Vegan Apricot-Banana Pancakes

When James and I were in the beginning stages of our relationship and I was spending more and more time cooking in his kitchen, I brought over 3 recipes on index cards. One was for rolled biscuits, one for cobbler, and the last was for banana pancakes. The banana pancakes were always a hit, in fact James loves anything with bananas in it - bread, cake, pancakes, muffins, ice cream... One snow day a couple years back, one of James' coworkers stopped by and I fed him some pancakes. He still raves about them to this day!

These actually took the vegan translation pretty well. I used Ener-G Egg Replacer, soy milk and Earth Balance vegan spread in place of eggs, milk and butter. Today for the first time ever, I chopped up some dried apricots and tossed those in the batter as well. Since James wont use syrup, jam or honey (no sugar) these are more than sweet enough to eat plain with a little vegan spread. (There is a tad amount of Xylitol added to sweeten the batter. Xylitol is a birch derived sugar substitute recommended by James' naturopath, Dr. Sodhi. It doesn't raise blood sugar and aids in digestion. I've found it more than acceptable to bake with, though only in moderation. Dr. Sodhi warns that it could lead to the runs!)

Verdict: Awesome pancakes, as usual. The apricots added an interesting tang, next time I'll use more or change it up a bit with other fruits. I may have used a bit too much melted spread in the batter, but that just left the cakes crispier on the outside and smoother in the middle. Still plenty tasty!