Chocolate pancakes

Although I love eating out and generally enjoy everything I eat, there are some times when I sit through a slightly overpriced meal and think "Geez, I make do that!" (eventhough I proabbly couldn't). This was the case with the pancakes from Pancake on the Rocks except that I wasn't at their restaurant, rather I was looking at their website.

Pancake on the Rocks is one place which all teenagers go to at least once in their life (well that's the impression I get anyway). Since I've never been, and probably won't be going anytime in the near future, I thought I might as well read (and drool) about it.....

Whilst I find the menu quite interesting and I'd still love to try it some time in the future, I was didn't actually find that it all that special-I don't know what I was expecting but their pancake menu was well, just pancakes. One particular pancake which caught my attention was the "Devil's Delight" which I'd also read on many blogs. It looked amazing at first but then I realised that it was just two chocolate pancakes decorated with chocolate sauce, cream, chocolate ice cream and strawberries. So I thought "Geez, I could do that!"

I've never made chocolate pancakes before so I used my normal pancake recipe and added a enough cocoa powder that the mixture went a dark brown colour. I'd also read that the pancakes at Pancakes on the Rocks were light and fluffy so I whipped my eggs until they were frothy before adding them to the batter (and it worked!). The pancakes lookes ugly because the chocolate made them look burnt. But that was okay because i covered themwith chocolate sauce!For the chocolate sauce, I heated some ganache I had made before and added some milk to thin the sauce. I forgot how long it took for the ganache to thicken up so the sauce was still warm and runny when I served it. Because of my lack of creativity or plating skills, I plated it exactly as I'd seen it on other people's blogs. I went a little overboard with the sauce (oops) but other than that, it looked okay.

I made it for my sister, who doesn't really like pancakes anyway but still loved this. It was quite messy:

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Pancakes
Adapted from Better Home and Gardens Cookbook

1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teapsoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon cocoa (approx)

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Make a well in the centre of flour mixture and set aside.
2. Combine the egg, milk and oil. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until moistened and add more cocoa powder until dark brown. Leave for 5 minutes.
3. Pour batter into a hot, lightly greased griddle or skillet. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes one each side.
4. Serve with strawberries, chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce.
Makes about 8.

That was fun! =]