Cinnamon Spiced Banana Caramel Pancakes

Oh what a mouth full!  You know how when you get home from your wonderful tropical beach vacation, and you are missing all the exotic breakfast items from that humongous buffet... regular pancakes just don't seem as exciting? - or maybe you are just dreaming of that vacation!  Nonetheless, these pancakes will bring you back to the sounds of the ocean waves lapping up on the beach, sea gulls swooping through the salty air for a lost chip on the sand, the smell of sunscreen and new paperback novels laid out on carefully reserved cabana chairs at six o'clock in the morning just so you can't get one for the rest of the day.  (But that's a whole different story.)

Snap out of it!  You are at HOME!  There are kiddos to feed, laundry and dishes and floors to be tended to.  But all that will be a lot easier to stare down if you start the day off with a fabulous breakfast.  You know I'm right!  These cinnamon spiced pancakes are extra special with the banana slices getting all roasted and gooey in the middle... and topped off with a little caramel sauce and coconut.  You can at least pretend for five minutes that you are somewhere special while the kids are watching cartoons.  

The bottom line is that I often buy too many bananas, and when they get really sweet and ripe, the kids decide that they no longer want any.  Sigh.  So this is sort of like a food recycling program.  I'm afraid you will have to supply your own vacation fantasy to go with it.

Please be advised, these are not totally from scratch.  No time for that in the mornings. 

Click for Printable Recipe 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup buttermilk "complete" pancake mix
• 3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp water
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp clear vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 banana, cut into slices about 1/3-1/2" thick
• caramel sauce of choice
• a bit of shredded coconut

 Step-by-step

Mix the pancake mix, water, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.  I like my batter to be fairly "loose" for the pancakes that my family prefers.  Do not over mix the batter, or the pancakes will be tough.  There will probably still be some lumps in it.  That's okay.  They'll cook out.

1 cup of "complete" buttermilk pancake mix

2 Tbsp sugar. This may seem like a lot, but my kids often like to eat "mini" pancakes with no syrup because they are sweet and have that great vanilla in them.  - and that makes for a lot less clean up than with the syrup.

1 tsp clear Mexican vanilla (the best you can find)

3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp water

A loose, sweet batter

My taste tester.  Making sure the batter is sweet.

1/2 tsp cinnamon

I like to spray a nonstick pan with butter flavored cooking spray and heat until a droplet of water shaken into the pan starts sizzling.  On a medium-high heat, add some sliced bananas to the pan.  

Add the bananas first.

Pour the batter over them.  This will allow the bananas to come in direct contact with the hot pan so they will sort of caramelize on their own.  

Pour the batter over the bananas.  Can you see the cinnamon?  Mmmmm.

When batter looks fairly dry on top and the bubbles "stay," the pancakes are ready to be flipped.  You can probably turn down the heat to medium from here on out.  Once my first pancake is about done, I always lower the heat.

Oh my! Beautiful and golden brown and light and fluffy!

Top pancakes with caramel sauce and shredded coconut. 

You can see how the bananas started caramelizing in the pan.  They are soft and sweet and delicious.

Now comes the caramel sauce and coconut.

Yum!  (Okay, so if you don't like coconut, leave it off.  More for me!)

And some sweet morning love from my favorite cooker girl!

Written Directions:

Mix the pancake mix, water, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.  I like my batter to be fairly "loose" for the pancakes that my family prefers.  Do not over mix the batter, or the pancakes will be tough.  There will probably still be some lumps in it.  That's okay.  They'll cook out.

I like to spray a nonstick pan with butter flavored cooking spray and heat until a droplet of water shaken into the pan starts sizzling.  On a medium-high heat, add some sliced bananas to the pan.  Pour the batter over them.  This will allow the bananas to come in direct contact with the hot pan so they will sort of caramelize on their own.  When batter looks fairly dry on top and the bubbles "stay," the pancakes are ready to be flipped.  You can probably turn down the heat to medium from here on out.  Once my first pancake is about done, I always lower the heat.

Top pancakes with caramel sauce and shredded coconut.  Yum!  (Okay, so if you don't like coconut, leave it off.  More for me!)

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