These “pancakes” aren’t really meant to be breakfast food, though I sometimes let the girls have a chocolate pancake day. They’re really more like little personal cakes sans frosting. They’re made just like pancakes though, so they’re very quick and easy. They’re perfect for those chocolate cravings and cost you very little in money and time.

This recipe makes about 2 dozen medium pancakes so you might halve it the first time you try it or if you don’t have 5 mouths to feed.

Get

Dry

• sugar — 1 CUP
• flour — 1 1/3 CUP
• unsweetened chocolate powder — 1/3 CUP
• baking powder — 1 TSP
• baking soda — 1/4 TSP
• salt — 1/4 TSP

Wet

• milk — 1 CUP
• eggs — 2
• vanilla — 1 TSP
• cooking oil — 2 TBSP

 

Make

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients into a medium bowl, preferably one with a pour spout if you have one.
2. Measure your milk into a large measuring cup first, then add the rest of the wet ingredients to it.
3. Wisk the wet stuff with a fork to blend it well.
4. Pour into the dry mix and stir it all up until there are no lumps in the batter.

 

The batter should be smooth and drip steadily off the spoon. If it drips too fast, it’s too thin — add flour. If it drops in clumps, it’s too thick — add milk.

Now pour the batter onto a pan or flat griddle. I couldn’t do this without mine.

 

If you’ve made regular pancakes before, you’ll do this just the same, just pour a circle about half the size of the pancake you want (it will expand!).

Now the difference here will be in the way these bubble up. With regular pancakes you’ll see real clear bubbles popping and the pancake gets a little brown. Well, these are already brown and they’re thicker, like cake, so they won’t look the same as pancakes.

 

Watch them just begin to bubble and they won’t be quite as shiny. Wiggle the spatula underneath one to flip it over and if it sticks, pull it back and wait a little longer. If you can get the spatula under the pancake okay, go on and flip it. It may take a few tries to get it right.

Pour, then it’s about 3 minutes, then flip, then 1 minute, then done.

Look

I make them so often I know the recipe by heart, but every so often I can go a month or so without making any (usually I run out of chocolate and forget to buy more). After that long I forget exact measurements, so rather than try to hang on to the old paper napkin I have the recipe scribbled on, I made a graphic to put up in the kitchen to remind me.

And now it’s yours. Hang it in your own kitchen and when you need a quick and yummy snack, it will be there for you.

DOWNLOAD