Chocolate Pancakes

Today is the first Saturday of my post-undergrad career, made all the better by beautiful sunshine, Tegan and Sara blasting in the kitchen, and these very chocolatey pancakes. I thought that walking out of my last exam yesterday would bring the crashing reality that was I officially finished with my undergrad career and that graduation was only two weeks away, but it was in fact making these pancakes at noon (yes, I eat pancakes for lunch sometimes...) that brought that reality to me. I realized that, for now until my graduate courses start, this was an actual, real-deal lazy Saturday afternoon. I don't have paper deadlines to worry about. I don't have to prepare any presentations. I don't have read three chapters by Monday morning. I am simply free to make pancakes and eat them while contemplating important things such as when Netflix will finally upload Season 3 of the Walking Dead. These are important questions to ask, after all.

I was particularly craving chocolate pancakes, and I was blown away by how good the chocolate flavor in this recipe. I tweaked the recipe a bit from the one found on the blog Go Bold With Butter by adding more whole wheat flour and a couple pinches of nutmeg, but I didn't touch the amount of chocolate because that was the most important part. Use the darkest cocoa powder you can find, such as Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder! The darker the chocolate, the richer and better the chocolate flavor in your baked goods. When these are done cooking, slather them in butter and Grade-B maple syrup (slightly thicker and darker than Grade-A), and devour them. 

Today will definitely be a Saturday well-spent. Happy eating! 

 Chocolate Pancakes
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1 /4 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine (a few lumps are fine). Heat a non-stick skillet or griddle to medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Ladle 1/4 cup amounts of batter onto the griddle and cook until bubbles form on top and the edges appear dry, then flip and cook for another 20-30 seconds. Cook all of the pancakes and serve with butter and Grade-B maple syrup. 

If you want to keep your pancakes warm while cooking the rest, heat the oven to 180-200 degrees and keep the pancakes there until all of them are cooked.