Cocoa Pancakes

We serve these pancakes for breakfast every Valentines Day - even if it falls on a school day! They are very rich, but oh so delicious. The kids look forward to them all year! The original recipe from the Penzey's Spices catalog said to cook them in heart-shaped pancake molds, but pancake molds have never worked well for me. I just use cookie cutters. The "scraps" are just as delicious as the cut-outs.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 12 pancakes

Ingredients

• 3⁄4 cup flour
• 3  tablespoons cocoa powder (use the highest quality you can afford)
• 1  tablespoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 2  tablespoons sugar (could also use Vanilla Sugar)
• 1  egg
• 1  teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1  cup milk
• 2  tablespoons butter, melted
• 1⁄2 cup  mini chocolate chip
•  whipped cream or  powdered sugar, for topping

Directions

1. Preheat electric griddle to 350, or use favorite pancake pan.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, vanilla and milk. Pour in the melted butter.
4. Make a well in the flour and add the milk mixture gradually to form a batter (I prefer to do this by hand, but you can also use an electric mixer). Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto the griddle or pan. Flip when they bubble and seem "set." Cut into shapes or serve as is.
6. Dust with powdered sugar and top with whipped cream, if desired. Garnishing the plates and top of pancakes with raspberries also looks nice.