These crispy fried banana-filled pancakes drizzled with condensed milk and dusted with spiced sugar are a popular street-food snack throughout South-east Asia, and never fail to satisfy. They are so popular in fact, that the backpacking route is often referred to as the Banana Pancake Trail.
150 g/1 cup plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A pinch of cayenne pepper
35 g/3 tablespoons white granulated sugar
2 ripe bananas, cut into 5-mm/¼-in. slices
50 g/3½ tablespoons butter
Canned condensed milk, to serve
MAKES 4
To make the pancake dough, put the flour and salt in a bowl and mix together. Add 125 ml/½ cup water and mix until you have soft doughlike consistency (add more water if it is too dry or more flour if it is too wet). Pull off small amounts of dough and use your hands to roll them into golf-ball-size portions. Put on a tray, cover with a damp cloth or clingfilm/plastic wrap and leave to rest for about 15 minutes.
Mix the ground cinnamon, cayenne pepper and sugar together in a small bowl and set aside.
When you are ready to cook, flatten a ball of dough and use a rolling pin to roll it out as thinly as you can in a fairly even square shape. Lightly dust a piece of baking parchment with flour and lay the dough square on top. Place some banana slices in the centre, leaving a gap all the way around it, then immediately fold over the edges to make an envelope. Repeat with the remaining dough and banana slices.
Heat a large frying pan/skillet set over a medium heat and add a knob/pat of butter. Pick up the parchment paper with the filled dough on it and with your hand under the parchment flip this carefully into the pan, peeling away the parchment. Cook for a few minutes, or until golden and crisp, then add another small knob of butter to the pan, flip the pancake over and fry for another 2 minutes until golden. Remove from the pan onto a plate and cover with foil to keep warm while you cook the rest of the pancakes.
Slide the pancakes onto serving plates, drizzle with condensed milk and sprinkle with the spiced sugar mix. Serve warm.
This recipe is from Theo’s Family Kitchen by Theo Michaels. To get more great blog posts like this one - direct to your inbox – be sure to sign up to our mailing list here.