These coconut ricotta pancakes are light and fluffy and topped with a deliciously sweet butter made from caramelized bananas and vanilla creme fraiche.
My goal for this breakfast and these pictures was to depict a lazy weekend morning. The kind where you’re still in your pajamas, taking your time making pancakes alongside a BIG pot of coffee.
The kind where you sit at the table (or let’s be real, the couch) with that cup of coffee and the newspaper (or more likely, your phone/iPad) for an hour or two after and don’t feel bad about it one bit.
Here’s the reality of what went on behind the scenes:
I woke up about 3 hours later than I wanted to yesterday morning.
Ulysses worked a shift that ends at midnight all weekend, meaning he wasn’t getting home until almost 1am.
So, I was up (because it’s pointless to try and go to bed knowing you’re just going to be woken in an hour up by the sound of the garage door and your husband who is incapable of being “quiet” while trying to eat cereal at 1 in the morning) until he got home and my plans of getting out of bed by 8am to make us both breakfast before he had to go to work, already shot.
So, 11am.
I’m up, starting my work at these pancakes and Ulysses is getting ready to leave for work.
On his way out the door however, he looks at Ginger who is giving him the saddest eyes like “you’re leaving me AGAIN, human?!” and decided to give her a new stuffed animal hedgehog to make up for his departure.
Ginger has one toy…a hedgehog (she’s currently on something like her 20th). She suckles it like she’s 13 making out with a boy for the first time and she can do it for hours.
It’s all she wants in life. Really, youtube weimaraners and you’ll see what I mean, they all do this weird suckle thing and it’s freaky.
The problem however, is that Ginger ONLY suckles this thing when humans are in the same room as her and she feels “comfortable”.
It’s incredibly bizarre but I could be 5 feet away in the kitchen and that won’t be good enough for her. A human must be in the room, preferably both of us for prime suckling pleasure.
That was not the case yesterday.
Ulysses walks out the door the second he hands the thing to her and I’m in the kitchen finishing the pancakes and bringing them to the dining room to photograph. This leaves Ginger in an all out state of panic.
HUMANS? WHY ARE YOU NOT IN HERE SO I CAN MAKE OUT WITH MY HEDGEHOG??
She starts trotting around the house with the hedgehog in her mouth, whimpering the most pathetic sounds I’ve ever heard and she doesn’t stop for the entire next 30 minutes while I’m photographing, cleaning up and then finally (at noon) eating my breakfast.
So that whole lazy morning weekend breakfast thing?
Yeah, more like breakfast at noon by yourself while your psychotic whimpering Weimaraner prances around with a hedgehog shoved in her mouth. #thethingsyoudontseeinthepicture
What you do see is some amazingly fluffy coconut ricotta pancakes topped with what I can only describe as heaven in the guise of butter.
I looooove ricotta in pancakes (like these orange basil ricotta pancakes) and other baked goods like this ricotta almond fig cake, it just makes things so fluffy and moist.
I’ve had a container of creme fraiche on hand for the past week and got to thinking it would be mad good on some pancakes.
Then I got thinking some more and decided to blend it with caramelized bananas for this whipped “buttery” like topping that’s just out of this world. See that dollop on top of the pancakes in the picture?
Yeah, I ate about 5 times that amount in real life.
The lunatic canine made me do it.
While the whipped banana creme fraiche is optional, I would at least top this stack with some caramelized bananas for maximum enjoyment!
These pancakes are also gluten-free.
If you’re looking for more gluten-free pancake inspiration try these:
Cinnamon raisin oat bran pancakes
Meyer lemon quinoa pancakes
And if you want a high-protein, super high satiety pancake – try this recipe for protein pancakes or pumpkin protein pancakes!
Coconut Ricotta Pancakes with Carmelized Banana Creme Fraiche Butter
Ingredients
For the Ricotta Pancakes
- 1 cup gluten free baking flour, or all-purpose
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut milk
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
For the Creme Fraiche Butter
- 1 banana, sliced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons vanilla creme fraiche, or regular creme friache mixed with vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 tablespoon coconut milk
Instructions
For the Ricotta Pancakes
- Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Whisk together the remaining wet ingredients in a small bowl and pour into the large bowl. Stir until incorporated.
- Heat a pancake griddle or skillet over medium heat.
- Once hot, grease with butter or coconut oil.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the skillet and cook for about 1 1/2 minutes, flip and cook another 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven while you make the remaining pancakes.
For the Creme Fraiche Butter
- Heat a small skillet over medium heat.
- Melt the butter and brown sugar in the skillet, add the banana slices and cinnamon and cook for about 2 minutes per side until the bananas start to caramelize.
- Transfer the caramelized bananas to a food processor. Add the creme fraiche and milk and process until smooth.
- Top the pancakes with the butter and serve warm with maple syrup.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Ohmigosh, these look so amazing! I ADORE the idea of the banana creme fraiche, I bet that made these yummy looking pancakes taste even better. Pinning this one for my fave kind of weekend breakfast – the lazy kind! And…I really want to see Ginger with her hedgehog, now…great story! :)
Wowza! These look and sound amazing! Beautiful photography!
I’m so tired of people thinking readers of reviews care what they THINK a recipe “sounds like” or “looks like” without even making it when we just want to KNOW how the recipe ACTUALLY comes out. I want REAL REVIEWS, not worthless opinions! What makes a person think that their baseless opinion of a simple photo is what I want to know — I want to know its flavor and texture as well as any problems in making it, not a pointless blithering about how a photo came out.
Thanks for leaving the same pretty much unhelpful comment on two separate posts. Here’s the thing, people can comment/say whatever they want. Sorry if it’s not an actual review of the recipe as you apparently would like to see but here’s my suggestion, why don’t you make it and then leave your own accurate account of how it tastes and what it’s texture is. If you even get this with the bogus email address you left…
These look AMAZING. Also really enjoyed your pup story, thanks for sharing!
As soon as I read the title, I literally said “woah!” out loud. You seriously made butter using caramelized bananas and vanilla creme fraiche! I am beyond impressed right now! Pinning so I can try these really soon…