Sunday mixed reviews

Sunday morning, I suddenly craved for pancake and decided to whip up some banana sour cream pancakes from Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Interestingly the taste is a cross of fried banana back home and Rose Levy Beranbaum's banana bread. Probably because Ina used lemon zest in her pancake batter.

I also noticed that the pancake rose higher than the buttermilk pancake I made before, and this tasted so much better. The texture is a bit like mini sponge cake with banana filling. I think I am going to make some next weekend for breakfast :) One downside though, the pancakes only taste good when served warm. And I certainly need to work on the presentation....

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
makes 12 pancakes

1.5 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
2 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
unsalted butter
2 ripe bananas, diced plus extra for serving
pure maple syrup

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minutes, until browned. Wip out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.

Tips:
- Use the 1/4 cup measure to drop the batter into the pan.
-Make sure the diced bananas are covered by batter, or it will stick to the pan.
- I used canola oil instead of butter, to reduce fat.

For dinner, I cooked Spinach Fettucine, which is a staff favorite in July issue of Cookinglight magazine. I substituted a few items; like 2%milk for half & half and Gruyere for 1/3 cream cheese. The result was a mess to say the least. I am going to try this recipe again when I gather all the ingredients. Poor OCT has to finish the leftover as today's lunch.