Brewskie

Banana Bread Beer Pancake with Nutella in all its glory

We were having a little chat at work about pancake day when I thought, beer pancakes, now there’s an idea. Fortunately, someone else was in the office with an even better idea, Banana Bread Beer Pancakes! So I went to the shop, bought some ingredients and cooked up a batch, A-MAZING! The best thing about them was how easy they are to make. I’m not going to include a load of detailed measurements in the destructions below because I didn’t use any, it’s that simple!

You will need:

  • Banana Bread Beer
  • A bag of plain flour
  • Some milk
  • Eggs
  • Nutella
  • Any other toppings – bananas and ice cream perhaps
  • Oil or an alternative pan lubricant
  • A whisk – electric is lazier so therefore better
  • A frying pan
  • Another beer to drink while creating a masterpiece

Milk, Eggs, Flour... Banana Bread Beer!

Very important!

First things first, you need to check that the Banana Bread Beer hasn’t gone off. You achieve this by opening the bottle and drinking some immediately, I can’t overstress how important this step is. You must do it immediately.

Once you are happy that the beer is fine (double check if necessary) it’s time to start with the pancake mixture. Firstly get a big jug or bowl or something, I’m using this tall thing because the electric blender fits nicely inside, crack an egg into it. If you’re making more than about 4 or 5 pancakes then use 2 eggs.

Now get a beer glass, if you want about 8 pancakes grab a pint glass, if you want 4 or 5, get a smaller one – the one I’m using is a cool free Budweiser one from the World Cup with studs at the bottom… I digress. Fill up your glass with plain flour and pour it into your receptacle with the chuckie egg.

Cracking!

Pint of flour please boss

Check the beer hasn’t gone off.

Still fine...

Now fill half your glass with Banana Bread Beer. I got a little whisk thing out and beat it up a bit, I actually think this was a bit pointless because it all gets whisked up in a minute anyway and the bubbles probably make it a bit lighter in the end. So basically, do what you want with it in the glass, probably best not to drink it all at this point though.

Massive hands or a tiny whisk? You decide...

Top up the rest of the glass with milk, we only had diet milk in the house (NOT my choice), I don’t think the fat content will matter but semi skimmed is the king of milks so go for that if you’re buying it especially. Once you’ve topped it up with milk you will most likely do what I did and have a taste. Gross isn’t it? Reminds me very much of the penicillin they give to you as a child that they claim tastes like bananas… It actually tastes a bit like vomit – at this point I was a bit concerned my experiment would fail. Please persist; it’ll all work out in the end I promise!

Milky beer, yum... NOT!

See if the dog likes Banana Bread Beer (turns out he just wanted to kill the bottle).

You know I only like gluten free Banana Bread Beer daddy...

Pour the horrid milk/Banana Bread Beer concoction into the flour and eggs combo…

If you have arms of steel and want to impress someone, get a manual whisk and beat this until there are no lumps. Alternatively, get an electric device and let it do all the hard work for you.

Whisky stuff

Nearly there now… Leave this mixture to do something sciencey for half an hour in the fridge, it generally thickens up a bit. If you are impatient leave it for at least 15 minutes or it won’t work properly.

Might as well check the beer hasn’t gone off…

Absolutely fine.

Get a pan on the hob, put in a bit of oil or another suitable lubricant like butter or fry light or lard (does that still exist?!) and wait until it gets a tiny bit smoky. Turn the gas down and pour in some of the Banana Bread Beer pancake mix and move the pan around until the base is covered.

Run Forrest run

Leave this to cook on the bottom, keep lifting the edges up until it all looks like it’s one pancake and not still wet, you don’t want it to break up mid air! So here comes the moment you have been waiting for… yup, the obligatory pancake toss is upon us. The most important aspect of being a good tosser is the stance you adopt, feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, both hands in front of you (if you can imagine Johnny Wilkinson about to kick a penalty you’re halfway there). Pull the pan down slightly and then flick the wrists with an upward swoosh. If it crumples on re-entry, straighten it out quickly before anyone sees and no one will ever know you are a massive failure.

I'm a better tosser than I look, honest!

Check the beer hasn’t got too warm.

Refreshing.

Leave the pancake to cook on the other side and keep turning until it’s a golden brown colour. Once you’re happy it’s done, get it out of the pan and onto a plate, it’s time for the choc!

Nearly ready...

I don’t think it’s possible to put on too much chocolate, I thought I’d put too much on at first, but then I remembered what the advert says; Nutella contains some hazelnuts and a little bit of milk so inherently it is ludicrously healthy… Once you have liberally applied Nutella you could add some bananas or ice cream and it might make it better. My bananas were a bit too green and we had no ice cream so I moused any extra ingredients.

So much chocolate, so little time.

Roll the whole thing up and you’re ready to enjoy the ultimate pancake experience!

Choc and roll!

Finish the beer.

All gone...

We hope you enjoy them!

PS. If you haven’t seen our review of Wells Banana Bread beer then click here.

This article is copyright © 2012 

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