Why do people buy pancake mix in a box? You are paying extra for stuff that you already have in your house to begin with and they are never as good as if you just made them from scratch. The only downside is that you have to get a couple of extra measuring utensils dirty but that’s why we have dishwashers. Or spouses.

Because pancakes are so freaking easy, these are dressed up with some fancy banana sauce to give you a break from maple syrup. Not that there’s anything wrong with maple syrup, in fact feel free to blow off the bananas and go with syrup if you want to stick with the classics but you will be missing out on a dose of vitamins not to mention fiber. Oh and they are the definition of awesome sauce.

Equipment:

• Large mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Measuring spoons and cups
• frying pan/griddle
• Sautee pan
• Spatula (the pancake flipping kind)
• Spatula (the stirring/pot scraping kind, and make sure it’s wood or silicone, not plastic)
• Ladle (This is optional but really handy for getting the batter onto the griddle without making a disgusting mess)
• Small knife
• Medium oven safe bowl

Ingredients:

• For the pancakes
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/3 cups milk (2% or whole milk. If you use 1% or that vile, disgusting, milk water called skim you will be disappointed)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter plus more for frying
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• For the Banana Sauce
  • 6 bananas
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Time: About 20 minutes, maybe 30

Serves: 2 pancakes each for 4 people

Process:

1. Turn on the oven to 150º or warm.
2. Melt the butter (I usually do this in the microwave and with ours it takes 1 minute at half power).
3. Put the eggs (minus the shells, in case someone very, very dense is reading this) in the big bowl and give them a mix with the whisk.
4. Add the milk and stir.
5. Add the sugar and stir.
6. Add the butter and stir.
7. Add the baking powder and stir.
8. Add the cinnamon and stir.
9. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, incorporating each half cup completely before adding the next one. This is mostly to avoid making a big mess so if you feel like being messy, dump the whole lot in the bowl and mix furiously.
10. Set the batter aside. NOTE: While you are making the life altering elixir that is the banana sauce, your pancake batter will be doing awesome things that will give you fluffier pancakes so just letting it sit for the 10-15 minutes it takes to make the bananas is a good thing.
11. Cut the bananas into 1/4 thick rounds.
12. Put the sauté pan on a burner over low medium heat.
13. Put 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan and melt.
14. Stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar.
15. Stir in one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
16. Add 1/3 of the bananas.
17. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring, until the bananas are just starting to fall apart.
18. Transfer the bananas to the medium oven safe bowl and put them in the oven to keep warm.
19. Repeat steps 12-18 until you are out of bananas
20. Put the griddle on a burner over medium high heat and drop some butter in the pan. TIP: using a fair amount of butter will give the pancakes crispy edges. Crispy edges on pancakes are one of the things that make life worth living.
21. When the butter is pretty hot (not smoking but not something you want to accidentally spill in your lap at a McDonald’s drive through), turn the burner down to medium and pour out as many pancakes as you can fit on the pan at whatever size you want to make them. I usually go with 4″ across but different strokes for different folks…
22. When you see bubbles that pop and leave voids (don’t backfill with liquid) on the uncooked side of the pancakes, flip them and let them sit for another minute or two.
23. Stack on a plate, slather with banana sauce and serve.
24. Repeat steps 20-22 until you are out of batter and sauce or until someone passes out from happiness.

Note for the advanced user: If you are feeling ballsy, trying to impress that person you brought home from the bar last night, showing off, or just that bored and flush with cash, you can step up the banana sauce by swapping the vanilla extract our for 3 vanilla beans (scrape out the innards) and 3 teaspoons of good bourbon, Baker’s Bourbon is highly recommended for its excellent Vanilla notes.

Fever by Peggy Lee available in the iTunes store.