Banana Rescue Hoe Cakes

Nothing makes me feel guiltier and more wasteful than a bowl of brown bananas.

So depressing. Just look at 'em.

After watching the Top Chef DC episode featuring apparently mind-blowing banana-chili fritters, I had a craving for fried banana-something, and figured, if I left out the chili, the kids would eat the bananas they were supposed to have eaten anyway (I actually HATE raw bananas! Childhood traumatic food experience….you know what I mean).



Banana Hoe Cakes

Bunch (5 or 6) smooshed bananas
1 cup self-rising flour (or pancake mix/ bisquick type mix)*
*may need as much as 1 cup more to get the desired consistency –
I’m in Colorado so flour ratios are especially difficult to gauge
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar (only 1/4 cup if you're using sweetened pancake mix)
1 TB vanilla extract
2 TB cinnamon
¼ cup half and half (you can also use buttermilk, regular milk or cream)
¼ cup vegetable oil

Stir everything in a bowl (except the oil) until mixed well. Put into freezer for 10 minutes while you heat up oil on medium in a skillet.
Check banana mixture. It needs to be thicker than pancakes batter, so if it’s too gloppy add flour until you can scoop it with a spoon (more like cookie dough).

Spoon the mixture (you can decide your own hoe cake size) into the hot oil. Be sure the oil’s not so hot that the outside browns before the inside gets fluffy.
Turn once until golden brown and crisp on both sides. Cut one open to check it’s not gooey on the inside.
The bananas make these cakes very dense, so if there are any that have not gotten cooked all the way through, but are browned, just place them on a cookie sheet and bake for a few minutes at 400 degrees while you’re finishing the rest of the batch.
Top with powdered sugar and serve warm. Makes about 12 (4inch round).
The guy on the left ate 8 of these in 2 days. Breakfast, snack and dessert.

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