I love banana bread, but if given a choice between getting an extra hour of sleep and waking up early to have a fresh baked loaf of banana bread I’ll almost always choose the extra hour of sleep. That’s why I came up with these peanut butter and banana pancakes.

While pancake recipes usually call for buttermilk, I actually prefer using yogurt to make my pancakes because it’s something most of us already have in the fridge. I usually use a combination of milk and yogurt, but in this case the bananas serve as an additional liquid, so there’s no need for the milk. I’ve also cut out the butter I usually add because the peanut butter has enough fat to keep these pancakes tender.

Moist, fluffy and full of banana and peanut flavor, these pancakes are delicious drizzled with a bit of maple syrup, but they’re even better layered with peanut butter and fresh bananas. If you’re really feeling outrageous, try layering some crisp bacon in there, I promise you won’t regret it!

Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes

This pancakes rich is moist, fluffy and full of peanut butter and banana flavor. (Recipe Credit: Marc Matsumoto of Fresh Tastes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 very ripe banana, peeled
• peanut butter, for serving
• sliced bananas, for serving

Directions

1. Pass the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda through a sieve to remove any lumps.
2. Put the yogurt, peanut butter, egg, and ripe banana in a container and use a hand blender to blend the mixture together (you can also use a small blender or food processor).
3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until just combined. Depending on the size of your banana and the thickness of your yogurt you may not need all of the wet ingredients.
4. Heat an electric griddle, or a pan over medium-low heat until it reaches 300 degrees F. Wipe with a paper towel moistened with oil and the pour the batter into CD sized rounds.
5. Let the pancakes cook until you start seeing bubbles form on top and the edges of the batter are no longer wet.
6. Flip the pancake and cook until browned on the second side.
7. Spread a spoonful of peanut butter onto each finished pancake and top with the sliced bananas.

Yield: 6 medium-sized pancakes