Growing up, my younger sister emerged as the Maker of Pancakes, and she wielded her spatula almost every Saturday morning. This involved careful assembly of the ingredients per the directions on the Bisquick box, and she was a pro. We’d hover over the electric griddle, and wait for the telltale bubbles to start appearing, then popping, signaling that pancake goodness was about to happen to us. And then, it was time to slather them up with our toppings of choice and get down to business.
For some reason, my sister decided to grow up and get married and have kids, so she’s not around to make me pancakes anymore. Sigh. I’ll get over it.
Now that I am forced to make my own pancakes, I have outgrown the boxed mix and become a from-scratch kind of gal. Every so often, I get a hankering for banana pancakes, so I consult the Knower of All Things (Google), and find a recipe that calls for mashing up ripe bananas and adding them to the batter. Dutifully, I oblige, and end up with gummy discs of warm banana-y dough. Disappointment ensues.
One Saturday, as I was slicing up bananas for Mini-Me, I had an ephiphery*. Uh, I mean, an epiphany. Why not stuff the bananas BETWEEN the pancakes, rather than in them? Was it just crazy enough to work?
Yes, yes, it was. Suddenly coconut was toasting in the oven and I knew I was on my way to something amazing. I present to you, dear friends, Banana Coconut Stuffed Pancakes.
(angels sing)
They are made with light spelt flour, which is a whole grain and wheat-free (although not gluten-free). You can easily substitute your favorite gluten-free flour blend, however. These pancakes also don’t have any eggs or oil, and they are still tender and delicious. I highly suggest making extra and refrigerating or freezing them for a quick breakfast later in the week. They reheat well in the microwave or toaster.
Oh, yeah, baby.
Go get your spatula, you’ve got some flippin’ to do.
Banana Coconut Stuffed Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups light spelt flour (or other flour of choice (like a gluten-free mix, perhaps!))
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons baking powder
- 3 Tablespoons unrefined sugar (or sweetened shredded coconut)
- 1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed meal
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 2 cups non-dairy milk of your choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
- 2 ripe bananas (sliced into discs)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- Cooking spray to coat the griddle or skillet (I love the coconut oil sprays)
Instructions
- Preheat oven or toaster oven to 325. Spread the unsweetened coconut flakes evenly on a baking sheet, and toast in the oven for 5-6 minutes, checking often to keep them from burning. Alternatively, you can toast the coconut on the stovetop in a nonstick skillet set over medium heat.
- Mix the ground flaxseed meal and water into a small cup and set aside.
- Preheat electric griddle to 375, or a nonstick/cast iron skillet to medium heat.
- Add dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the non-dairy milk, sugar/sweetened coconut, vanilla, and flax/water mixture. Gently fold the liquid into the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix. Let batter rest for 5 minutes while the griddle or skillet is preheating.
- Spray a fine mist of cooking spray on the griddle or skillet, and portion a 1/4 cup of batter onto the cooking surface. Cook for approximately 2 minutes, or until the edges appear dry and the surface bubbles have begun to pop. Cook alternate side for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes. Continues until all the pancakes have been cooked.
- To serve, place a pancake on a plate, layer on a few slices of banana and a few pieces of toasted coconut, and top with another pancake. Repeat the layering process as many times as your heart desires, or until you run out of bananas, whichever comes first. Top with maple syrup if desired, although it's delicious without!
Yummy!! It’s going to drive me crazy that I will have to wait till next week to try this recipe.
Hope the wait doesn’t feel too long! Let me know if you try them!
I enjoyed pouring the syrup.
Glad to hear it! I hope you are ready for similar opportunities. 🙂
@michaelwonders: lol, bet you enjoyed testing the recipe, too! 😉
Banana and coconut…how could you go wrong with that?? Although, health aside, I bet it would be evilly yummy with homemade chocolate syrup instead of maple syrup…just sayin’… 😛
Ok, Beth, I am going to be your asker of questions here bc I am just trying to learn to cook differently. Is the ground flaxseed that you add to water supposed to be a sort of egg substitute? I ask bc I was reading a bread recipe yesterday that called for ground chia seeds added to water for an egg substitute and I wondered if I could use ground flaxseed instead. I happened to have some ground flaxseed and not ground chia, so I wondered….but was not brave enough to try.
Hi Gloria! You’re exactly right, both flax and chia can be mixed with water to form an egg substitute. You’ll often see a reference to a “flax egg”, which is 1 tablespoon of ground flax mixed with ~3 tablespoons of water, with a few minutes of resting time to allow it to gel up. It works beautifully! Let me know if you try it out in the bread recipe (or in the pancakes, for that matter). 🙂
I wish I wasn’t allergic to coconut because these look amazing!!
Such a bummer, Erica! Might I suggest chocolate chips as a delicious alternative? 🙂
YUM! Love coconut! These pancakes look scrumptious, Beth. And I love that 2nd photo with the steam coming off the pancakes. So inviting! 😀
Thanks so much, Cassie! That photo was from my first ever “real” food photography shoot, so you have made my day with that comment. I love your site, by the way!
I wish my bananas weren’t green! I totally wanna stack them in between my pancakes now 🙂
Hi Jacklyn! I totally have a picture in my head of whole green bananas stacked between pancakes. 🙂
Hi, my pancakes didn’t quite work out… They were too fluffy and kept sticking to the electric griddle (it is steel, but the last pancake recipe I used in it turned out perfectly) and I had to use tons of oil and they kept getting smashed as I tried to detach them… They tasted fine, but not like regular pancakes as the texture ended up being quite different.
Notes:
I used a gluten-free flour mix (I think rice flour, sorghum, potato starch and arrowroot starch).
I used buttermilk because I’m not vegan and it’s what I had on hand.
I thought 2 tablespoons of baking powder sounded like too much, but I shrugged and went ahead with it anyway. Are you sure it isn’t 2 teaspoons?
The only other factor I think might be relevant is that buttermilk is a bit more acidic than other milk or milk substitutes (I assume, since it tastes sour, and I know of a homemade substitute where you add vinegar to milk and let it curdle) so it might be the reaction of that with the baking powder. But again, the last pancake recipe I tried also used buttermilk, and it was fine (it used both baking powder and baking soda, but in far smaller amounts).
Hi Mona, thanks for your feedback. I’m certain that the substitution of the buttermilk had an impact on the leavening. I know that two tablespoons of baking powder seems like a lot, but without another acid (such as vinegar or lemon juice as I do sometimes use to curdle soymilk), it works on its own in this recipe. In my experience, it’s rare that substitutions in quickbread recipes work out perfectly in the same proportions. I’m confident that the recipe works as written, as I’ve had feedback from several testers and have made it myself many times. If you make them again with the buttermilk, I would definitely reduce the baking powder. As for the sticking, the original recipe doesn’t include oil in the batter (on purpose), but I do call for a nonstick griddle to account for this. You might try adding a tablespoon of oil to the batter, but personally I always use seasoned cast iron or a nonstick griddle for pancakes rather than steel because of the sticking problem. Thanks for trying them, and I’ll be happy to help suggest modifications if you like!
Thanks for the feedback, Beth. I guess I learned something today!
Ok, so we tried these again today (and on a side note for others who mentioned not liking coconut, we made these just like pancakes without the bananas OR coconut, mostly bc my kids aren’t crazy about either!) and since last time Anna had mentioned that they tasted sort of like french toast, we decided to add a bit of cinnamon to the batter about halfway through. SO, we had some with and some without cinnamon and the outcome is that we LOVE them with cinnamon added to the batter! Yummy gf “french toast”!
Oh, and I have used Bob’s Red Mill GF flour blend each time and they come out perfectly yummy! I do have one spot on my non-stick pan that has lost its “non-stickiness”, so I make sure to spray liberally with cooking spray, especially in that one spot and I don’t have a problem with them sticking!
Thanks for these yummy recipes! Your timing with your food blog is perfect for us, since we are trying to change alot of things with the way we eat and your blog has been a big help, so keep those yummy recipes coming, Beth! 🙂
I have made this recipe so many times that it really isn’t fair not to come back and comment on it. It has become my “go-to” pancake recipe. In fact, since I am not much of a morning person but do occasionally like to make my kids a hot breakfast before school I have made “mixes” of this to speed things up. I use a regular mason jar, layer in all the ingredients including the flaxseed (seems to work fine and cuts out a step). Then I just have to pour soymilk into a pyrex, splash in some vanilla and mix. I don’t always do the full banana/coconut stack. They’re just as good plain or with blueberries or whatever tossed in. For flour I have never used spelt but white whole wheat works perfectly. Delicious.
Hahahhah love the office quote! Just made these in my villa in Bali.. they were delicious! Love your blog