I know you shouldn’t play favourites but breakfast is my fav meal of the day and these cinnamon oat and banana pancakes are a great way to start the day. I’m the sort of person that is always hungry so I will often eagerly get out of bed for the prospect of a good breakfast.

Pancakes are such a treat and these cinnamon oaty wonders are just that. Perfect for lazy autumn weekends in bed. The addition of mashed banana happily makes them sugar free too, so healthier than most. I tinkered around a few times with this recipe and although you can make them entirely out of oat flour (essentially blitzed up porridge oats) they were a little heavier so I decided on the 50/50 mix with plain flour.

These can be served with your choice of topping but I felt that plums were such a great autumnal pairing for this spiced pancake. Stewed apples of pears would be lovely too. There shouldn’t be rules at breakfast – too early for all that – have fun and do what you want.

Cinnamon oat and banana pancakes with spiced plums

Ingredients – Stewed plums

4 plums

1 tbsp light brown sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground ginger

Pinch salt

Zest of 2 clementine (or 1 orange)

Juice of 1 clementine 

Serves 4 (enough for the pancakes and a little extra too)

Ingredients – cinnamon oat and banana pancakes

50g porridge oats

50g self-rising flour

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

80ml milk

1 egg

1 ripe banana

Serves 2 people

Method

To make the spiced plums cut the plums into chunks (discarding the stones) and add them to a pan with the rest of the ingredients. Cook on a medium heat until the plums have softened. This will take 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to one side. (You can prepare the plums in advance and store in the fridge for up to a week).

To make the pancakes blitz the porridge oats in a food processor until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. It will never go really fine like regular flour.

Combine the oat and plain flour to a bowl and add the baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg and vanilla and mashed banana. Stir a bit to start making the batter.

Gradually add in the milk, whisking until you a smooth batter. Pour back into a jug so that you can portion out the pancake mixture more easily when frying.

Heat up the frying pan for 5 mins. Add some low-fat cooking spray and pour the batter into the pan. Approx 2 tbsp in each. (You don’t need to be precise here). Cook the pancakes on a low heat and flip when you see bubbles on the top on the pancake and it starts to look more cooked and drier around the edges. This should take 3 mins or so.

Flip the pancakes and then cook on the other side for another minute and then serve. (While you cook the rest of the batter you can keep the first pancakes warm in a low oven).

Serve the pancakes, spoon on the spiced plums and dust with a little icing sugar.

Tips

Instead of blitzing the oat flour when you need it (which can be too loud for the morning) you can do it the night before or better yet, blitz in large batches and This can also be done in advance, then measure out the amount you need for a particular recipe. Easy.

I often use brown bananas that I’ve stored in the freezer for this recipe. Defrost in the fridge over-night and then add.

On the look out for more pancake ideas? Try my Pumpkin spiced pancakes with orange maple syrup and toasted pecans. If you love cinnamon I’d completely recommend my Apple pie muffins, delicious.

Jamie Oliver has so many brilliant healthy breakfast ideas if you want more ideas.