Jamaican Banana Fritters Recipe

One of my favourite comfort foods is banana fritters. Growing up, I remember getting banana fritters a lot of times after school on my way home when I was really young. Now living in the United States, it is one of my go-to foods whenever I am feeling homesick. When I first left Jamaica and was in college, I would make it often. This was also my usual default option for any cultural event that desired Jamaican food. It’s easy to make, tastes good and I’m lazy xD

The main ingredient in banana fritters, as you can guess, is banana, which should be at least ripe but I prefer overripe. I usually store any banana that has gotten too ripe to eat in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. When I’m ready, I just grab the Ziploc from the freezer and do my thing. Banana fritters can be eaten at any meal and you can also control the sweetness by putting less or more sugar. I also love that the ingredients are common in pretty much any country I’ve lived in.

I made banana fritters when I was living in Italy and even brought some for the staff of my university programme in Hungary when I studied abroad there. It was in Hungary that I learnt the hard way that there are various types of flour – everything was in Hungarian and I was just looking for the word for flour – and ended up getting the wrong type. It didn’t ruin the fritters but it did have a weird texture. Fun times!

Enjoy this recipe and hopefully, you too can make some good memories involving banana fritters!

Ingredients:

• 6 bananas (ripe to overripe)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar (or granulated sugar or honey also work)
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• cinnamon (optional)
• nutmeg (optional)
• vegetable oil (for frying)

Steps:

1. Thaw bananas if previously-stored in freezer or peel bananas if not. Place into a large bowl. Smash them with a fork or hand masher until you get rid of all medium to large chunks and they start to get somewhat runny.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, salt, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg and combine until the mixture falls off a spoon in blobs. Add more flour if it is too thin.

   

3. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
4. Once the oil is HOT, drop spoonfuls of the mixture in at a time, aiming for the size mini pancakes.

   

5. Cook on each side until golden to medium-brown. (When the edges are firm and bubbles start to form on top, turn over and cook the opposite side.)
6. Once cooked on both sides, remove the fritters and drain onto paper towels. Serve warm.

   

Enjoy!