Bananas about hazelnut pancakes, for New Year's breakfast

I hope everyone is having a wonderful final week of December!

I'm excited to have a new recipe up on the Anthology blog--this time, baked bananas and hazelnut pancakes for New Year's breakfast! Trust me, these aren't your average banana pancakes. Click on over for a full description and the recipe.

(Also, please be forewarned. While making these pancakes, I got this and this stuck in my head on endless loop.)

This year, I had an extremely quiet Christmas, but I did pack this recipe with a bunch of holiday cheer. For example, the cacao nibs on top of the pancakes are from these delicious cracked cacao beans that my friend (and sometimes-contributor to this blog) Andréa brought for me from a new Portland bean-to-bar chocolatier, Woodblock. (She also brought me some chocolate salt from the Meadow, which is kind of wild, and will probably show up sometime soon on the blog. :)) Oh, and you see that beautiful wooden bowl below with the hazelnuts in it? That's a hand-turned bowl from Scotland that my friend Lauren brought me when she visited in early December. (Apparently, she stalked my blog to see if I owned a wooden bowl yet--the unseen perks of having a food blog!) It's so beautiful and smooth that I sort of want to use it as a pillow.

This is my last week in LA, and then I'm finally headed home to the Bay Area. A quick trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota is on the books for early January. brrrrr (seriously, this California girl does not own cold weather gear). If you have any recommendations of awesome foodie places to see in the Twin Cities, please leave me comment below!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Read on for recipe...

Hazelnut pancakes

Serves 4

1 cup (4 oz.) whole hazelnuts

2 Tbspn sugar

1½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tspn baking powder

1 tspn salt

½ tspn Turkish coffee powder, optional

½ stick (¼ cup) butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tspn vanilla extract

½ tspn hazelnut extract, optional

roasted cacao beans or nibs, for garnish, optional

toasted hazelnuts, chopped for garnish, optional

baked bananas (see below)

meyer lemon yoghurt (see below)

To toast the hazelnuts, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, turning once halfway through. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Place the hazelnuts and sugar in a food processor. Pulse until finely ground. In a bowl, whisk to combine the ground hazelnuts, flour, baking powder, salt, and Turkish coffee powder (if using). Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together thoroughly the melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract, and hazelnut extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Do not overmix.

Butter lightly a medium hot skillet. Drop about 2 Tbspn of batter per pancake (for small pancakes) from a ladle into the skillet. Flip when each side has turned golden brown. Repeat as necessary for the batter.

Top the pancakes with roasted cacao nibs and toasted hazelnut, if using. Serve with baked bananas and a dollop of meyer lemon yoghurt.

Baked Bananas

6 bananas, or 12 mini bananas

1½ Tbspn fresh meyer lemon juice

1 Tbspn coconut oil (or butter), melted

¼ cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Split the bananas lengthwise, removing the peel. Place the bananas cut side up on a baking sheet with sides. Sprinkle evenly with the meyer lemon juice and then with the melted coconut oil. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly on top of the bananas. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until the sugar is bubbling and melted and the bananas are soft but still retain their structure. Remove from oven and let cool briefly. Serve while still hot. (The bananas can be re-warmed in the oven for a few minutes, if necessary.)

Meyer lemon yoghurt

1 cup Greek yoghurt

2-4 Tbspn whole milk

1 Tbspn meyer lemon zest

Stir together the yoghurt, milk, and meyer lemon zest. Serve with the pancakes and bananas.