Once you are back from a vacation, it’s hard to get adjusted to the real world.  A world that does not wait for you and does not allow you to sit idly by an ocean while you sip a Mai Tai and read your favorite book.  Now that is was the life. The quietness of Kauai still waves silently in my ear. The loudest noise was a more than occasional rooster singing his “cock-a-doodle-doo”.

And now, in the rushed world of Los Angeles, with cars honking, radios blasting, and lawn mowers buzzing at just a bit later than the crack of dawn, I find myself rudely awakened from my Kauai dream, longingly wishing to be transported back.  Although our digital album is filled with literally hundreds of scenic images from our family vacation, the thing that can transport me back to Hawaii faster than a Learjet would be conjuring up a delicious Island inspired favorite dish.

As you know from my last post, the Haupia Pie has not been able to get out of my mind, and still, even though I have replicated it only last week, I am wishing that I had frozen one slice for today—for breakfast actually. I have brought back some Kona coffee, and I can’t imagine a better breakfast than a slice of that dreamy chocolate, coconut and macadamia nut pie with a steaming cup of coffee. I know you have heard WAY too much about that pie.  Here’s a pic in case you have already forgotten.

So instead, and certainly not a second best by any stretch of the imagination, is my recipe for banana, Macadamia Nut,  and coconut pancakes.  My favorite little dive, The Village Bakery, served these up every morning with a piping hot cup of coffee, and I would sleepily find myself there, standing in line at oh, 6:30 a.m. or so, smelling the Spam being fried and pancakes cooking on the griddle.

I have compiled a trio of pancakes here so you can use this as a launch pad for perhaps Father’s Day breakfast which is rolling around this weekend.  I have a sampling of plain and simple chocolate chip pancakes, double banana pancakes with almost carmelized bananas nestled in, and the piece de resistance, my banana Macadamia nut and toasted coconut pancakes.  Alooooo-ha!

They are the bomb. Truly.  How often have I steered you wrong here?  I really can’t think of one time, but if you can, I’ll give you your money back, 100% because I really do believe in my recipes.

And better yet, creating a trio of pancakes is easy peasy since you are using  mostly the same ingredients for all three pancakes. By the way, I would make a rum-maple syrup if I were you.  It’s really the only appropriate thing to drench your macadamia nut pancake in.  Seriously. Cheers to you, and hoping that somewhere over the coming weekend I replicate that delicious Mai Tai as well…and perhaps you should too.

Plain and Simple Pancake Batter
This is the batter for the Chocolate Chip Pancakes…Banana is below.
As one batch this makes approximately 10 pancakes…I never can manage to squeeze a dozen out of this recipe.
1 c. all purpose flour
2 t. baking powder
1 T. granulated sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. buttermilk (this is uber important for fluffy and slightly tangy pancakes)
1/2 c. whole milk or 2 % milk
1 egg
2 T. Canola oil for the batter and 2 T. for the griddle
1/3 c. chocolate chips
2 T. of butter for the griddle

For the Double Banana Pancakes AND Banana Macadamia Nut Pancakes
2 c. all purpose flour
4 t. baking powder
2 T. sugar
1 t. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. 2% milk + 2-4 T. more depending on the thickness of your batter
2 mashed ripe bananas
4 T. Canloa oil
2 eggs
For Double Banana Pancakes have ready one banana for slicing on top of the cooking pancakes.
For Banana Macadamia Pancakes: Add toasted 3/4 c.  chopped macadamia nuts and 1/2 c. toasted coconut. See toasting directions below.

Rum Syrup:
Simply add one tablespoon of rum to 1/2 c. of pure maple syrup.  Heat in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds and stir.

To Make the Chocolate Chip Pancakes: In a large mixing bowl, put all of your dry ingredients in and whisk.  In a large liquid measuring cup, pour in the milks and canola oil and crack one egg in.  Beat together in liquid measuring cup with wire whisk.

Griddle heating and pancake cooking instructions: IF you are ONLY making chocolate chip pancakes, begin heating your griddle or large frying pan now.  Add one tablespoon of oil and one tablespoon of butter on your pan or if you have a griddle, place one table spoon of each towards each end of your griddle. Turn the griddle on medium to medium high depending on the hotness of your stove.  Use a paper towel to carefully grease your pans and move around the melting butter and oil.

Now back to the pancake batter: Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently whisk about 10-12 times ONLY, just until all ingredients are barely incorporated; a little bit lumpy is just fine.  The less you whisk, the fluffier the pancakes will be.  Stir in the chocolate chips with a rubber scraper or spoon.  Drop one tiny drip of pancake batter onto your pan to test for hotness.  IF it sizzles or begins cooking immediately, it’s good and hot. If it’s burning, turn it down a bit.  If it doesn’t do either, wait another minute to begin ladeling your pancake batter onto the griddle.  Once you see little bubbles appear on your pancakes that have been ladled onto the griddle, take a peek and see if the underside looks golden; if so then flip and cook another minute or so until pancake seem reasonably firm.  Don’t pat down your pancake with the spatula.  It decreases the air and makes them denser.

For the banana pancake batter, do the same as above for mixing up your batter EXCEPT add mashed bananas to your liquid ingredients.  Whisk together all the wet ingredients and then put them into the dry ingredient bowl.  If the batter is too thick to ladle, add 2-4 T. more of the milk to bring it to a ladling consistency; just thin enough to be able to scoop out and onto a pan, but not runny.  Set that aside the batter for a couple of minutes while you toast your coconut and macadamia nuts.

To toast the nuts and coconut flakes: I like to do this on the stove in a small saute pan.  Just add the WHOLE macadamia nuts and coconut flakes into a pan over medium heat.  Stir constantly until barely noticing a change in color of either the coconut or macadamia nuts.  Then they are done, and you can chop them up.

Now divide your banana batter into two equal bowls.  To one, add the nuts and the coconut flakes and stir.  Follow the griddle preparation process as above.

For the double banana pancakes: After you ladle the plain banana batter onto the griddle, slice very thin banana slices over each pancake, dispersing them evenly over the pancake. Gently push each banana into the batter with your index finger just a bit. They shouldn’t get pushed all the way through to the other side because then they will stick to the pan.

Serve the pancakes nice and hot.  I highly recommend making the rum syrup for the adults.