Weekends are all about slow starts, quality time, and in our household, special breakfasts. It’s become a bit of a tradition to have pancakes on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Until recently, my eldest took great delight in being my special helper and mixing. It’s a super easy activity for her to get involved in, and she takes great pride in telling daddy that she helped make them. This weekend, my youngest also pitched in … and proceeded to eat a tonne of the raw mix and spread a whole lot more across the counter. So we had less batter, a heap of perfectly imperfect pancakes, but two happy little girls. All’s well that ends well!
I tend to favour American drop scone type recipes more than the crepe variety. They lend themselves better to my “ram as much goodness as possible into every meal” philosophy. My lovely friend Lizzie made up a simple recipe that we’ve adopted as our own, and adapted depending on mood and what’s in the cupboard. It’s super quick, super easy, and super delicious. Well, we think so at least.
I’ve included her original recipe and our own variation so you can pick and choose whichever works for you best. I’ve annotated our version with steps you might like your toddler to get involved with in italics. It’s not the most prescriptive of recipes, more an instinctive “this is what we feel like adding today” approach, so adapt at will to suit your own brood. Enjoy!
Toddler friendly banana pancake recipe
Ingredients
- 3-4 bananas, the riper the better
- A splash of milk
- Handful of oats
- Flour of choice – I tend to favour spelt, or a mix of spelt, coconut and wholemeal. Don’t overdo the coconut flour though or it absorbs all the moisture and kills the end result.
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Dash of cinnamon
- Dash of flaxseeds
- Dash of chia seeds (I told you it wasn’t prescriptive!)
- Optional: handful of blueberries
Serving suggestions: my crew like it best when these are served with served with bacon and maple syrup or full fat yoghurt and berries.
Method
- Beat the eggs, bananas and milk together. I usually let my 3 year old help break the eggs, peel the bananas, and mix it all together with a wooden spoon, before finishing it off with a handheld mixer.
- Beat in enough flour and oats to ensure the batter is semi runny. If it’s a short attention span kind of morning, my girl loves dropping a bit of flour onto the counter and drawing letters and pictures in it.
- Add ingredients 5-9.
- Stir in fruit if you are adding them.
- Dry fry in a frying pan. Flip when they start to bubble.
- Pile them into a plate lined with kitchen foil to keep warm while you work through the batter.
Lizzie’s original pancake recipe
(Calculate 1 banana per person)
Ingredients
Method
- Beat the eggs and bananas together
- Add flour until the batter is semi runny.
- Dry fry in a frying pan. They should resemble scotch pancakes