Banana Fritters

Every week I get a bunch of green apple bananas in my CSA box and I wait and wait for them to ripen...and then bang!!!! They are all ripe at exactly the same time and I have a lot of bananas to use up in a day or two. It never fails. I eat as many as I can, but always end up with some left over. Since I needed something to use them up in and I also needed to make something from a fairly recent cookbook purchase, I ended up with Banana Fritters with Maple Syrup from Donna Hay: Simple Essentials: Fruit. I of course, had to buy all four of Donna Hay's Simple Essentials books (the others are Chicken, Salads & Vegetables and Chocolate) when they came out last month to add to my Donna Hay collection of books and magazines. Even though some of the recipes in Simple Essentials appear in her other books, there are new recipes and of course Donna is the queen of "Food Porn" so just looking at the pictures is a fantastic guilty pleasure. But I digress from the fritters which are easy and delicious.

Banana Fritters with Maple Syrup

2 cups (300 g/10 1/2 oz) plain (all purpose) flour

3 tsps baking powder

2/3 cup (125g/4oz) brown sugar

1 cup (250ml/8 fl oz) buttermilk

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

20g (3/4 oz) butter

2 bananas, extra, sliced lengthwise, to serve

toasted flaked coconut, to serve

1/2 cup (125ml/4 fl oz) maple syrup

Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, buttermilk, eggs and bananas in a large bowl and mix to combine. Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the butter and pour 1/3 cups (80ml/2 1/2 fl oz) of the mixture into the pan and cook, in batches, until bubbles appear on the surface. Turn the fritters and cook for 1 minute or until golden. Repeat with remaining mixture. Serve in stacks layered with the extra banana and topped with the coconut and maple syrup. Serves 4.

Notes: You can easily cut this recipe down to make a smaller amount as it makes a generous amount for 4. I found 2 fritters to be more than sufficient for a serving when you stack them with the bananas. I also threw some chopped toasted macadamia nuts on top with the coconut, which added a nice crunch. If you can get coconut syrup, it is also yummy drizzled on in lieu of, or combined with the maple syrup.