Week 12 - Hot Chocolate Pancakes

This weekend we picked out our Christmas tree.  It was a nice chilly night and usually, we grab a cup of hot chocolate to warm up.  But, we forgot this time, so I though I'd make up for it by making hot chocolate pancakes.
The turned out pretty good; whipping the egg whites until they're nice and white and frothy helps make the pancakes fluffy.  I sprinkled mini marshmallows on the batter once on the hot griddle.  I don't recommend mixing them in to the batter because they will likely just melt right in to the batter.  Although once you flip the pancakes, they melt into the batter then too.  But there are still a few pockets of marshmallow gooey-ness.  I used 2/3 cup of sugar in this recipe, but you could probably add more if you want it to be sweeter.
Once the pancakes were done, I topped them with homemade chocolate syrup (see recipe below) and more marshmallows.  Jó étvágyat!

Hot Chocolate Pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for the pan/griddle
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
Mini mashmallows
Chocolate syrup (recipe below)

Directions
1. Mix together the dry ingredients.
2. Whisk together the butter, buttermilk, and egg yolks.  Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until white and frothy.  Mix in to the buttermilk mixture.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix.
4. Preheat and pan or griddle over medium high heat and coat with butter.
5. Ladle pancake batter onto pan/griddle, top with mini marshmallows.  Cook for 2-3 minutes or until bubbles form around the edges.  Flip and cook for 2-3 more minutes, or until browned.

Looks like the top of a cup of hot chocolate!

You get funny little nooks and crannies in the pancakes as the marshmallows melt in to the batter.  Kinda neat.

6. Top with chocolate syrup and more mini marshmallows.

Chocolate Syrup
Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Combine sugar, water, cocoa powder, and salt in a saucepan and cook over low heat.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently until it starts to thicken.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.  Put it in to a condiment squeeze bottle.  Serve warm.  Refridgerate if not using until later.