Brownie Pancakes and My Undying Love for Measuring Cups

I have a life-long obsession with waffles and pancakes and poffertjes. 

The only thing I ever wanted as a wedding gift was a waffle toaster but you can hardly find one for the home in Malaysia. Probably need to get one of those commercial griddles, or buy one online. Sigh... 

Since waffles and pancakes basically use the same batter, the latter is the only option when the craving kicks in at home.

Last night, while trolling on Pinterest (damn, it's addictive) I saw a link to Chocolate Covered Katie and  my oh my, there it sat, a sexy and chocolatey glistening pic of a stack of brownie batter pancakes. 

*drool* 

I already have a go-to pancake recipe so all I needed to do was use her recipe as an inspiration and this morning, whipped up my own batch.

ADIEPOT's BROWNIE PANCAKE

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt*

1 tbs sugar*

1 cup milk

1/4 cup plain yoghurt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 tbs melted butter

1/2 cup nutty muesli cereal*

Whisk all ingredients, except for the egg and muesli, for 2 minutes in a blender or food processor. You can always opt for the bowl-and-egg beater combo the traditional way, but I personally think it takes too much time to smoothen the lumps so why bother when technology is here to make life easier. Heh. 

(By the way, kitchen virgins, please do not use the same machine you've been using for savoury stuff. You gotta use the fruit blender for desserts cos you don't want no garlic-onion-scented chocolate pancakes here. Trust me, I made the same mistake with a smoothie back in primary school. Yuck.)

Scrape down any bit of flour that's sticking on the walls(?) of your blender jar. Dump the egg in and whisk for another minute. When this is done, take off the blender lid and smell the sinfully delicious aroma...

Ooooh....yum. Please don't gulp the batter down your throat even if your greatest vice is uncooked chocolate chip batter. There's salmonella in the egg for goodness sake!

.

.

.

.

Okay, carry on Nadia ('-_-)

Pour the batter into a bowl and add the nutty muesli.

Heat a non-stick flat pan with a tiny drop of butter or oil. Or none. 

Your choice, the fat's going to your behind and not mine.

You can use a medium size ladle for one piece of pancake. Decide on the thickness. Some like it thin, some like it thick and fluffy. For a real brownie-ish taste and texture, I say make it approximately 1cm thick.

Wait till bubbles pop on the surface and the whole thing darkens in colour. Flip it on the other side. It takes about 2 minutes to cook one pancake.
I think. 

Stack all your pancakes up in a cute plate and dust with icing (confectioners) sugar. A dollop of butter and honey drizzles complete your ensemble (and your fatty bum bum, but no one's complaining).

Butter and honey are not included because I saved these for my dad. Don't want 'em to go soggy.

I had the pancakes with a slight drizzle of honey only because of my gestational diabetes issue. I shouldn't even be having any form of sugar or fruits for breakfast, but I allow myself to indulge a little bit on weekends. 

Now let me explain on the * bit:

Use 1 tsp of salt if you're using unsalted butter.

Double or triple up the amount of sugar if you like your pancakes sweet. You can't even taste the sweetness if you follow my recipe, but it's not too bland either. I always prefer to make it up with honey. Honey also gives more 'body' and that sexy rich-in-your-mouth feeling.

I used Dorset Cereal fruits and nuts cereal, minus the dried dates and figs because of my GD.  The nuts and rolled oats really give these pancakes the taste and texture of real brownies.

I also used a ratio of 2:1 for flour and cocoa. This is because I love the bitter dark chocolate. Just use more flour if you prefer a milder chocolate flavour.

Some suggested variations from the top of my head include adding to the batter: 

1-2 tsb peanut butter

mashed up bananas

(or both of the above)

1/2-1 tsp instant coffee (mocha pancakes!)

raspberry/blueberry conserve (black forest pancakes!)

Oh, the possibilities are endless. Like, totally. 

What are you waiting for? Go surprise your other half with breakfast in bed already!