Barefoot Bloggers: Flap, Jack, Do It Again, aka: Ina Garten's Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

Breakfast.... for dinner. This is one of my kids’ favorite “special” treats. Little do they suspect that Breakfast for Dinner is when mommy didn’t think of what to make until it was waaay too late to whip something up and that she was just not in the mood to do so.

Enter Ina Garten’s Banana Sour Cream Pancakes. (Cereal is holds the number 1 spot on the BFD charts, followed closely by Eggos and french toast sticks). We made these on the weekend and froze the leftovers. (Just layer them in between sheets of wax paper and pop the brick of pancakes/waffles/french toast in a ziptop bag and into the freezer for later).

Easy to make and DH and the kids liked them (well, except for the Little One. Apparently he’s a pancake purist and doesn’t like “stuff” of any kind in his pancakes, so we didn’t add bananas to a few just for him; I had a bite and then went back to my oatmeal.) As an aside, we do the same sprinkling of fruit on top of pancakes with blueberries and apple slices. For apples, just core and peel then slice into thin rings and plop them on top of the uncooked side before flipping.

Many thanks to Karen of Something Sweet by Karen for selecting this recipe. If you yourself would like to make these Banana Sour Cream Pancakes, you can find the recipe on the Food Network site here or in Ina Garten’s book, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, page 177. To join the BB community or to see what all the others did with this, please visit the the Barefoot Bloggers site.

Daddy Makes Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Sunday is “Daddy Makes Breakfast” day. Daddy makes “real” breakfast: bacon, toast or English muffins slathered with butter, eggs, French toast or like today, pancakes. A few weeks ago when I bought blueberries, it was blueberry pancakes. Today it’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes. (YES! I AM going to use up these chips this century! Now don’t get me wrong, these chips are adorable, but they have almost no chocolate taste whatsoever.)

I have a big mason jar filled with Alton Brown’s “Instant Pancake Mix” or sometimes DH just uses Bisquick. Hey, I say, as long as you’re making breakfast honey, you can do what-eh-va you want, as long as you clean it up. I generally don’t eat starch for breakfast, so the boys and Daddy chow down on his masterpieces.

The secret to add-ins for pancakes like chips and blueberries is to dole out the batter first and then put the extra ingredients on the uncooked “second side”. When you flip the flapjacks, the add-ins will get incorporated beautifully with no running or clumping. For blueberry pancakes, they’ll stay pancake color and not turn that funny blue-gray color.

You can freeze any leftovers by layering them with waxed paper and then keeping them in a zip top bag. For reheating, I just throw ‘em in the toaster. :)