Banana Rum Pancakes (no skinny gimmicks)

The other morning I wanted pancakes and decided to try and make a slightly healthier version while maintaining all of the things that are awesome about pancakes. If you've seen my posts before you know I'm not a fan of a lot of the popular skinny recipes that make their way around (like banana + eggs = pancakes). I definitely don't see anything wrong with eating that sort of thing if you enjoy it; I'm just a person that enjoys cooking and I really like trying to find compromise in my recipes.

That said, the compromise I made here was using steel cut oats rather than rolled oats, subbing in partial whole wheat flour (left in some all purpose for texture), and using banana in place of fats. The result is some of the best pancakes I've ever made. We gobbled them up pretty hardcore. Two pancakes with a couple of tablespoons of topping and a teaspoon of butter is about 350 calories, 7g of protein, and 4g of fiber. It's also super filling and damn tasty.

Some notes on substitutions:

I don't cook with eggs (boyfriend doesn't eat them), which is why I add the flax meal. I know this is an unusual ingredient for a lot of people. You could probably leave it out and just add an egg to the mixture. The batter would be a little thinner but they should still work just fine.

If you're a vegan you can use something like tofutti, a bit of pureed silken tofu, or just leave out the sour cream entirely. You could also throw in a couple more tablespoons of non-dairy milk.

Feel feel to sub out the tablespoon of white sugar for a bit of stevia, Truvia, or whatever floats your boat. I can't make recommendations on substitutions for the topping (which is where 50% of the calories in this meal comes from - yay maple syrup!) but someone else might have ideas. I will say though, that if you decide to skip the sweet topping you may scale back the salt in the pancake recipe by about half.

If you don't have rum on hand, using vanilla extract would also be delicious. Most of the rum flavor comes from the topping and varies depending on how much you want to add.



Pancake recipe:

Cook 1/4 dried steel cut oats according to package instructions (my oats are a quick cooking variety that use less time/water). When they are finished cooking stir in two tablespoons of flax meal and let sit a couple of minutes.

Combine cooked oats with:

1 cup of milk (I used unsweetened flax milk but use what you want)
1 large mashed banana (very ripe)
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon spiced rum

In another bowl whisk together the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder

Very gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just moistened. Do not over mix or your pancakes will be tough - using a gentle hand is important. The batter will be very thick. Flatten it out slightly as you spoon them onto the griddle as they don't spread much. I used a 1/4 cup measurement to make each pancake. Made about 10.

For the topping:

You can pretty much eyeball these ingredients but this is how I made it for 3 of us. I mashed half of a banana with about 6 tablespoons of maple syrup then heated it up for a about 10-15 seconds in the microwave. Stirred in a splash of rum. This made enough topping for about 3-4 people, depending on how much you want to drown your plate.