Breakfast

I woke up today to a text message from my mom saying "today would be a good day for banana pancakes and a blog post." At this point I've got five posts worth of pictures saved up, but since it's midterms (and, since I'm taking that half-semester class, one final) time is pretty cramped and I'm just going to share today's breakfast and hopefully have time soon to get the rest of those up.

On the plus side (well, plus side for blogging), the second half-semester class I was going to take was canceled, which means I'll have lots of free time for the rest of the semester. Woo!

BANANA PANCAKES--Recipe!

(adapted from Recipezaar)

Ingredients:

-1 cup flour

-4 tsp sugar

-2 tsp baking powder

-dash of salt

-1 large egg

-1/2-1 cup milk (less for fluffier pancakes, more for denser)

-2 tsp almond extract

-2 tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter)

-2 large overripe bananas

-Butter (for the pan)

-Maple syrup (because they're pancakes)

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and salt) in a small bowl. (Really--you only have a little over a cup of stuff here. You don't need a huge bowl for it.)

2. Mash the bananas in a large bowl until they are mostly liquidy, but with a good amount of banana-chunks left.

3. Add the egg. Mash it in with the bananas. (You could probably toss it in when you're mashing the bananas in the first place, now that I think of it.) It's not really necessary to have the egg "slightly beaten" when you add it. I don't know why people always say to do this.

4. Add 1/2 cup milk, almond extract and vegetable oil/melted butter to the banana and egg mixture. Stir.

5. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir until combined. Don't over-stir, a few clumps of flour are okay.

6. Add more milk, stirring, until the batter reaches your preferred consistency. I probably added another quarter cup after the half. The more liquid your batter is, the denser your pancakes will be.

7. Cook pancakes in a well-buttered frying pan over medium heat. (I use a 1/4 cup measure to pour the right amount of batter into the pan.) Flip when the sides look solid and the bubbles on the top are beginning to pop.

8. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and cover with a clean dishtowel to retain heat. Continue repeating steps 7 and 8 until all the batter has turned into pancakes.

9. Top with real maple syrup and enjoy!

I loved these. You could probably use whatever kind of extract you want, but I like almond. And I loved how fluffy they came out; I always have a hard time with fruit pancakes because of the added juices.

How do you like your pancakes? Do you prefer the authentic maple syrup, or the "Mrs Butterworth's" type? And what do you drink with pancakes? Milk? Orange juice?