oatmeal banana pancakes – glutenfree

Easy recipe for pancakes made with homemade oat flour, ripe bananas and eggs. Flavoured with cardamom. Recipe with step by step pictures.

Over ripe bananas is always a thing at my place as my banana obsessed husband always buys more than we need. I usually make banana bread, unniyappam or kongunad style pazha kajjayam.  Most of the time I freeze it for using later. This time, I tried glutenfree banana pancakes made with oatmeal. It was a huge success and my son and husband are on a happy banana overload. I made it glutenfree and used homemade oat flour for this recipe. Its a very simple recipe and uses no fancy ingredients. I flavoured the pancakes with cardamom powder. I think banana and cardamom pairs very well and together it makes a very South Indianish affair. You may call it banana oatmeal appam if you want. If you do not want to use the ripe bananas right away, peel the skin and freeze them in zip tote bags. Before using, thaw the bananas and use them in the recipe. Works perfectly every time.

Here is how to do Oatmeal banana pancakes.

I have used over ripe Indian yelakki bananas for the recipe. I have used 6 bananas. Each banana is about two inches long. These bananas are very small and really sweet. If using robusta bananas / regular american bananas, use two to three bananas for the recipe. Its perfectly fine if the banana quantity is a little more or a little less. It works.

Making homemade oat flour.
Measure 1.5 cups of regular rolled oats and grind it to a fine powder in a mixie. Add it to a bowl. I prefer using rolled oats as the texture of the pancakes comes better when compared with instant oats or quick cooking oats.

In a mixie, blend the bananas. No need to add any water. Just blend the bananas and add it to the bowl. Also blend two eggs in the same mixie and add it to the bowl. The eggs really helps in binding the ingredients and makes the pan cakes very fluffy. You can omit the eggs if you want to but the texture wont be the same. So please do not ask me what the replacement for egg is.

Add one third cup of cane sugar to a mixie. Jaggery, raw sugar, plain sugar, coconut sugar all works. Use whatever you have on hand. Grind the sugar with 200 ml water and add it to the bowl.

Note: one third cup of sugar is about 16 teaspoons. This recipe makes about 20 small (1.5 inch) mini pancakes and serves 4. So each person gets a little more than a tablespoon of sugar in this meal. If you are counting your sugar intake or on a diet, reduce the sugar by half. You can even totally omit it and its fine.

Now add half a teaspoon of ground cardamom powder. Make it to a fine powder. Mortar and pestle works best. Add in half teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of baking powder.

Mix well. Add little water at a time while mixing. The consistency of the batter should be flowing and not too thick. More in line with the consistency of dosa batter.

Once the batter is mixed, we will need to do the pancakes immediately else it wont be very fluffy.
Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. When the surface is hot, add the butter or vegetable oil to coat. I use an old ladle for easy portioning and to keep it nice and round. Sprinkle oil on the pancakes.

Cover the griddle with a lid. Let the pancakes cook in a medium heat for a minute. High heat will burn the pancakes. So always medium heat. Flip once and let it cook on the other side for 30-40 seconds.

The pancakes come really fluffy and tasty.

I like to serve this pancakes plain. You dont even need any syrup for this pancake. If you are feeling fancy, top with butter and maple syrup, as desired. “I don’t have to tell you I love you. I fed you pancakes.”