Banana Flapjacks (Vegan Brunch Book)

After a late night at Cat's Cradle listening to Dr. Dog and a run planned for later in the day, nothing said breakfast better than banana flapjacks from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch book. Since receiving this book at Christmas, I have found myself making something from it almost every weekend, my favorite being the Chelsea Waffles. Like the numerous other sweet breakfast delights I have made from Vegan Brunch, the banana flapjacks proved no different. They were perfect in texture- a light crispy outside and a very moist/dense inside. Topped with real maple syrup and butter, they are breakfast at its finest. I will digress here to explain two things I have come to realize when it comes to pancakes, waffles, French toast, and the like. One: it is essential to use real maple syrup and not the imitation syrup. The taste between real and imitation syrup is not only incomparably better, but the real stuff does not contain high fructose corn syrup. Two: butter is an essential component to top all great breakfast items. I am not a vegan, so I have absolutely no qualms about adding butter to a vegan recipe. My reasoning being that I have not found a suitable substitute for the taste of butter. Butter has this fantastic smooth creamy flavor. I find that the vegan butter, such as Earth Balance, lacks the smoothness and creaminess of butter, and more importantly it leaves a weird greasy film on the roof of your mouth.  I routinely bake using Earth Balance and love the outcome, but when it comes to topping off toast or pancakes, Earth Balance just won't do. I should also note that I only use organic and unsalted butter. I will make no apologies for this substitution. 

At first I thought I might have followed the directions incorrectly, as the batter was pretty thick. However, I followed what Isa said to do and smoothed out the top of my pancake about 1/2" with my measuring cup. By smoothing out the batter on the griddle, this created the flapjack look and taste.

I am not the most patient person, so I find it hard not to want to flip my flapjacks the minute I put them on the griddle. But, waiting as I did allowed for me to brown the outside to perfection.

 Perfection! :-)

Banana Flapjacks served with real butter and maple syrup. Of course, breakfast is never complete without some veggie sausage, French pressed Counter Culture Coffee, and a glass of Maple View Creamery milk!

Afterthoughts:
Next time I would like to try to upgrade the good ole' banana flapjack to banana split flapjacks. There is a recipe for homemade chocolate syrup in the Vegan Brunch book I am just itching to try out. Topped with fresh strawberries, pineapple, and whipped cream I think you will have a fantastic banana split flapjack!

Confession:
In my Huevos Rancheros entry I said I would be making homemade enchiladas next since I had plenty of leftover corn tortillas. I was true to my word and made homemade chicken enchiladas. I even made homemade enchilada sauce to boot. Alas, they were not picture perfect and I refused to blog about them. They were fabulously delicious, but I couldn't bring myself to show the world my inability to roll a corn tortilla without breaking it. I will try my hand at chicken enchiladas again in the next couple of weeks, and fingers crossed they will be picture perfect this time around!