If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. . .

My little sweet-toothed child asked for pancakes this morning. I got all excited thinking about the crepes I’ve been wanting to make so I asked her if she wanted ‘special’ pancakes. She demanded to know what made them special, so I told her they are thin and buttery and filled with ‘yummy cheese’. (I was thinking of the cream cheese and mascarpone filling I wanted to make.) Oops. Pancakes with cheese was NOT what she wanted. To be fair, that does sound a little odd.  So, regular old pancakes it was.

Until we went in the kitchen. First they wanted bananas. Hmm, I could put those in the pancakes, no problem! Then they wanted graham crackers. I hadn’t even gotten the mixing bowls out at this point! Then they wanted marshmallows, and if you give a mouse kid a cookie marshmallow. . . . he’s going to want some milk chocolate to go with it. All that was starting to sound pretty good to me too (I wonder where they get their sweet tooth?), so I thought, ‘we’ll just throw all that into the pancakes! Please everybody!’ So I got started on Banana S’more Pancakes. My mom called and during the conversation it occurred to me that maple seeeeeerup* might not taste all that great on these. My mom suggested peanut butter and we came up with this saucy-seeeeeerupy* recipe. YUM!

*Have I told you about seeeeeeerup? First, some important info: Jay is from New England and I’m from Utah. I made Jay breakfast one morning after we’d gotten married. The works. Bacon, sausage, orange juice, eggs, and pancakes with ‘homemade maple syrup’. I grew up with my mom’s ‘maple syrup’ aka a simple sugar syrup flavored with maple extract. Jay grew up in New England. Where there are maple trees. And sugar houses every 2 miles. Etc. Etc. Etc. So I set Jay’s plate down in front of him and he’s thrilled with the pancakes. He cuts a big piece out and takes a bite. And then his eyes popped out of his skull, rolled off the table and lay there on the floor glaring at me. About 20 minutes later, when he consented to speak to me again, he asked what the bleepity bleep bleep bleep I had put on the pancakes. I was just a little out of sorts after his reaction and told him I maaaaaade maple syrup, thankyouverymuch. After a long lecture about maple syrup and how to properly pronounce maple syrup (seeeeee-rup, not sirrup – rhymes with stirrup) and the history of maple syrup and many childhood stories about maple syrup and how maple syrup DOES NOT COME FROM AN EXTRACT FROM WATKINS, he made me promise never, ever to do that again. And I was only to purchase maple syrup made in New England forever and ever, amen. So, the moral of this story is, Thou Shalt Not Mess With Yankees and Their Seeeeeerup. The end.*

These pancakes turned out to be out of this world! Oh My Gravy, I am SO making these again! I’m usually a two-pancake kind of girl, but I only barely made it into my second pancake before I had to throw in the towel fork. They are hearty! And the sauce is just so delicious, I couldn’t get enough! I suggest cooking the pancakes at a little lower temperature than you normally use (medium low-ish) so that the marshmallows and the chocolate chips start to melt a little.

Banana S’more Pancakes

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2 bananas, mashed

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup marshmallows

1 cup graham crackers, broken into small bits

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and butter.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry and give it just a couple of stirs. (You’ll stir it more in a sec!)

Add the bananas, chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers. Stir it up!

Let it set for a few minutes while you heat a couple of skillets (I used non-stick) over medium low-ish heat.

Ladle (I use a measuring cup) about 1/2 cup of batter into each pan.

When the surface gets all bubbly and the chips and mallows have started to melt, flip it over and cook the other side.

Enjoy with Peanut Butter Sauce and a very large glass of milk!

Makes about a dozen large, very filling pancakes.  

Peanut Butter Sauce

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small saucepan bring the water and sugar to a boil.

Lower the heat and add the peanut butter.

Whisk to combine (this could take a few minutes and it might look a little icky until the peanut butter comes back together, just give it a chance!)

Add the butter and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Enjoy over pancakes. Or ice cream. Or use it in place of fondue and dip fruit in it. Or just eat it with a spoon.

Amelia loves to share her bananas with Jillian, and this kept the two of them busy while I got the pancakes ready! ‘Scuse the early morning do’s, we’d just gotten up! I love the look on Amelia’s face, she’s showing Jilly exactly how to ‘open up!’ And Jilly thinks the whole thing is hilarious! She’s a split second away from tossing that cracker and clapping with glee!