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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

My First Ever Barefoot Bloggers Challenge - Ina Garten's Banana Sour Cream Pancakes


I finally mustered the courage to join a group of food bloggers and I've decided to join the Barefoot Bloggers. They are " an [extra]ordinary group of cookers and bakers with a love of all things Ina."
I will join them in testing and (hopefully) retesting recipes of the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten.
Karen of Something Sweet By Karen chose Banana Sour Cream Pancakes as our first challenge.


Ina Garten's Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
(recipe courtesy of Ina Garten, FN)

1 ½ c all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar (i used 4 tbsp of sugar)
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp kosher salt (i used 1 tsp salt)
½ c sour cream
¾ c plus 1 tbsp milk
2 extra-large eggs (i used 2 large eggs)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Unsalted butter
2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving

Pure maple syrup

For the directions:

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.

Now I've never made pancakes from scratch. I always use pancake mixes that tend to be flat, flavorless (which was why I had to drown them in pancake syrup) and oftentimes dry. Ina Garten's recipe produced pancakes that were tender and moist. I could not believe how easy it was to make them. I did however make some minor adjustments. I added an extra tablespoon of sugar because I like my pancakes sweet (but not too sweet), reduced the salt to 1 teaspoon, used 2 large eggs instead of extra large eggs and sliced the bananas instead of dicing them. I also had some bananas leftover so I sliced some and tossed them in the pan along with some cinnamon and brown sugar and used it as toppings for my pancakes.
Having said that, I think that this recipe is a keeper and hey if you don't care for bananas, you can use other fruits in season.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the group! Your first outing looks terrific. I don't flip pancakes well -- but found them tasty as heck. Yours look delicious!

chocolatechic said...

Welcome to BB.

These were such wonderful pancakes.

marica said...

thanks so much for welcoming me to the group. I wont be making pancakes from the box anymore. :)

Anonymous said...

welcome to barefoot bloggers! i'm glad you liked the recipe, your pancakes look great. :)

marica said...

thanks so much Karen. I had fun learning how to make pancake from scratch.

Lisa said...

Welcome - great job on your pancakes!

Anonymous said...

They look great! Welcome to the group!

~Cat