Recipe #3 - Banana and Pecan Pancakes with Maple Butter

So if you've been following my blogs, you will recall that I said I'd be making Chicken Marsala next, and you'd be correct in that.  But before I get to that, which I did make on Saturday night, I decided to try my hand at one of Tyler's breakfast recipes.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/banana-and-pecan-pancakes-with-maple-butter-recipe/index.html

I love pancakes, and bananas and pecans so this seemed like a perfect recipe.  I've made pancakes before but none of them were as advanced as these.  One of the new steps was making my own flavored butter, which as you'll see if much easier than you might think.

Ingredients. Love the honey bear.  Honey tastes better from a plastic bear. 

The standard with most pancake recipes is mixing up the wet and dry ingredients separately and then combining them for the batter.

The wet:  buttermilk, eggs, vanilla.  Mix it all up good like you know you should.

 So once you get the wet and dry done, you got to mix it all together like so.  

Very important to cradle the batter whilst mixing it.  Not important to wear blue striped pants, orange t-shirt, and fancy yellow apron, but it does add to the flair of the atmosphere.

I should take a step back here and mention that before getting involved with the pancakes it's important to make the maple butter since it's supposed to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, since you can' just give it a chill pill.  So the butter is pretty straight forward.  My advice is to make sure your butter is soft enough to mix with the honey and maple.

Mixing the 100% pure maple syrup with the butter.  Don't even think about buying the imitation table syrup because it's cheaper.  You need the maple.  You want the maple.  The maple wants you. 

And after it's all mixed you wrap it up like a joint in some parchment paper.  

Warning :  Do not attempt to smoke the maple butter.  Will only melt and make a mess.  At least that's what I assume will happen since I've never tried it, as far as I can remember.  

Now while that chills, you can get back to the pancakes.  Heat up the griddle or pan.   I use an electric griddle which I highly recommend. 

Using a pancake pen that the wife bought me for valentines day.  Works well when using the Star Wars pancake molds. 

After the pancake sets on one side (look for air bubble things) put a few banana slices in like so.

My spatula skills are so fast the camera can't capture the ninja quickness. 

Then comes the hard part.  Flipping it over without having the bananas fly across the room or the batter making a huge mess.  If you are a pancake master like myself it will look like this.

Once again, the speed of my mad skillz is too much for the Nikon D3100!

Since you can only make a few at a time, keep them warm on a tray or plate in the oven.  After you've made them all, take 2 or 3 pancakes, place a slice of maple butter between them, and put them in the oven for like a minute to melt the butter.  Top with confectioners sugar and candied nuts and you're ready to eat!

Finished product topped with confectioners, banana slices and 1 candied walnut.  (Recipe calls for candied pecans but I didn't feel like spending $3.99 for them when I already had candied walnuts on hand.)

These were fantastic pancakes and I strongly recommend you try them.  Recipe was easy to follow and there weren't any strange ingredients like flour from the far reaches of the Madagascar coast line (east not west).  If you're wondering what they tasted like, think banana bread with pecans topped with creamy maple butter goodness.  Pair these with some bacon, juice and coffee and you've got yourself a delectable breakfast treat.

Once again I give this recipe my four plates or approval

 

and 1 happy honey bear baby

"Where's my hotcakes?!"

Next recipe :  Chicken Marsala  (I promise.  It's already done.  I just need to blog about it.  Stay tuned!)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-marsala-recipe/index.html