RECIPE: Skinny wholemeal chocolate chip banana pancakes

You may have thought that the morning after Easter Sunday we'd be chocolated-out and running from the sight of the stuff. Oh no, not the Hosie gals.

However, having had a veritable Easter feast the day before, I was after a slightly healthyish brekkie and so these babies were born. Enter: wholemeal chocolate chip banana pancakes.

How can anything chocolatey be healthy?, you ask. Well, dear reader, these pancakes don't contain any butter, oil, dairy or sugar, and wholemeal flour is not only so much better for you than white flour but it also keeps you fuller longer. Slow-release energy, complex carbs, all that malarkey, and the slight sweetness of the banana balances out the nuttiness of the flour too.

I personally really like the wholemeal flour taste and texture anyway. The awesome thing about these pancakes is that they don't even taste healthy! Srsly.

The banana is also a cheeky little energy-booster. Adding banana to the batter mainly adds sweetness and a lovely fluffy texture rather than really banana-y flavour, but make sure the bananas are well-ripe - the browner and specklier the better. And don't panic about the almond milk, it doesn't add any flavour and is just a health-booster.

Chocolate chips may not be healthy but in my opinion the little bursts of melted milk chocolate are a delight. Of course, you could switch them for chopped blueberries to make these babies even healthier.

How virtuous these pancakes are depends largely on how you eat them. Quite frankly, there's enough going on in the batter and it's wonderfully moist thanks to the banana that there's really no need to top your pancakes with anything.

However, that doesn't mean we didn't smother ours in everything we could find though, oh no. Caramel au beurre salé from Brittany, Nutella, Nutella Philly (which was actually leftover icing from these cupcakes), golden syrup, maple syrup, honey, peanut butter, strawberries, blueberries, more banana... We. Went. To. Town.

And it was a town I'd happily revisit on numerous occasions, ma friends. In fact, I think you should pay a visit to said town yourself. (Did I take this metaphor too far? I'm not very good at knowing when to stop...)

Also, just look how few ingredients we're talking here. So simple and quick, I tell ya. Being country folk, we cooked ours on a greaseproof sheet on the simmering plate of the Aga, thus doing away with the need for cooking oil, but I'll give the recipe as if cooked in a pan on the hob. Enjoy!

This serves two hungry people.


Ingredients

100g wholemeal flour
1 egg
150ml almond milk
1.5 large bananas (or 2 small ones), mashed
50g milk chocolate chips (or plain, or chopped blueberries)
Whatever toppings you like!


Method

1. Sieve the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and crack in the egg. Add the milk about a third at a time and whisk well between each addition.

2. Add the mashed banana and whisk until well incorporated. Finally, whisk in the chocolate chips. The batter should be thick but smooth (except for the chocolate chips).

Looks appetising, huh?

3. Heat a teaspoon of oil or small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan over a gentle heat and swirl round with a piece of kitchen roll to make sure you don't have too much and it's evenly distributed. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan and watch them spread and small bubbles appear on the surface.

Cook for about 1-2 minutes over a medium heat then flip over with a spatula-thingy and cook for another minute or so until golden.

Serve hot from the pan with your choice of topping or stack 'em up high before devouring that banana-y, chocolatey, actually healthy mountain. Mmmmm...