Eggnog Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas

At Christmas last year, I tried eggnog for the very first time. I know for some folks eggnog is hit or miss, but for me it was a hit! I loved drinking a tall cold glass of the stuff! It’s strong but good!

I wanted to prepare a special pancake recipe for the holidays. While I just drank eggnog last year, I wanted to incorporate it into cooking. The answer: pancakes made with eggnog! Let me know in the comments how you’ve incorporated eggnog into your cooking because I’d totally love to use it again!

The goal with these pancakes was to allow the eggnog in the pancakes to shine, but of course I love having fun dressing up my pancakes with toppings. I realized I had never actually topped my pancakes with caramelized bananas, so I thought that was the perfect elegant touch to these Christmas pancakes! I wanted to throw in a splash of rum there too but the liquor store was closed. They were excellent without it, but feel free to add that touch for the adults eating this pancake stack!

Wow this pancake batter seriously blew me away! Perhaps it’s the extra eggs from the eggnog, but these pancakes turned out super fluffy and soft! You’ll fall head over heels for these pancakes, and I bet you’ll want to make them any time of the year! Waiting for Christmas to roll around again is just too long of a wait! Of course if you wanted to you could use some homemade eggnog to make the pancakes. I’ve never made my own eggnog before so that’s something to try out, but I’m sure using your own eggnog would make this pancake stack even more special.

I know I’d jump out of bed on that special morning to these incredible pancakes! The smell of the pancakes themselves and the caramelized bananas just take over your kitchen, and this is simply such a comforting stack. By the way - this pancake batter was multi-purposed as batter to deep fry Oreos! It was my first time deep frying Oreos and I had wanted to try for literally years. Have you had deep fried Oreos? Really I didn’t think they were gonna be anything special, but they exceeded my expectations! I think it was this special eggnog batter that probably made the Oreos so good! But back to pancakes! If you were pondering how to start your Christmas or New Year’s morning, well this is the stack that will totally kick off any special celebration! Let’s get flipping some pancakes!

Ingredients for Pancakes with Eggnog

Let’s go over what is needed to make the best holiday pancakes! The ingredient list will be quite straightforward. The idea here is that we’ll be making buttermilk pancakes but with eggnog instead of buttermilk. Making caramelized bananas for the topping won’t take too many ingredients either! This list of basic ingredients makes it perfect

Remember, the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD with all ingredient quantities is at the bottom of this post! You can easily scale all components of the recipe depending on how many pancakes you want to make!

For the Pancakes

• All purpose flour
• Milk
• Vanilla extract
• Baking powder
• Butter
• Eggnog
• Egg
• Granulated sugar
• Maple syrup, for topping

For the Caramelized Bananas

• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Cinnamon
• Banana
• Dark rum (optional)

How to Make Fluffy Pancakes

Making the Caramelized Bananas

1. In a medium-sized bowl, add the brown sugar and chopped bananas. Toss the bananas with the brown sugar. Let the mixture rest as you cook the pancakes.
2. After you've cooked your pancakes, in the same pan, add butter. When the butter is melted, add in the bananas that have been coated with the brown sugar.
3. After 3-5 minutes, turn the bananas and keep stirring the bananas so the sugar doesn't burn.
4. Once the bananas are brown and caramelized, finish with a dash of cinnamon or pumpkin spice.
5. Optionally, you can add in a splash of rum and simmer for 1-2 minutes or flambe it to burn off the alcohol.
6. Serve warm topped over the pancakes.

For the Pancakes

1. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, and baking powder. Whisk well to combine.
2. In another bowl add all the wet ingredients: eggnog, butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk well to combine.
3. Pour the wet ingredients to the bowl with your dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Some small lumps are okay, but be careful not to over whisk.
4. Heat a pan to medium heat and when the pan is hot, pour about 1/3 cups of the batter. Let the pancake cook until you start to see bubbles on the surface. Then flip the pancake and cook on the other side for another 2-3 minutes.
5. After each pancake is done, spread 1 to 1½ tsp of the pumpkin spice brown sugar on top of the pancake. Repeat the steps to cook the pancakes and in the meanwhile, prepare the caramelized bananas.
6. For the topmost pancake of the stack, top with the caramelized bananas and serve warm.

Tips for a Dreamy Eggnog Pancake Stack

• You don’t need to use any extra oil to cook the pancakes if you have a good non-stick pan.
• Mix the dry ingredients & wet ingredients in separate bowls, then combine them after.
• No need to whisk out all the lumps when combining all ingredients together. You want a thick but still runny batter.
• Let the batter sit for five minutes so it becomes tighter and thicker.
• To cook the pancakes, pour 1/4 - 1/3 cup of pancake batter and wait until the bubbles have formed before flipping.
• The underside of the pancake should not be wet at all.
• The bananas cook really quickly so start cooking them once you are almost done with making the pancakes.

Keeping Pancakes Warm

If you’re making a huge stack of pancakes or you need to allow some time for your family to roll out of bed before serving your pancakes, you can definitely keep your fluffy pancakes warm! To do this, preheat your oven to 200 F before starting to make your batter. Get a large baking tray ready. No need to spray it or cover it in aluminum foil. After you’ve cooked the first pancake, using your spatula, take it off the pan and transfer it onto the baking sheet. Repeat with the other pancakes until they’re all done! Having the oven at 200 F won’t cook the pancakes even more, but they’ll be warm as if they were fresh off the pan!