start making printer friendly versions so it’s easy to print in a snap. I’ll slowly go back and make printer friendly versions of all my archive posts.

Pavlova. The word rolls off of your tongue, all at once light and alluring, heavenly and undeniably delicious. Pavlova.

I decided to make it for three reasons. First, it looked gorgeous and I was curious to try it. Second, I wanted to make it chocolate and submit it to Poornima’s “For the Love of Chocolate” event. And finally, I was meeting my Grandma to celebrate her birthday and this seemed perfect. Like me, my mother had never heard of it before. “How do you spell it?” she asked.

T-r-o-u-b-l-e.

Pavlova is not entirely difficult. It’s a meringue base, with a thin crisp outer crust and a chewy, marshmallowy inside. The meringue nest is topped with freshly whipped cream and fresh fruit. The whole thing melts in your mouth, and the sweetness of the meringue is cut by the fruit and the cream, if unsweetened. So why did this little dessert give me such a hard time?

Right off the bat, I broke 18 eggs. I was opening the fridge to take out the four eggs needed for the pavlovas. One moment, I was talking, with the four eggs in my hand. The next moment, my mother had pushed me all the way over to the cabinets in an attempt to stop me, but alas – the empty container slid guiltily on the floor and sacrificed every egg along the way. While my four egg whites came to room temperature, I wiped up the floor and tried to keep the dogs from licking the splattered raw yolk.

But it was about to get much, much more embarrassing.

The next screw up came while I was making the meringue. I was looking at two different recipes. One was Nigella Lawson’s recipe for mini pavlovas, the other was a recipe for chocolate pavlova. You see, I wanted Nigella’s cute little pavlovas but the chocolate of the other recipe. However, Nigella used vinegar in her pavlovas, and the second recipe used cream of tartar.

Dumbly, I read the instructions for the chocolate pavlova, assuming the technique would be the same, and simply ignoring the part about cream of tartar. And that is how I forgot the vinegar, which is essential for keeping the pavlova characteristically chewy, into my egg whites. PLUS, I forgot I was halving Nigella’s recipe and therefore used twice the cornstarch.

By the time I realized my blunder, the egg whites were already whipped with the cornstarch and cocoa folded in. My dad, ever the chemist, explained that it was too late to add the vinegar because the meringue’s molecular structure had already been established. Oh. I slid the pavlovas into the oven anyway and prayed it would not be too embarrassing. As my dad told my mother, “They’ll look pretty on the outside but taste ugly.”

They did look pretty when I took them out of the oven. Very reluctantly, I picked the least attractive of the lot and took a tentative bite. To my relief, it tasted just like it should – crisp and crackly on the outside, soft and chewy within. I stored them in an airtight container. The next day, I planned to take them to my Grandma’s house for her birthday. Oh, no.

The lack of vinegar, it seems, made my pavlova extra delicate. I had stacked them in the container and unintentionally crushed two of them. They still tasted good, though. I packed the three remaining pavlovas and the whipping cream into a bag, - but I’d forgotten the fruit – the raspberries, blueberries, and marionberries. When I started to assemble the pavlovas at Grandma’s house, I suddenly realized I had no topping. Did Grandma have any fresh fruit? Two little bananas. Well, chocolate and banana are classic, right?

To add the cherry on top, I’d forgotten to charge my camera. So I had no photos of my Grandma’s pavlova. I had to set up these photos at home. Go me.

I’ll say this – considering the number of times I slapped my forehead during the creation of these pavlovas, they were successful. Despite my meringue mistake, they were delicious. Grandma enjoyed the pavlovas as much as me. So it is with a big sigh of relief and just a little bit of satisfaction that I get to post not only pictures but a recipe. Try to be a little bit more on top of things than me, and enjoy!

Mini Cocoa and Banana Pavlovas
Adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking
Makes six 4″ pavlovas

4 large egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vinegar
3 1/2 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, whipped
2 small bananas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the egg whites with the salt in a clean bowl. I used an electric mixer. Start slow, then work your way up to medium, working the eggs until foamy with small, uniform bubbles. Add the sugar gradually, spoonful by spoonful, with the mixer on medium-high. Beat 5 minutes more, or until meringue is snowy and holds stiff peaks. Sprinkle the cornstarch, vanilla extract, vinegar, and cocoa powder on top and fold into the mixture with a rubber spatula.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw six 4 inch circles on the parchment paper, then flip it over. Use a spoon to spread the meringue onto the parchment paper, using the circles as a guide. Smooth the edges and use the back of the spoon to make a light indentation in the center, so the sides are slightly higher.

Put the sheets in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 300 degrees. Bake 30 minutes, then turn the oven off and crack the door slightly ajar. Let the meringues cool in the oven another 30 minutes.

To assemble, fill the meringues with the whipped cream (I prefer unsweetened, as the meringue is already sweet.) Peel the bananas and cut, at an angle, into thin slices. Decorate the top of the pavlova with the slices of banana (or any fresh fruit). Eat immediately, as the meringue will soften.

Printer Friendly Version – Mini Cocoa and Banana Pavlovas

Also, like I mentioned before – I am submitting this into Poornima’s “For the Love of Chocolate” event. Check it out – there’s going to be lots of tasty entries!

Hours later, we stand in the kitchen, looking at the 25 or so nearly over-ripe bananas on the counter. It was just too good to pass up: $1 for all the nearly-rotting bananas you could carry. Naturally, we grabbed as many as we could hold without a second thought. But now we have two dozen old bananas that need to be used right away. There couldn’t be a better excuse to make healthy banana apple muffins.

There’s plenty of tasty banana things I like to make. Banana bread. Pound cake. Even cookies. But somehow I decided to try a healthy recipe. While they sound good on paper, healthy recipes don’t always translate. Like a sugar free cookbook I picked up from Goodwill filled with layer cakes and cookies sweetened naturally. Blech. My major complaint with healthy muffins is this: they only taste good fresh out of the oven. Wait a few days and they’re a little too moist. They don’t look appealing. These muffins didn’t last a few days, so it’ll remain a mystery. It does say something about this recipe though, which is adapted from allrecipes.com.

Healthy Banana Apple Muffins

1 cup mashed banana
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line 30 muffin tins with paper cups.

In a large bowl, combine the applesauce and sugar, mixing until smooth. Stir in the two eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Then mix in the vanilla extract and yogurt. Sift in the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices, gently mixing until barely combined. A few streaks of flour are fine. Carefully fold in the mashed banana, diced apples, and chocolate chips.

Use a small ice cream scoop or tablespoon to fill muffin tins 3/4 full to create raised, rounded tops. Bake muffins for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Printer Friendly Version – Healthy Banana Apple Muffins

I wonder when we’ll get sick of bananas.

Unlike most people, I don’t make banana bread when unsightly brown splotches bloom all over our bananas. Honestly, I like banana bread so much that I can never wait for them to become overripe. I end up stashing them in a paper bag and waiting about a day, hoping they’ll be aged enough by the next day. I’ve even been known to use perfectly firm, yellow bananas for my bread, just mashing them extra soft with a fork. I know it compromises flavor. I can’t help it.

So like most people, I’ve tried a fair share of banana bread recipes. I’ve teetered from the traditional path a few times – chocolate chips, cocoa powder, nuts and no nuts, dried fruit, coconut – but when it comes down to it, plain and simple banana bread is what I really like. My dad has made banana bread on occasion for as long as I can remember, his favorite being Martha’s recipe (with half cake flour). Me, I still haven’t found The One. But this one came pretty close. It comes from Elise at Simply Recipes. I followed her recipe to a T (except that I sprinkled quick cooking oats over the top) and before long the house smelled like warm bananas. Mmmm. Definitely more enthralling than Gulliver’s Travels.

Elise’s Banana Bread

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar (can be reduced to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 4×8 loaf pan. Mix the bananas and butter with a wooden spoon in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla until combined, then the baking soda and salt. Gently add the flour, being careful not to overmix. Pour into the pan and top with quick cooking oats. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the banana bread cool 10 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a rack and cooling completely.

Printer Friendly Version – Banana Bread