Have you ever had an ingredient just sitting your refrigerator, staring at you longingly, but remaining untouched for days and days? It happens here on occasion. It happened here last week. And that poor, helpless, untouched ingredient gos by the name of mangos. We were given a few mangos by the wife’s sister and we just kind of avoided them like the plague for days on end for some unknown reason.
Well, Saturday morning came and it was time to make breakfast. I stared into the refrigerator and I had an idea. Mango pancakes. Was that a thing? Could it be a thing? I was about to find out.
I cut the fruit off of the mangos, mashed it up with a potato masher, stared at it for a bit, and thought up a recipe for mango pancakes… and it actually worked! … and it was good! So, I thought I would share my successful experiment!
This makes a fairly large batch of pancakes, as one large mango can yield a lot of mashed mango. I used a mix of white and brown sugar to prove sweetness along with cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla to enhance the flavor of the mango. The resulting pancakes were a hit. My daughter, in particular, devoured her body weight in pancakes. So, if you have some mangos sitting around taking up space, here’s a breakfast idea to them…
Ingredients
3 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp nutmeg
2 cups mango puree
3 eggs
3 tbsp melted butter
½ tbsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups milk
Peel the mangos, slice the fruit from them, an place into a bowl. Use a potato masher to mash the mango into a daily smooth puree (as smooth as possible). You will want 2 cups of th mango puree for this recipe.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, mango purée, milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until the ingredients are just combined into a fairly smooth batter (a few lumps are fine). Let the batter rest for 10-15 minutes.
The batter should be pourable but not runny, and thick enough to mound slightly, but still spread with just a little help.
Preheat a griddle to about 325–350°. Lightly grease the surface with butter, oil, or cooking spray and then wipe to a thin even layer across the surface.
If you are using a pan or griddle pan north stove top, use medium to medium-low heat.
Pour a ¼ to ⅓ cup portion of batter onto the griddle. Let it spread naturally, then gently round and flatten it into shape with the bottom of the ladle, if needed. Repeat this until you have a filled the griddle with pancakes, being sure to leave at least an inch of space between each.
Fry the pancakes for 2-4 minutes per side, until bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set about ¼ inch in. At this point, flip the pancakes and cook for an additional 1-3 minutes more.
The pancakes are done when they have a golden brown tint enhancing the orange color, they spring back lightly, and there is no wet batter noticeable in the center.
Remove the pancakes from the griddle and reserve on a plate. Repeat the process until all of the batter is used.