RECIPE: Oat Banana Pancakes with Cherry Compote

Or how I like to spend my Saturday mornings

Hello you lovely lot, today for paid subscribers I’ve got a recipe that has been in strong breakfast rotation in my house for the last few months. If you’re interested in recipes, food culture essays and tips from my 10+ years of working in wine, you can sign up to the whole of The Sauce for $5 a month or $50 a year:

I know. It’s not exactly revolutionary to say I like spending Saturday mornings cooking pancakes (although as a Brit it is a little less commonplace than our across-the-pond counterparts).

But as anyone who is lucky enough to have Saturday mornings off work and with enough time to potter in the kitchen should know, this is a luxurious part of the week. A juxtaposition to the harried weekday mornings of toast, cereal or coffee-only breakfasts.

After eight years of working every Saturday morning in my wine store and bar, I still marvel at the idea of indulging in little routines like making pancakes in my pyjamas on the weekend. This is not something I want to take for granted, which is why Saturday has become Pancake Day.

Specifically, oat and banana pancakes.

However much I love traditional American pancakes—and even more, I have a soft spot for British, crepe-style pancakes—this oat and banana version has taken over as the staple recipe in my house.

Call it a trying-to-be-healthy-as-much-as-possible thing. Call it an obsession with anything oaty. Or just call it what they are.

Really freaking delicious.

As for the cherry compote, it’s cherry season across Europe right now and my local grocers had piles of them winking at me.

As is my MO with seasonal fruit, I got over-excited and bought far too many. I’ll attempt to make jam with some of them although my jam making has a 50% success rate at best. I prefer to make compote, jam’s runnier cousin. Easier to make, less sweet, and whilst it doesn’t last as long as jam, it doesn’t need to.

Especially when oat banana pancakes are on the table.

Oat Banana Pancakes

Makes 6-8 small pancakes