Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Pancakes

Oh. My. Gosh. These are seriously the best and most fluffy pancakes I have ever had the privilege of eating. It's everything you want out of a pancake you might order in a restaurant only better and healthier and homemade! Kevin's not a huge fan of nuts in his food, and though I loved the addition of walnuts, they could easily be omitted.

Fluffy.

Hearty.

Healthy.

Banana-y.

Deee-licious.

And did I mention FLUFFY?!

Thank you, Joy the Baker, for sharing your love of pancakes with me! I followed the recipe almost exactly--aside from adding the entire egg instead of separating and beating the white (imagine how much fluffier that would make these guys!) and adding in a sprinkle of cinnamon and using skim milk and halving the recipe.

The entire recipe yields approximately 12-4inch pancakes.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup cornmeal

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, separated

1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus additional for brushing the skillet

1 1/2 cup whole milk, plus additional if needed

1 ripe banana, diced or mashed

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl Whisk together yolks, oil and 1 1/2 cups milk in another bowl and add to the flour mixture, whisking until smooth. Let batter stand for 5 minutes to allow flour to absorb liquid (batter will thicken).

If batter is too thick to fall easily from a spoon, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons additional milk.

Fold in banana and walnuts.

Beat egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer at moderately high speed until they just hold stiff peaks. With a whisk, gently but thoroughly fold into batter.

Brush a griddle or 12-inch nonstick skillet with oil and heat over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Reduce heat to moderate. Working in batches of 4, spoon 2 tablespoons batter per pancake into a hot skillet, spreading it if necessary to form 3- 3 1/2 inch rounds. Cook pancakes until bubbles appear on surface, edges are set and undersides are golden, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Flip pancakes with a metal spatula and cook until undersides are golden and pancakes are cooked through. Lower heat if pancakes brown too quickly and insides aren’t set. Transfer pancakes to plate and serve with Vanilla- Brown Sugar Syrup (recipe below--delicious!) or regular maple syrup. Brush griddle with more oil between batches.

Vanilla-Brown Sugar Syrup

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups water

3 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine brown sugar, water, butter, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan and bring to a oil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil until syrupy and reduced to about 1 1/2 cups, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and vanilla, then let cool to warm or room temperature.