Thai Banana Coconut Pancakes

June 19, 2016

reading time: 3 min

Pancakes have become a weekly staple for me. My boyfriend and I have this tradition where we make a special breakfast on Sundays. It's almost always pancakes, and this time it's chewy Banana Coconut Pancakes! They are called kanom paeng jee or pang jee in Thai, you could say they are grilled coconut mini cakes, and they are part of my "Thai cuisine" blog series, where I recreate meals from my 2 week vacation in Thailand (so if you have any suggestions for other Thai dishes to recreate, let me know!).

For those on a gluten-free path, pancakes can be easily made with a gluten-free substitute, such as coconut flour, almond flour, hazelnut flour, buckwheat flour, even chestnut flour, or - in this case - rice flour and shredded coconut. Let's get started!

Note: This is not a recipe for Roti, Asian pancakes that are similar to tortillas (or other flat bread) fried in margarine or clarified butter, flavoured with all kinds of different things such as condensed milk, banana, chicken curry, raisins, etc. Instead, this is a "Thai" style take on my usual pancakes, I made a couple of tweaks to my original recipe, such as using coconut milk, palm sugar, shredded coconut and rice flour.

THAI BANANA COCONUT PANCAKES

Preparation time: 30 mins
Main ingredients: rice flour, banana, coconut milk
difficulty level: easy
makes: 15 - 20 mini pancakes
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, gluten-free, soy-free

Ingredients

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (i simply ground glutinous rice in my blender)
1/4 cup coconut sugar or raw cane sugar
1/2 cup bananas, mashed
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup dried shredded coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp coconut oil, melted

(optional) 1 - 2 bananas, sliced
(optional) more coconut oil to grease the pan

Instructions

Firstly, combine coconut milk, salt, coconut oil and coconut sugar in a small pot, and whisk over low heat until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Remove from heat.

In a mixing bowl, add the two kinds of rice flour, mashed banana, shredded coconut, and the sugar-coconut-milk mixture. Stir or knead until well combined. The consistency you're looking for is the consistency of thick oatmeal.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium-low heat (if you like, you can grease it with coconut oil - i didn't). Drop the batter with a tablespoon onto the hot pan (you can fit several mini cakes into the pan, if it's big enough), shaping small, round mini cakes. I also gently pressed 1 or 2 banana slices into each pancake.

Cook over low to medium heat until the bottoms are golden brown (around 2 minutes). Flip over and brown the other side. After turning, press down on the pancakes with the spatula (especially when there are banana slices on the flipside) so that their entire surface makes contact with the hot surface of the pan. (Also, be careful not to "lose" the banana slices when you take them out of the pan - it's best if you try to properly embed them into the batter when first pressing them into the pancakes). Repeat with the rest of the batter, dribbling more oil into the pan as needed to brown the cakes evenly. then cook until the other side is also golden brown.

Serve warm and with your bare hands (it's just more fun). I ate mine with banana slices and chocolate PB2 - the peanut flavour went really well with the other traditional Thai ingredients! However, regular pure peanut butter should work just as well :)