I made these often in Germany. I made it for my friends who had never tasted them before. We usually served them with Nutella. Instead of traditional hot cross buns, I made these for Easter Sunday and had my friends over for a tiny dinner party. My friend Maria doesn’t like bananas but ended up eating up almost a whole batch of these. My family love these as well. I’ve been told that I should start a business and sell them. They are good plus these fritters (thick pancake) are part of the traditional Cape Malay cooking style which is part of my heritage so they are really special to me. They are also made in Jamacia and are also called banana fritters. The way I make them comes out more like an American styled flapjack though as I don’t like the oiliness of fritters unless they are my moms’ pumpkin fritters. But hey back to the point check out the recipe and directions below.
Ingredients
Dry ingredients

2 cups of self-raising flour

1 pinch of salt

3/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of fine/ powdered cinnamon (this is optional)
Wet ingredients

1-2 eggs this depends on the size of the egg if it’s big 1 is enough

1 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of melted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract/essence

1-2 ripe bananas mashed up depending on how much flavour you want
Directions

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk up the wet ingredients.

Then mix up everything with a wooden spoon. A wooden spoon is essential to allow your pancakes to come out fluffy. Fluffiness matters.

Don’t overmix the batter leave it lumpy that doesn’t matter. Overmixing will cause your flapjacks/ pancakes to become chewy.

Your batter should be a bit thick to allow it to be an actual flapjack styled pancakes if it’s too runny you will end up with a crepe instead of a flapjack style pancake.

In a non-stick pan place a bit of sunflower oil to coat the pan switch on your stove and place the pan on it. Other frying oils don’t work as well for me personally.

You know whether the oil is ready by places the tip of the handle of your wooden spoon in the pan if bubbles form around the spoon the oil is ready.

Spoon in your mixture in the pan and fry it. You will see oil bubbles forming around your pancake once you see that flip it over with a spatula.

Repeat till done.

Serve with maple syrup, honey, or golden syrup. The recipe is rather sweet and you can eat it as is. If you don’t love sweet things as much as I do you can add just two tablespoons of sugar to your batter because ripe bananas will give you that sweetness.

Alternatives

If you want the more traditional kind of fritter just click here for the recipe:https://capemalaycookingdelights.com/2011/07/02/vetkoekies-fritters/

All of us aren’t fortunate enough to have pre-made self-raising flour, in that case, add a tablespoon and a half of baking powder. This should allow your pancakes to rise.

Omit the bananas and then you will have plain pancakes. If the batter is too runny just add more flour. If it is too thick add more milk.

Add around 250 ml about a cup of mashed pumpkin instead of banana to make a pumpkin pancake instead. The Cape Malay cooking delights link also shows you how to make a traditional pumpkin fritter.

Omit the bananas and add in peeled, decored, grated apple to your mix to make apple flapjacks/pancakes.

Omit the sweet ingredients sugar, cinnamon, bananas and vanilla extract/essence. Then add drained canned whole corn, pepper and grated cheese to the mix to make a savoury version of these pancakes.

Good luck cooking. I truly hope you like these as much as I do. And if you make them let me know if you enjoyed them.
Wishing you happy pancake making and happy travels through the journey of life!

xxx Nikki xxx