Breakfast
The 5 Ingredient Pancake I Make for Me and My One Year Old
Whole ingredients, one bowl.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Serves
- 1 generous serving, or 2 if you're sharing with a toddler
- Published
- September 5, 2026
- Filed under
- Breakfast
This is not a low calorie pancake. This is not a healthy pancake, because healthy means something different to everyone and I'm not here to police your plate. This is simply a pancake made from whole ingredients you probably already have, that happens to fuel me through the morning and that my one year old will actually eat.
From years of making it, I perfected a generous single serving. Then it became the exact right amount for me and my baby.
If you want to feed a real crowd like, a true 2 to 4 person situation triple it. Otherwise, grab one bowl and a fork. We're not whisking eggs separately. We're not measuring vanilla with a steady hand. We're just making pancakes.
Method
Mash the bananas
Peel two ripe bananas into a bowl and mash them with a fork. Leave some chunks. This is a one bowl recipe, so the bowl you're looking at is the only bowl you'll need.
Add the eggs
Crack both eggs directly into the mashed banana. No separate whisking required. It won't matter here.
Add the vanilla
Add the vanilla directly to the bowl. No separate measuring production required. A steady hand is lovely, but this recipe is forgiving.
Add the dry ingredients
Toss in the cinnamon and the oat flour. If you don't have oat flour, make it. It's just oats that have been shown who's boss.
Add fresh or frozen blueberries
Lately, with recalls and what not, I keep organic frozen berries on hand more than fresh.
Cook like normal
Melt a little butter in a pan over medium heat. Spoon in the batter. Cook until the edges look set and the bubbles on top start to stay put, then flip. They'll be a little denser than box pancakes, which is exactly the point.
Top and done
Add sliced fruit if you want on the side. And that's it. Sit down. Eat them while they're still warm. These are filling, dense, and the kind of breakfast that prepares me for the day without making me count anything.
The syrup rule
For my son, I serve them as is or with a little yogurt on top. For mine, I use the tiniest amount of maple syrup. I do not pour straight from the bottle. That is a no. I pour the syrup into a spoon first, then drizzle from the spoon. This way I control the amount, and a slip of the wrist doesn't ruin my cooking. Trust me, I've ruined things at the worst possible times ever, especially when I'm in a rush.
The trick
The oat flour trick
I blend my own oats in a Beast blender, and I can't live without it. Throw oats in, pulse until flour, done.
A note on vanilla
Here's my hot take: a lot of people are using vanilla paste lately, and I loved it myself until I realized most brands, even organic ones, use gum to thicken. It's my preference to try to use whole ingredients without gums and fillers. Now, it's vanilla, and generally such a small amount, so does it matter? Probably not. Do I care about it because I'm a little crazy 80% of the time and I am recently post kidney transplant? Yes. With that said, it's not a big deal. Use what you have. Just wanted to point this out for you!
Notes from Nikki
- This recipe scales easily. For 2 to 4 people, triple the batter.
- These are not low calorie. They are whole, nutritious, and exactly what I want to eat.
- Every stack you see here is the same recipe, made on different mornings. Same batter, different day.