Most of the time I am a thin pancake girl. Almost crispy around the edges, eggy and delightful in the center, and cooked all the way through, yes, when it comes to pancakes I definitely play favorites. Growing up my mom would make delicious, silver dollar, banana pancakes. All of the ingredients were whirred around in a blender. Then she poured neat, silver dollar circles onto a hot griddle and fried us up a Sunday morning treat.

When I made the move to New York there were some things that got left behind, because my new New York kitchen was substantially smaller than my California kitchen. One of the appliances that got left behind was a standard blender. (Don’t worry, I kept the much more convenient handheld, immersion blender.) I haven’t missed the standard blender, but last weekend I got a craving for banana pancakes and the loss was surely felt. But ignoring the twinge of loss, I decided to make a new banana pancake. I cast aside my skinny propensity.

I made a light and fluffy pancake batter, by separating the eggs, and whipping the whites. Then I added a bit of flour, some milk, and a spoonful of sugar. Slicing the bananas into 1/4 inch disks, I then readied my handy-dandy, cast-iron skillet. Pouring in the pancake batter, hearing the sizzle of the liquid against the scorching metal, maintaining the silver dollar size, I then laid the banana disks on top, gently pressing them into the batter. Then comes the fry and flip, not only to complete the cooking process, but to brown the bananas up nicely.

And you know what? My chubby cakes were a delight! The bananas had just enough time to toast and caramelize. They were warmed through, with a delectable, soft texture. All of the sugars within the fruit concentrated and I was left with pure banana essence. The batter was ethereal, and pleasantly bland, the perfect vehicle for a bit of caramelized banana. Who knows, I may just have to rethink my thin pancake prejudices after all…