Do you see what’s going on here? That isn’t just any stack of pancakes. It’s a stack of double-decker pancakes. One side is chocolate chip, and one side is double chocolate (!!).
Go ahead, turn them over and laugh with delight. That’s what I did. But of course, I’m the kind of person who laughs at my food. Except when my mouth is full of pancakes, I guess.
I often think up ideas for new recipes as I’m falling asleep at night, and I came up with no less than five pancake recipes on motsei Yom Kippur. It wasn’t even like I’d been dreaming of pancakes during the fast, but once I started in that direction, the ideas just kept coming.
I’d never seen two kinds of pancakes cooked on top of each other, and I wondered how it would work. After all, pancake batter is a lot wetter than cookie batter or brownie batter, both of which I’d used in the past for double-decker creations.
But time out. I just skimmed through my double-decker cookies post, and it seems that I also laughed with delight over those. At least I’m consistent. (That’s not the same as being repetitive, right?)
Anyway, before you start to worry about these being too complicated, not worth the effort, etc. — seriously, they aren’t hard. Pancakes in general are pretty easy to master, and these really only require another smidgen of effort.
And for a special breakfast in the succah, I’d say a smidgen of effort isn’t bad. Especially because your kids are going to go crazy over them.
Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to try a double-decker treat without tons of sugar. Cookies, brownies, and blondies all need a fair amount of the white stuff. But between these two pancake batters, there’s a scant ¼ cup.
I’ll let you go now. Your succah’s waiting to see some double-deckers.
One year ago: Stuffed pita pockets
Double-decker pancakes
Yield: 15-20 double-decker pancakes with a 2½-inch diameter
To make pareve: Substitute soy milk for milk and canola oil for the browned butter (I’ll always vote for browned butter over oil, but they’ll still be good this way). Use cooking spray to grease the pan between batches.
Chocolate chip batter
Slightly adapted from Foodwishes.com
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 3 Tbsp butter, browned (see below)
- 1¼ cups milk
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
Directions
1. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
2. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, brown the butter, stirring often. Once it has completely melted, it will continue to break down and then froth up in bubbles. Next it will subside — and then within a few seconds, small brown bits will start appearing at the bottom of the pot. Turn off the heat and set aside.
3. Add milk, egg, and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Pour in brown butter and whisk until smooth. Add chocolate chips and stir to evenly distribute. Set aside while you prepare the chocolate batter.
Double chocolate batter
Tweaked from Norene’s Healthy Kitchen
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 2 Tbsp water
- 2 Tbsp butter, browned (see chocolate chip pancake directions)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Follow directions listed in the chocolate chip pancake batter to brown the butter.
2. Add milk, eggs, vanilla, and brown butter to the flour mixture. Whisk until smooth and add chocolate chips. (This batter will be considerably thinner than the chocolate chip one.)
Double-decker technique
1. Heat a 10-inch non-stick skillet and melt ½ Tbsp butter to lightly grease the bottom of the pan. Over low heat, drop two spoonfuls of white batter side by side, swirling the spoon to help create round pancakes. With a second spoon, drop two spoonfuls of brown batter next to the white ones, again swirling the spoon around a bit to create round shapes. Let the pancakes cook until small bubbles form on their surfaces (1-2 minutes).
2. Carefully slide a spatula under a white pancake and flip it directly on top of a brown one so that the cooked side of the white one faces upward. Repeat with the remaining pancakes in the pan. Let cook 2 minutes like that, then flip and cook an additional 2 minutes.
3. Repeat until all the batter is used up, greasing the pan between batches with ½ Tbsp butter each time. (You may have extra chocolate batter left at the end, but I’m sure you can find something to do with it.)
4. Cool briefly and serve with butter and maple syrup, or make your pancake experience a bit more breakfast-like by topping with fresh fruit.
