Vegan banana eggnog pancakes are a sweet and simple way to enjoy comforting holiday flavours. Served with an indulgent nutmeg cashew cream, this breakfast treat will make you so happy. The pancake recipe is from Isa Chandra’s Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook.
Let the holiday shuffle begin! I noticed that the non-dairy, non-denominational holiday nog display at the grocery store was looking particularly robust a couple weeks ago and said to myself: “It’s time!” (The giant tower of pannetone at the entrance was also a decent tip-off) I like making my own, but I also enjoy having some nog on hand for whizzing up into my morning superfood coffee situation, so sometimes store-bought hits me just right. I’m in the thick of a couple large projects right now, so from-scratch nog will have to wait anyway. Can’t wait to share all of this up-and-coming stuff with you all! In the meantime, there’s pancakes.
Even if you only eat plant-based/vegan sometimes, I’m sure that you know Isa Chandra Moskowitz. On the subject of vegan cooking, all of her books are authoritative, thorough, and so much fun. When I get stuck on a recipe, or something just doesn’t seem to be working, or I’m giving up entirely and just need something good for dinner, I turn to her books. My copy of Veganomicon is completely tattered, marked up, and stained. It was the first vegan cookbook that I bought and cooked from. Isa Does It is a way of life for me, and has never left my kitchen cookbook rotation. You might guess that I’ve been anticipating her latest book, The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook, for a long time.
First of all, the book is huge. There’s that immediate vibe of great value when you feel the weight of it. The photography is sharp, bright, super clean, and just so appetizing. I immediately turned to the harvest-y/festive chapters on Thanksgiving and winter holiday foods when I got it. There are great recipes for classics like stuffing, mashed potatoes, Christmas cookies, and even a vegan “roast.” But there’s so much good stuff in this book that you could just make because you feel like it. Some of the things I’m excited to try: roasted beet borscht with cashew sour cream, the all natural shamrock shakes, cauliflower tikka masala, chipotle mac and cheese, and the eggplant chimichurri kebabs for when grilling season comes around again.
I like these eggnog pancakes because they’re a very casual way to get festive. Like, you’ve just hauled up the holiday decorations from the basement and you’re not exactly in the mood to hang everything up/douse yourself in sparkles. So you just make pancakes and listen to Loretta Lynn instead (guess what we did last weekend!). There’s that subtle eggnog flavour that comes out even more with an extra sprinkle of nutmeg and maple syrup.
I made my eggnog pancakes a little more fancy with pomegranate and lightly thinned out cashew cream, too. Keeping cashew cream on hand at all times is one of my things now! These are the perfect weekend treat to usher in the season.
Banana Eggnog Pancakes
Ingredients
Pancakes
- 2 very ripe medium bananas
- 1¼ cups plant-based eggnog
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil, plus extra for cooking
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup light spelt flour (or all purpose/light whole wheat)
- 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg, plus extra for serving
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For Serving
- banana slices
- dried cranberries
- pomegranate arils
- maple syrup
- cashew cream
Notes
- I made a couple minor pantry substitutions with this recipe because pancakes tend to be flexible. I used light spelt instead of all purpose flour and melted coconut oil instead of canola.
- There are a ton of vegan eggnogs on the market, and if you’re using them in a recipe like this, you don’t have to be super picky. I chose one with the lowest amount of sugar, but you could also make your own with this recipe that I contributed to The Chalkboard a few years ago.
- Last thing: I served these with a lightly thinned-out cashew cream that was flecked with nutmeg and vanilla. It was decadent and awesome. The basic formula for cashew cream is 1 cup of soaked and drained raw cashews blended with 1/2 cup filtered water until totally smooth. From here, you can add maple syrup, spices etc. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mash the bananas until they are almost pureed. Add the eggnog, oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Set aside. Preheat the oven to a warming setting, and set a parchment-lined baking sheet on the top rack.
- In another large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the banana mixture. Use a fork to gently mix everything together until you have a lumpy batter. This should take about a minute. Don’t mix until smooth! Lumps are totally fine as long as all ingredients are well-incorporated and there aren’t any dry flour spots. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
- Preheat a large nonstick pan (Isa recommends cast iron) over medium-low heat. Using a brush, lightly coat the pan with coconut oil. Drop pancake batter into the pan by the 1/3 cup. Cook pancakes until puffy and holes are poking through, about 4 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until the other side is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer cooked pancakes to the baking sheet in the oven. Re-grease the pan and keep making pancakes until the batter runs out.
I love eggnog and last year I discovered the greatness of vegan eggnog! Paired with pancakes and bananas?! I need to make these for Christmas day brunch. I love making snickerdoodles almost every Christmas, all plump, round and sparkling with cinnamon sugar. Delicious!
Thank you for doing this giveaway! There are so many treats I love making during the holidays but my favorite is homemade hot chocolate topped with coconut whipped cream and Christmas sprinkles shared with my son.
I’m always itching to make sweet potato muffins during the holiday with a fat cup o’ tea by the fire. And doesn’t everyone go ham over root vegetable soups? So much to look forward to on the food front!
I love making a big pot of mulled wine to enjoy while making massive gingerbread houses (something we have been doing in my family for about 12 years now)!
My favorite holiday dish is pecan-crusted tempeh – I only make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas but wait for it eagerly all year. I serve it with mashed potatoes, roasted veggies and mushroom gravy. MMMMMM… and now I’m hungry for it again! Thanks for a beautiful blog and always amazing recipes! Happy holidays!
These looks great! I always love a Christmas breakfasts!
My favourite holiday recipe is the caramelized onion – butternut squash roast from veganomicon. It calls for chestnuts but I usually use pecans because it’s easier, and I put savoury in the breadcrumbs to remind me of Newfoundland-style dressing. All the meat eaters in my family love it as a side so I have to make 2!
My favourite thing to cook around the holidays are big, comfy vegetable soups and stews. They make the house smell so rustic and homey! That said, I always look forward to making gingerbread loaf on Christmas Eve with my sisters and mom- it’s a family tradition – and using it for super decadent french toast Christmas morning!
Love this time of year and the food that comes with it! There are 2 dishes I like to make, one will be familiar to you- The mushroom gravy and sweet potato almond biscuits you posted way back when….circa 2012/13 possibly. The second is a dish from The Wholesome Kitchen, Baked inside-out stuffing with wild rice, pine nuts, and raisins. xx
ahhhh those pancakes look amazing! i always do a cookie swap with my mom, sister, aunt, and a few friends, so i look forward to baking cookies and seeing what creations everyone else comes up with! Bonus: everyone is starting to make vegan batches! Isa’s books are always close at hand!
I love making holiday biscotti to give to friends and family this time of year. I typically make a version via Epicurious with pistachio and cranberry. I also really look forward to getting creative with leftovers and repurposing them into a completely different dish. Warm grain salads are also high on the list with all the rich and processed foods at potlucks, gatherings, and other dinners!
These look so lovely with the cashew cream! I have some almond breeze vanilla chai eggnog I’m going to use to whip them up this weekend. My favorite thing to make is gingerbread! I just love the spiced, sweet molasses flavor whether it be in banana bread, pancakes, or chewy cookies. It reminds me of my childhood :)
OHh !! Christmas !! And Isa Chandra ! Sounds like a gift to me, haha… So. What is it that I look forward to cook when the snow covers the ground, the days are shorter, Loreena McKennit plays in the background while I’m saying to myself that it’s time to put up the christmas tree ? A vegan cipaille !!! Yes ! This traditional dish from Quebec (usually made with different kind of meats and vegetables) is made of layers : vegetables / small cubes of dough / vegetables / dough, etc., covered with vegetable broth, and slowly slowly cooked in a cast-iron casserole, in the oven. Hhhmmm… my vegan version is out of this world !! Kids love it, grand-parents love it… how wonderful is that ?
That sounds incredible! So excited to do a little research on this dish now. Thanks so much <3
-L
You’re so welcome, Laura !! Isa :)
What could be better than an entire cookbook devoted to the coziness/festiveness of the winter/holiday season?!
I really love Moosewood’s Navajo Stew recipe and an apple, caramelized onion, and thyme cornbread that my husband and I started making for the holidays a few years back!
I love making banana bread around the holidays, especially with chocolate chips!
The two dishes my nieces & nephews always insist I make for the holidays are vegan pogos and chocolate tofu pie. I’m a big fan of Isa and you too now:)
Go to dishes include spiced carrot soup, risottos, and apple ciders!
First off, Isa Chandra’s “The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook” is literally my dream come true. If there’s one thing I love, it’s going all-out cooking a feast for the holidays. Even on the smaller ones (like St. Patrick’s Day and the 4th of July), you can find me trying to vegan-ize my favorite holiday dishes.
When it comes to Christmas, I have to say a go-to for me is my great grandmother’s ambrosia. It’s a recipe that’s been in our family for generations and is traditionally vegan, plus it’s delicious and easy to make too! I also love baking, so gingerbread and sugar cookies are constantly kept in rotation. We also have a Christmas tradition where we make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, so I’m looking forward to making some vegan ones this year!
There’s just so much delicious vegan food around the holidays. I find it hard picking one favorite! I hope you have a happy holidays!
Hi Laura! I can’t wait to try this!
My favorite holiday recipe is big on nostalgia for me: Christmas trees! Essentially rice crispy treats but using cheerios dyed green with sprinkles as “lights”. The cookies are shaped into cones which somewhat resemble trees. I’m sure there is a vegan version :) thank you for this giveaway! I hope I win, and the cookbook I’m most looking forward to is yours!!!
Ohh Cleo is eyeing those pancakes like ‘ girlll you better give me some!’ :) I’m SO looking forward to making my vegan cheeseball and cookies, allll the cookies! xo
Is that vegan cheeseball recipe on your site?!?! Please say yes.
xo L
I make our family’s special potato rolls from scratch for the holidays. The recipe takes all day so they don’t get made often. I learned from my grandmother and she passed away this summer. This Christmas will be the first year I’m making them without her. This recipe looks lovely and I’m excited to give it a try, love Isa Does It too:)
I missed all the classic holiday dishes my family usually makes last holiday season when I went vegan. But this Thanksgiving I made grandmas stuffing vegan! It tasted no different from the original recipe and it’s definitely going to be a staple here on out!
Those pancakes look really good! As the only plant-based eater in my family I am always asked to bring salads. My favorite trio is composed of (1) a wild rice salad with dried fruits and nuts, (2) a Brussels sprouts and kale slaw, and (3) the Barley and Pomegranate Salad from Ottolenghi’s Plenty.
I love making Puerto Rican pasteles, like tamales but using tubers as the masa. They are labor intensive but freeze well.
Chely C.
pepitajobo [at] icloud [dot] com
Soups galore, of course, but I also. Like to include roasted squash in salads an other dishes (maybe sprinkled with pomegranate seeds to jazz it up.)
I’m COMPLETELY obsessed with all roasted squash. And now that it’s finally “in season” (although I eat it year round) I basically go nuts.
Just made a squash, sweet potato, lentil dish that was so yummy.
The big fluffy pancakes in Isa Does It are on regular rotation in our house. Usually for Friday night dinner. Can’t wait to try this version!
Teddie’s Apple Cake, but I always jazz it up with additions of pear, cranberry, white chocolate, and/or bourbon. It’s a delicious and fool-proof recipe!
Each year I look forward to making a fresh fruit tart for my family’s Christmas Eve party! I also love to make homemade spinach squares with my mom. It’s our tradition and I love to cook with her because she has taught me all that I know about food
Oliebollen!!
They are a traditional Dutch food made around Christmas and new years! Essentially a small yeasted fritter, often with apples or raisins. Fresh, hot, and sprinkled with icing sugar!
NOT healthy, but an amazing treat!
Loving the look of these pancakes!
That sounds sooooo good!
xo L
I agree 100% about Veganomicon! It THE book that I turn to when I’m like “how should I cook this veggie?” Such a good resource.
As for holiday baking, I’d say Apple pie. Or Pumpkin pie. Definitively some sort of pie makes me very happy to make and eat. The pumpkin pie squares that the Minimalist baker posted last week might be a new favourite!
For savories, I love something warm and stew-y, like squash/sweet potato and lentil curries or a good vegan shakshuka (silken tofu makes a great egg replacer!). WIth bread, always crusty bread on the side. For sweets, oof, how do you pick one?? Pies are ubiquitous for the holidays, but I prefer the old standby of cookies: always a familiar process but so easy to switch up and experiment with seasonal flavors. Lately have been loving miso-chocolate chunk and anything with candied ginger!
Butter tarts! (Woo Canada!)
I’m always so happy when I see a new First Mess post in my Inbox!!
I try to lean vegan as much as possible, but I have to admit that my Holiday traditions definitely do not fit in the vegan column, so this cookbook would be a great way for me to start venturing away from the Shortbread (lots of butter), Rum Pudding (loaded with milk and eggs), Cinnamon Scones (butter and cream), etc. I do make a divine plum pudding that is vegan, and sweetened with molasses … but it’s served with a hard sauce that’s basically … you guessed it … butter and cream and sugar. I’m thinking I need to experiment with a vanilla cashew cream!!
I must confess I just recently discovered Isa and her books…but oh! I’m so in love with them and I just can’t wait for her new book to come out. Hers + Amy Chaplin’s cookbook are always by my hand.
As Christmas is all about baking, my favorite recipe and the one I’m so excited to make are cookies. In particular, chocolate + orange glazed (basically chocolate chip cookies with an orange twist). I know this doesn’t seems particularly at all, but it’s a recipe from my mother’s german best friend that my mum used to bake for me every year (and I were able to eat the whole batch in just 24 hours). Of course, they were not vegan at all, but I can proudly say that I veganized (and de-sugarized) them and they taste exactly like the original ones. I think this is the only recipe that I’ve always made through all my Christmases and is the one I care the most. Another thing I’m really excited to try to make is a vegan + spelt based Panettone with my sourdough starter because, you know, here in Italy we eat tons of Panettone ;-)
My favorite Holiday recipe is gingerbread cookies ! They remind me of so many childhood memories & the smell they leave in the house is just so festive :)
I am so in love with Isa’s new cookbook. It is dazzling, amazing, and intoxicating! Thank you for featuring this recipe from it and capturing it so beautifully.
My fav thing to cook this time of year (closer to the New Year) is Kutya — a Ukrainian dish that has poppyseeds, wheat berries, & honey (or maple syrup). A traditional dish I grew up eating at my Baba’s house, one that now enjoy cooking and sharing w/ family and friends.
Beautiful photographs! As always.
It’s so hard to pick a favourite, but I have to go with latkes!
Holidays are ALL about the cooking!! I usually join my mom starting in OCTOBER cooking all of the Christmas cookies which she gives out to her coworkers, family, people she randomly finds on the street…etc. Favorites include PB chocolate kiss cookies, half-dipped chocolate chip, carrot cake cookies, and homemade sandwich cookies! I also have tried to include Polish thumbprint cookies to the mix, since they are easy to veganize and you can pick whatever jam you like to go in the thumbprint (I like blackberry jam, but apple jam is more Polish feeling to me lol). I have also started to make pierogi more often on the holidays for my friends and coworkers. They’re easy to make but they’re delicious and special–everyone likes them!
Pancakes are my go-to on Sunday mornings after a long time reading in bed with coffee by my side – a tradition my husband and I try to stick by most Sundays.
In regards to favourite holiday recipes it’s hard to name just one. In general I’ve always loved Christmas mornings at my Dad’s and we always choose a different recipe each year, from ‘eggs’ benedict, tofu scramble, and Dad is always in charge of homefries. Did I mention there is always baileys/coffee? (vegan and non-) And baking with Mom is a yearly tradition where we incorporate my Grandmother’s handed down recipes for Hello Dollies and Nanaimo bars. The Holidays for us means tradition and cozy meals in snowy Ontario.
THE holiday indicator is COOKIES! The joy of making them and listening to holiday music. The joy of sharing them with others. The joy of enjoying one, or many, yourself. The joy of the season.
My favorite thing to cook for my family during the holidays is stuffing and gravy. I know it’s something I could make year round, but it just wouldn’t taste the same!
Favorite recipe lemon cookies always during Christmas holiday season and chocolate pumpkin ice cream.
Ah I love Isa! This looks so delicious. I most look forward to cookie baking day with my mom and sister over the holidays. We gather 4-5 recipes and get baking. It is SO much fun. our favorites are peanut butter blossoms, choc chip, sugar cookies, lemon cookies, and hot chocolate cookies. We hand them out and/or go to a cookie exchange. Happy holidays to you!
Ooooh! So much fun :)
I’ve actually been eyeing cup Isa’s books lately and they all look absolutely amazing and appear to have incredibly creative and tasty recipes.
Anyway, considering you didn’t mention who this giveaway is open to, I realize there is a great chance that it’s only for US residents, BUT should it -to my luck- not be, for once (that is, should it be open internationally), I guess this would be my entry.
Personally, I honestly don’t have any favorite Christmas dishes to be frank, however, if I had to choose one food that I’m most excited about this season, it would probably have to be cinnamon rolls. Now, I know that’s a little lame, considering that cinnamon rolls are technically, or can be, an all-year-round things, but what shall I do? It is the way it is :P
Stuffing is my favorite recipe of the holiday season! I make my own cornbread stuffing in a cast iron skillet, then I toast it into chinky bread cubes. I sautéed lots of onions, celery and mushrooms, mix with fresh thyme and steamed chestnuts, and put all of the ingredients into a big soufflé pan to bake until golden brown and crispy. It’s decadently delicious!
Cookies! there’s nothing I’d really miss about holiday food…except the cookies. Isa always seems to get her cookie recipes just right too. My mom, who’s not vegan, says Isa’s recipe for snicker doodles is her favorite! And these pancakes look undeniable!
These look absolutely fantastic! I’ve taken over the task of making cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning from my mom, because I want to make them from scratch (read: healthier). This year I’m needing a recipe from The Roasted Root to make cranberry scones with chai glaze as well (drool)! I rarely bake, but the holidays just bring it out in me.
This recipe is so much fun. Love the little eggnog twist. Have you ever done vegan eggnog yourself? Veganomicon was my first vegan cook book too. At that time I couldn’t find any German ones and now the market is flooded (which I love) :) x Kati
My favourite is mashed potatoes and gravy. And, yup, I turn to Isa for a recipe on that.