banana cinnamon chip pancakes with cinnamon crème anglaise

Best pancakes in America? Listen, we haven’t tried all of them (we intend to try all of them before we die), but the ones we love most are served up at The Bongo Room in Chicago. Karen and I tend to have semi-platonic relationships with certain restaurants in Chicago [the aforementioned Frontera Grill, a little hot dog place on Belmont named Murphy's, erwin’s in Lakeview (he is legend), and Anna Maria Pasteria to name a few].

But The Bongo Room stands out in our minds simply because we had to get there before they opened, trying to get in the first seating of the day. Weekend brunch there is event dining, and we spent so many Chicago-cold Saturday mornings waiting to get a seat inside where it was warm and where those pancakes were plentiful and smothered in love.

And when I say “smothered” I mean dripping. Warm, luscious toppings over every pancake. There’s no place for syrup here (they probably have some behind the fully-stocked bar somewhere), because those pancakes come covered in crème anglaise or berry reduction or compound sweetened nut butter (which is the silliest thing I’ve ever typed).  

Their latest menu has listed “Caramelized Apple & Toasted Walnut Flapjacks with warm praline cream & toasted walnut pieces” (I would hurt someone if I had to get to these) and "Banana Oreo Hotcakes: banana hotcakes with crushed oreo cookies, warm vanilla bean crème, chocolate crème anglaise & fresh bananas.” 

Sigh. Reading that menu just now made me want to book a flight to Chicago, even for a two-hour layover to eat pancakes.

When we went to Chicago in the fall to see our friend Ellen Lilly marry Alex (who we found out later owns the outstanding Franks ‘N’ Dawgs), we stopped for pancakes and ordered a single of every pancake on the menu. And a breakfast burrito. It was obscene. And it was perfect.

So in celebration of our devotion to The Bongo Room, Karen came up with her own spin on TBR-style pancakes. And they were perfect. 

May I present to you Banana Cinnamon Chip Pancakes with Cinnamon Crème Anglaise. This, my friends, is how to stay married for 14 years.

We’ve long searched for a great basic pancake recipe. We’ve tried a lot of the top-rated recipes online, but none of them really worked for us, at least in terms of TBR amazingness. You need a pancake that can stand up to the sauce. On a whim, Karen tried this one from allrecipes.com. Perfect. Crazy great batter. I don’t think we’ll ever try another recipe.

She added Hershey’s cinnamon chips to each pancake after pouring them on the griddle. How much? “Eyeball it. I don’t know. Just sprinkle them on there until you’re happy,” she just said. So, there you go. Sprinkle until happy. Add some sliced bananas in there.

For the crème anglaise, Karen made this recipe from Epicurious, but she divided the final product into two pans, and added more Hershey’s cinnamon chips to one batch. I asked her how many cinnamon chips she put in, and she just stared at me. Which means you should eyeball it and sprinkle them in and stir until you’re happy.

So, this is as close as we’re going to get to Chicago and The Bongo Room for a while. But it’ll do just fine. Perfectly, in fact.


Recipe | Banana Cinnamon Chip Pancakes (eyeball the cinnamon chips and the bananas)

Top with this recipe | Crème Anglaise (divide final product in two and eyeball the cinnamon chips until happy)