A tropical vacation...in your mouth.

I made these Coconut Mango Pancakes the other day, and I am in love. I would happily eat these every weekend. The recipe originally came from this website, and I hope the author doesn't mind me reprinting it here. The recipe came from the blog, "A Little Yumminess," which is a great food blog. Definitely not all vegetarian, but really fun to read, and very family oriented.

So I added a few little tweaks to the original recipe (noted with asterisks**), but it really is a fantastic recipe as originally written also.

Coconut Mango Pancakes

1 cup coconut milk

1.5 cups mango puree; You can get this at: 1) Indian grocery store, 2) International aisle of local supermarket, or 3) blend chopped ripe mangos in your blender or food processor

2 whole eggs (You can use Ener-G Egg Replacer or another egg substitute here too to veganize the recipe)**

1.5 cups white/all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

A neutral oil or Earth Balance for cooking the pancakes**

Beat (or prepare) the eggs, then whisk in the coconut milk, mango puree, and vanilla until a smooth mixture is formed. Carefully whisk in the flour and baking powder a little at a time, just until mixed. Do not overbeat.

Melt your Earth Balance or place your oil in a skillet or saucepan over medium heat. I like to use a ladle to transfer about 1 pancake's worth of batter into the pan at a time. You can also use the back of the ladle to thin out the pancake batter in the pan, so you don't have an overly thick pancake that doesn't cook in the middle. When the pancake starts to look dry/stable in the middle, flip the pancake over and cook the other side. It is better to err on the low temperature side when cooking pancakes. They may take longer to cook, but at least you won't burn them.

Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, nuts, etc or with the syrup below.

**Also, I have tried freezing these pancakes, to very satisfactory results. If you cook all of your pancakes the day you make your batter, you can allow them to cool, and then store them in your freezer with wax paper in between each pancake layer. Then you should be good to go on a morning that you don't feel like cooking, but want to eat well just the same. You can either reheat the pancakes in the microwave, or on a fairly low temperature in a skillet (or in the oven) if you wish. I would consider making the below syrup from scratch to serve with them though. It's really fast, very easy to make, and I think it kicks things up a notch.

Coconut syrup**

I once had some amazing coconut/macadamia/tropical fruit french toast while on a family vacation, and what made the meal extraordinary was the coconut syrup. This is my imitation of that ultradelicious condiment.

1 Tbsp-1oz of agave syrup

3-4 tsp of the coconut milk leftover from making the pancakes; I had some leftover in the can that I wasn't sure what to do with, and this seemed a good choice...

Mix the ingredients simply with a spoon. The above will make about enough for one serving. Please multiply depending on your number of diners

I would also recommend melting some additional Earth Balance over the top of the pancakes as shown. The extra butteriness is delightful. I also crushed up a few walnuts to add over the top of the pancakes for crunch. Just about any toasted or untoasted nut would be excellent here if you don't like or can't eat walnuts. I would imagine roasted pecans would be amazing. Or macadamia nuts to keep with the tropical theme of course.

Anyway, please enjoy and happy eating!