I have made more pancakes since May of this year than I have in my entire life! This isn’t a complaint though – merely stating a fact based on the fantastic response received to the Eggsellent Breakfasts initiative that I launched this year alongside Caroline Murphy of West Cork Eggs and Alison Kingston, a health coach and eating psychologist.

The aim of the initiative is to get children thinking about heathier, quick and tasty alternatives to our daily breakfast so instead of reaching for the box of sugary cereals everyday, instead opt for a breakfast made with local free range eggs.

There are lots of reasons why we are doing this – primarily to get a very simple, fact-based message across to the children we visit at schools but also to show them why a better breakfast works and that it doesn’t have to take lots of time to make it. To demonstrate this, I always cook up my recipe for American Style Pancakes with Blueberries and Local Honey. They always go down a real treat with the children and we hear story after story of the children going home asking their mum’s and dad’s if they have eggs for breakfast – usually the pancakes of course! I hear stories of how the pages of the booklet that we had out to the children which is packed full of eggsellent information and five easy to make egg-based breakfast recipes for any day of the week has pride of place in the kitchen with pages stuck together with traces of egg or pancake batter! It’s working and, more importantly, it is being used! (To find out more, visit www.flavour.ie/breakfast – we are currently taking bookings for 2018!)

However, as any recipe developer or cook knows, a recipe is never final – it is always open to tweaks and changes. For me, the pancake recipe needs even less refined sugar in it (there isn’t much in it to be begin with, but I’ve felt it could be even better), but still have the sweet inviting flavour that the children really dig – and kinda need to have if we are to wean them off the Cheerios with any level of success!

Then, all of a sudden, one wet and windy autumn morning I was reminded of one of American singer-songwriters Jack Johnson’s most enduring songs: “Banana Pancakes” … make a banana pancake, pretend like its the weekend, can’t you see that it’s just raining – ain’t no need to go outside, so he sings. And on this particular morning, I couldn’t have agreed more.

That and I had two very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl that desperately needed to be used up. But, hey presto, I got the answer I was looking for: swap the brown sugar with mashed ripe banana – SIMPLE! Why hadn’t I thought of it before? Probably because the best ideas happen when you’re not looking for them!

So here is my recipe for a Jack Johnson-inspired Banana Pancakes. And as I’ve been inspired by the ol’ US-of-A for this recipe, I recommend that you go big – make them literally pan sized like you would a crepe. One each topped with a scattering of choice berries and (if it really is the weekend), a spoonful of maple syrup whipped mascarpone. I guarantee you will love me forever…!

Ingredients: (makes four large pancakes or 10-12 smaller pancakes for stacking – either is good!)

• 150g of plain white flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 ripe-very ripe bananas
• 130ml whole milk
• 1 large free range West Cork Eggs
• 2 tbsp of melted butter, cooled slightly
• Handful of organic berries (blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries), pecan nuts, maple syrup & mascarpone

Method:

• Melt the butter in a pan, set aside to cool a little.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
• In a separate jug, whisk together the eggs and milk, then the butter.
• Pour the milk mix into the flour mix and whisk with a fork.
• Mash the bananas with a fork until they go creamy. Add to the batter mix and combine well.
• Melt a small knob of butter in a pan. When hot enough, pour in 1 ladle-full of batter mix per pancake. Add a little more if needs be to fill the pan if making a large pancake per person. Alternatively, add 1/3 of a ladle of batter mix (3 to a pan) for smaller pancakes.
• Cook for a couple of minutes (a little longer for large pancakes) until you see bubbles forming on top, then turn over and cook for another minute or two (again a little longer for the bigger pancakes).
• Stack on a plate and drizzle with honey/maple syrup and add toppings of your choice: berries, nuts or maybe some maple whipped mascarpone for a touch of luxury – especially if this is your Sunday brunch.

ENJOY!