These whole wheat banana pancakes are made with bananas, protein-packed Greek yogurt, and hearty whole wheat flour. Prepare a big batch over the weekend to enjoy all week long.
Do you prefer waffles or pancakes? It’s a hard choice, especially when crispy/fluffy homemade buttermilk waffles are up for debate. But these whole wheat banana pancakes present quite the competition. We make a big batch every so often to freeze and keep on hand for busy weekday mornings. They’re made with wholesome ingredients and protein-packed Greek yogurt, so we feel great starting our days with a small stack. Pssst… top them with natural almond butter. So good!
Overview: Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes Ingredients
These banana pancakes are made with a handful of real and wholesome ingredients, most of which are relatively healthy too.
- Whole Wheat Flour: All-purpose flour definitely works, but whole wheat flour provides a hearty whole grain base for these banana pancakes. You can carry this whole grain goodness into dinner too by making homemade pizza using our tried-and-true whole wheat pizza dough!
- Salt + Cinnamon + Vanilla Extract: Each add flavor. Cinnamon + banana + vanilla is such a delicious combo!
- Baking Powder: Baking powder helps the pancakes rise.
- Egg: An egg binds the pancake batter together.
- Milk: We don’t use any oil or butter in the pancake batter. Instead, the pancakes obtain their moisture from yogurt, banana, and milk. We tested this recipe with nonfat milk and unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but any milk (dairy or non) works fine.
- Banana: Can’t have banana pancakes without mashed bananas!
- Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds flavor and sweetens the pancakes. You don’t need much because a little goes a long way. We tested this recipe without the sugar and the pancakes tasted pretty bland. Feel free to substitute with the same amount of honey or maple syrup like we use in regular whole wheat pancakes. Or use 3 Tablespoons of coconut sugar.
- Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt adds moisture and protein. We use plain 0% Greek yogurt. Regular yogurt, any milk fat, and your choice of flavor will work.
This banana pancake batter is delicate. Any changes or substitutions will yield different results, so I suggest making the pancakes as written.
Overview: How to Make Banana Pancakes
What we love most about homemade pancakes (besides their amazing texture and flavor) is the easy prep. This banana pancake recipe is no different—you need about 30 minutes and a few basic pantry ingredients.
- Mix the dry ingredients together, then make a well in the middle of the bowl.
- Whisk the mashed banana, milk, and egg together. Add brown sugar, yogurt, and vanilla, then stir together until smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until *just* combined. Do not over-mix pancake batter. Doing so will over-develop the gluten in the flour, resulting in dense pancakes.
- Heat a skillet and generously coat with butter. Once it’s very hot, drop about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the griddle. Cook on both sides until cooked through, then repeat with remaining batter.
- Keep pancakes warm in a preheated 200°F (93°C) oven until all pancakes are cooked.
Serve the pancakes plain with sliced bananas on top, a drizzle of pure maple syrup, nut butter, jam, honey, raspberry sauce, apple butter, strawberry sauce, whipped cream, or Greek yogurt.
Looking for a whole wheat waffles recipe? Try my favorite fluffy whole wheat waffles next!
3 Success Tips for Banana Pancakes
While these banana pancakes are pretty easy, we have a few important notes to help guarantee the BEST texture.
- Mixing: Make sure you don’t over-mix the pancake batter. Over-mixing will result in dense, heavy pancakes.
- Griddle: Make sure your griddle is HOT before adding the pancake batter. Here’s what we do: Preheat the griddle until drops of water evaporate immediately when dropped onto it.
- In Between Batches: Spray your pan or griddle between each pancake or batch of pancakes. You could use butter, but nonstick coconut oil spray works like a charm.
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Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 pancakes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These whole wheat banana pancakes are made with protein-packed Greek yogurt, sweet banana, and hearty whole wheat flour. For best taste and texture, see success tips above and avoid making any ingredient substitutions.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/3 cups (167g) whole wheat flour or white whole-wheat flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg (or 2 egg whites)
- 1 cup (240ml) milk*
- 1/2 cup (115g) mashed banana (about 1 large ripe banana)
- 2 Tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar*
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: 1/2 cup add-ins (chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, etc.)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, preferably with a pour spout, toss the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together until combined. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and banana together. Add brown sugar, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently whisk to combine. Make sure there are no patches of dry flour at the bottom of the bowl. The batter is thick and a few lumps are fine.
- Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat. Coat generously with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Once it’s hot, drop/pour a heaping 1/4 cup of batter on the griddle. Cook until the edges look set and you notice holes in the pancake’s surface around the border, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until cooked through, about 1–2 more minutes. Coat griddle/skillet with butter or nonstick spray again, if needed, for each batch of pancakes.
- Keep pancakes warm in a preheated 200°F (93°C) oven until all pancakes are cooked. Serve pancakes immediately with toppings of choice.
- Cover and store leftover pancakes in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Pancakes freeze well up to 3 months. Reheat frozen pancakes in the microwave. Or you can reheat frozen pancakes in a 350°F (177°C) oven. Place pancakes on a lined baking sheet and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 6–8 minutes or until defrosted and warm.
- Can I make the batter the night before? No, I don’t recommend it. Baking powder is activated once wet. You can, however, mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together and keep them separate and covered in the refrigerator until the morning.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Griddle, Griddle Pan, or Shallow Skillet/Pan
- Milk: We tested this recipe with nonfat milk and unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but any milk (dairy or non) works fine.
- Brown Sugar: We tested this recipe without the sugar and the pancakes tasted pretty bland. We don’t recommend skipping it. Feel free to substitute with the same amount of honey or maple syrup or use 3 Tablespoons of coconut sugar.
- Yogurt: We use plain 0% Greek yogurt. Regular yogurt, any milk fat, and your choice of flavor works.
Keywords: whole wheat banana pancakes, banana pancakes
These are delicious! My husband, the Sunday morning breakfast maker, treated me to these today. Yum! It’s his second “Sally recipe”. On the first bite, I loved the taste of bananas and cinnamon. We topped them with blueberries, sliced bananas and chopped pecans. Also added chocolate chips to a few for “dessert pancakes”. I’ve made many, many, Sally recipes over recent years, which we all have enjoyed. Now, he’s making them for me! Thank you, Sally!
★★★★★
Very tasty. I experiment with healthy pancakes all the time and these are a keeper. I even forgot the egg and they turned out fine. I am guessing because I used a little extra banana. Love that they have no butter or oil too. Great weekday recipe.
★★★★
Can I use sour cream instead of yogurt just because I don’t have any yogurt right now?
Yes, you can!
Recipe taste amazing I love these pancakes because I have a strong sweet tooth and it helps me stay on track.
Trying to figure out the macros is fairly difficult though even using MyFitnessPal. Would anyone be able to tell me what the macros (fats, calories and protein) for each pancake if you followed the recipe to a tee and each pancake was exactly 1/3 cup?
★★★★★
I had to substitute the milk (coconut) and flour (best for bread) and yogurt (0% not Greek) they were still delicious, fluffy, quick and easy!
★★★★★
I haven’t tried these yet but I will this week. I wondered if you could sub the eggs for something nondairy.
Hi Dulcie, we haven’t tried these with an egg substitute, but let us know if you do!
These and your whole wheat blueberry pancakes are our 2 favorite pancake recipes!! I use 2/3 whole wheat flour and 1/3 white flour, oat milk, and plain nonfat greek yogurt. We often eat them topped with biscoff – so delicious!
★★★★★