The fluffy banana pancakes with half the flour swapped for steel-cut oat flour you grind yourself, malted milk powder added, and the sugar cut to match.
Yield12 pancakes
Heatjust under med
Cook15 min
Rest10 min
Prep15 min
Scoop¼ cup
Prep ahead ~5 min
Oat flour 75 g oats → 60 g
Steel-cut oats in a high-speed blender or spice grinder, 45–60 s, shaking it down. Sift; return the coarse bits and grind again. A food processor mostly rattles them around — expect to sift more than once.
Ingredients tap to check off
Dry
Oat flour, siftedfrom 75 g steel-cut oats60 g
All-purpose flour60 g½ cup
Malted milk powder, plainCarnation or King Arthur27 g3 Tbsp
Granulated sugar12 g1 Tbsp
Baking powder10 g2½ tsp
Salt3 g½ tsp
Wet
Very ripe bananas, peeledheavily spotted to nearly black2~230 g
Whole milk240 g1 cup
Large egg1
Unsalted butter, meltedplus more for the pan42 g3 Tbsp
Vanilla extract4 g1 tsp
Method tap a step when done
Whisk the oat flour, AP flour, malted milk powder, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Mash the bananas in a second bowl, leaving some chunks. Whisk in the milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla.
Wet into dry. Stir until the dry flour just disappears. Lumps are fine — stirring past this makes them tough.
Rest 10 min. Optional but worth it — the oat flour absorbs liquid and the batter thickens. Don't re-stir.
Pan or griddle to just under medium. Butter lightly. About ¼ cup per pancake. Cook until the bottoms are deep golden and bubbles cover the surface, 2–3 min. Flip, 1 min more.
Continue in batches, butter between rounds. Serve warm with sliced banana, maple syrup and butter.
Pan temperatureA notch under medium. The malt and milk solids brown fast — the outsides darken before the centers set.
Notes
Why each choice
Malted milk powder: plain only. Not Ovaltine (chocolate, oversweetened), and not diastatic malt powder — an enzyme product for bread that leaves the batter slack and gummy.
Half oat, half AP. Oat flour has no gluten; half is as far as it goes without the rest.
Sugar to 1 Tbsp because the malt brings its own sweetness and milk solids.
Bananas: underripe fruit is the biggest reason these come out bland.
Troubleshooting
Browning before the centers set: pan too hot. Off the heat a minute, drop the burner.
Batter too thick after resting: thin with milk a tablespoon at a time.
Gritty: another pass through the grinder and a finer sift.
Flat: check the baking powder date, and that you didn't overmix.
Make-ahead
Batter holds covered in the fridge up to 1 hour; past that the baking powder fades. Cooked pancakes reheat in a 300 °F oven, or freeze flat on a sheet pan and toast from frozen.