The other day I overheard a debate over a very important topic: what the best meal of the day is.
One person said that dinner is their favorite because there are so many options, while another woman said that breakfast is the best because you can’t beat omelets, toast and hash browns. The guy in the group said that brunch is the best because you can pick if you’re more in the mood for breakfast or lunch/dinner food, and it’s also an acceptable situation to drink alcohol before noon. Touché. 
For me, it’s a toss-up between a tapas dinner – since I love little plates and taking a few bites of many things – or breakfast. If you’ve read this blog much at all, you probably already know that pancakes are this girl’s favorite breakfast of choice (and sometimes for lunch or dinner too).
Have I gotten sick of pancakes having eaten them at lease once a week for the past several years? Negative… because I never stop coming up with new pancake recipes! Hence today’s topic at hand: 
Sometimes my pancake recipes are simple and healthy, and sometimes they’re indulgent and more like dessert…. Today’s recipe is a cross between the two. These salted caramel banana pancakes are vegan, gluten free, and nutritious, yet they taste kind of like bananas foster meets a gooey, sweet tooth breakfast.
I first thought of the idea of making salted caramel pancakes when Blue Diamond sent me some new almond flavors to try, including a tin of salted caramel ones. 
My pancake batter base consists of old fashioned oats and some salted caramel almonds, pulsed in the food processor until ground together. The rest of the batter ingredients are banana, almond milk, cinnamon, a pinch of sea salt and baking powder – easy peezy. 
For more of a caramel flavor, I concocted a vegan caramel pancake topping by simmering almond butter, maple syrup, banana slices, vanilla extract and sea salt together…. 
Once the caramel topping thickened and the pancakes were lightly browned on both sides, I poured the former on top of the latter for the deliciousness that you see. 
Salted Caramel Banana Pancakes
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 1/2 cup old fashioned oats ensure that they're gluten free if necessary
- 1/2 banana
- 1/4 cup Blue Diamond salted caramel almonds
- 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk*
- 1/4 TSP cinnamon
- 1/2 TSP baking powder
- 1/8 TSP sea salt
For the topping:
- 1 TBSP almond butter
- 2 TBSP maple syrup
- 1/2 banana sliced
- 1/4 TSP vanilla extract
- 1/4 TSP sea salt
Instructions
- Combine the oats and salted caramel almonds in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is mostly ground and combined well. Add in remaining batter ingredients, and pulse until combined well and mostly smooth.
- Pour the batter onto a pancake griddle heated over medium/low heat and coated with cooking spray, forming 3 pancakes. Cook until lightly browned on both sides.
- Meanwhile, combine all of the caramel topping ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Allow mixture to simmer, then reduce heat to medium/low until it thickens and forms as a syrupy mixture.
- Place the cooked pancakes on a plate, pour the caramel topping over the pancakes, and enjoy!
Notes
Tell me… What’s your favorite meal of the day?
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.
Ok, you had me at salted caramel! What the what! Blue Diamond Salted Caramel?! Pancakes!?! This is blowing my mind right now!
Hehehe, thanks girl! I think I might make these again tomorrow actually 🙂
Okay but seriously – that salted carmel and bananas – I drool for you! I am a slave for you. Now only if you wouldn’t cause stomach combustion in me! lol!
Oh girl, all of your food allergies are no fun! 😉
These pancakes sound amazing! I love how unique they are!
Thanks so much, Shelby!
Let be best friends and eat all the pancakes together. Holy yum. I can’t get enough pancakes and this sounds amazing!!! Can’t wait for the weekend to try this!!
Umm YES! I’m in! If we ever get to hang out we’ll spend the day doing HIIT workouts and eating pancakes 🙂
Must try those almonds and then the pancakes -yum!
Brunch is for me a treat something I don’t do a lot!
I’m totally with you, I don’t do brunch often at all… so when I do it’s a special occasion!
I could SWIM in that topping. Holy mother of YUM! Also it’s no question that breakfast is the best meal of the day. Tapas-shmapas 😉
Haaaa! Yeah I’ve kinda been putting this topping on lots of things – mug cakes, pancakes, smoothies!! It’s SO good.
Sooooo… I’ll be making that tipping as soon as we get back home. Totally genius. I loved those nuts too (TWSS). And totally agree with the guy – brunch is the best! 🙂
Hope that you tried it! Thanks girl!
Nicole – I think that topping you created is a new all-time winner. It looks amazing and I love, love, love the ingredients you used. I’d like to put that on my oatmeal and everything else in between!
Thanks so much, Dani! I definitely have been enjoying this topping creation a lot. It tastes sinful – you’d never know that it’s pretty healthy!