On Saturday, we woke up to a beautiful morning and I was craving some delicious banana coconut pancakes I had eaten at a diner in NJ that my sister and brother-in-law took us to. Normally when I make banana pancakes, I simply add the sliced bananas in the pancake batter but I noticed that this diner prepared theirs differently. On one side of the pancake, it looks like a normal plain hot cake but on the other side, you see the caramelized banana slices with toasted coconut that was cooked perfectly. It was so good – you didn’t need syrup. I decided I was going to try to replicate this recipe. I learned two things not to do next time but all in all – we enjoyed them very much!
Now I didn’t make pancake batter from scratch but if you have a favorite go-to pancake recipe, feel free to use it. While I didn’t taste almond flavor in the pancakes I ate at the diner, I enjoy the taste of it so besides adding vanilla extract, I added almond too. Since this was a “test” recipe – I started out my toasting my sweetend shredded coconut – don’t do this, as it will already toast when you flip the pancake to the banana and coconut side. It was one of my duh! moments. Also, I had waited to add my bananas to the one side of my pancakes until I saw bubbles appear, don’t do this either. Well you can, but I think it will cook better if you add the bananas and coconut the minute you had poured your pancake mix onto your griddle.
I actually enjoyed eating the pancakes this way because the bananas have that caramelized flavor from the butter and the coconut gets nice and toasted. Hopefully, you will enjoy it too!
Ingredients
- Pancake mix
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 cup, sweetend coconut flakes
- 1/4 tsp, vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp, almond extract
Instructions
- Follow the instructions on your pancake mix or you can use your favorite pancake recipe
- Add the vanilla and almond extract to your batter and stir
- Slice your bananas, set aside
- Pour a 1 cup of sweetend coconut flakes in a small bowl, set aside
- Heat up your griddle or skillet and grease pan over medium-high heat. Pour or scoop the batter on the hot griddle. Once you have poured the batter, quickly add about 4-5 sliced bananas to one side of each pancake and then sprinkle a generous amount of coconut. With a spatula, check to see if the one side of the pancake is golden brown and if so, then flip your pancakes. Cook until both sides of the pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.
Enjoy!
-Photos + recipe by Rose Angel Lopez
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