Banana Nut Pancakes with Fresh Whipped Cream

These pancakes made my house smell wonderful for days! I wanted to make something breakfast-y for the blog and thought pancakes were a naturally vegetarian dish most people love. I also don't know anyone who doesn't like banana bread, so a marriage of the two seemed to make sense. I didn't want the pancakes to be too banana-y, so instead of mashing them up in the batter, I sliced them and dropped slices of banana into the batter as the pancakes cooked. However, if you want your banana throughout your pancake, feel free to experiment! But seriously, look at how warm and gooey these are with chunks of banana in every bite!

Oh, and did I mention the whipped cream? Yeah, I topped these babies off with a generous dollop of fresh whipped cream... commencing food coma...

Anyway, these are hardy pancakes, and this recipe make four fairly large ones. One should be enough per person, especially if coupled by some fresh strawberries as shown in the photo. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Pancakes

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 organic eggs
• 1 cup organic whole or low-fat milk
• 2 Tbs. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 bananas, sliced

Directions:

• Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, applesauce, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add walnuts and mix gently.
• Heat a lightly oiled nonstick pan or griddle over medium.
• When the pan is hot, add 1/2 cup pancake batter. Sprinkle 1/4 of the banana slices over the batter and top with another 1/4 cup batter. Cook until the batter begins to bubble, about 3-4 minutes.
• Flip the pancake and cook for another 2 minutes or until the batter is cooked through. Transfer to a plate and top with 1/4 of the whipped cream (recipe follows).

For the whipped cream:

• 2/3 cup cold heavy whipping cream
• 1 Tbs. powered sugar
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Place a large bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Once cold, add heavy whipping cream, powered sugar, and vanilla. Beat until stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes.