Gluten-Free

Are 2 Ingredients Really Enough to Make Tasty Pancakes?

June 15, 2018

Last year, we tested a handful of the most popular "magical" recipes circling the internet, including 2-ingredient pancakes. Recently, the banana-egg combo resurfaced on our radar. Throughout June, our Cookbook Club is focusing on The Moosewood Restaurant Table, which includes a version of these pancakes.

Generally, one recipe catches fire in the Club every month due to universal praise it receives. But that hasn't quite been the case this month. The reviews on these simple banana pancakes have been very mixed:


Heck yes, these are ripe for a repeat

  • Bojana B.: These are DELICIOUS (fluffy and sweet and filling oooh my!).

  • Lotsanivanh L.: I was very skeptical, to say the least, but lo and behold, I’ve discovered another use for ripe bananas other than banana bread. This was egg-cellent!

  • Abbie A.: Say hello to my new favorite breakfast.

  • Laura G. M.: I’ve seen mixed reviews of these but I have to join the “love it” group. They were easy and had that sweet eggy taste. It’s reminding me of something...I can’t put my finger on it, Chinese egg tarts? Sweet soufflé?


Nope, that's bananas

  • Joan Laws O.: Hubby hated them. I was on the fence. Not a recipe I'd make again.

  • Diana H.: I made these a while back, and for me, it was the texture that I couldn’t get around. It tasted like a banana-flavored omelet.

  • Heather Nabers W: I haven’t tried this specific recipe, but my paleo friend uses an almost identical one, and I have tried hers. Definitely not my thing. To me, it was literally banana-flavored fried eggs and I couldn’t get down more than a few bites.


not sure whether or not they're a-peel-ing?

As noted in the reviews, a lot of it comes down to texture. As Emily Cline B. says:

I can definitely see why they have mixed reviews though. They do not have the texture of pancakes, and so if that is what you are expecting then you will be disappointed. If you like the eggy texture and banana-flavored things though, I did think that the flavor was good, especially with a little cinnamon and pure maple syrup.

When we first tested these two-ingredient pancakes, we followed the same ratio that The Moosewood Restaurant Table does—2 eggs per 1 banana. The second time around though, we made them with just 1 egg per 1 banana, and testers declared the results "less eggy and more delicious." So you might consider giving that a go, but if you're still not sold, here are a few more banana pancake options that are more pancake than soufflé.

No more monkey-ing around: Yea or nay to 2-ingredient pancakes?

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • SandraH
    SandraH
  • witloof
    witloof
  • lumpynose
    lumpynose
  • Nancy
    Nancy
I like esoteric facts about vegetables. Author of the IACP Award-nominated cookbook, Cooking with Scraps.

4 Comments

SandraH June 17, 2018
When my children were young, I used to blend up (in my avocado green blender - all our appliances were mainly that colour or harvest gold) a mix of a couple of bananas and eggs and a dash or two of cinnamon to use as a mix to soak bread slices in for making Banana French toast. Fried in butter and served with maple syrup. They still make this occasionally for their children and I do too.
 
witloof June 16, 2018
If you are not gluten free, mayI suggest this two ingredient pancake: eggs beaten with enough matzo meal to make a thick batter, and gently fried in oil. One of my favorite breakfasts ever!
 
lumpynose June 15, 2018
Yes, as Nancy says, it's about the name. If you'd called them Egg Fried Bananas then fewer people would have disliked them.

I have the same problem with using what could/should be called dry milk solids but when you tell people that you're using powdered milk they turn up their noses. I'm not using it as a milk substitute, but as an ingredient in its own right, where using milk would dilute or make watery the end result from the water in the milk.
 
Nancy June 15, 2018
Rename them, change expectations, maybe ok?