Hand Me That ChocolateFrenchSilkProteinBombPancake!

In the college world, Sundays are the day of rest and recuperation from Saturday nights. They are also the day of work aka when all the follies of the weekend come back to slap you in the face. Like that essay you forgot to write. Or the problem set you meant to do Friday night (yeah right).

PANCAKES ARE THE PERFECT BRIDGE BETWEEN THE TWO!!!

Especially when you take three hours out of your precious Sunday to make them.

And eat so many that you fall into a food coma and sleep for another three hours.

Pancakes are a productive power from NATURE PEOPLE!!! (In moderation, advises Mr. Hand Me That)

We originally set out to make the cake batter pancakes of How Sweet It Is fame as we've been meaning to do for approximately five and a half years.

We had the brilliant idea of making them healthy! Which in retrospect was dumb. Because they are cake. Not pumpernickel bread. So we added half whole-wheat flour, half AP.

Jessica of How Sweet recommends a taste test to determine if the flavor is satisfactory. We missed this note and made three or so pancakes before realizing our mistake. So then Ms. Hand Me That was all, "HAND ME THAT CAKE MIX." Mr. Hand Me That complied, and Ms. Hand Me That proceeded to dump in an approximate amount of cake mix. Half a cup? Who really knows.

Lil Hand Me That wandered in around this point, grabbed a pancake, and BIT IT! Her expression melted into a sea of confusion. "Is this healthy? Or unhealthy? WHO AM I? WHAT IS THIS? HMM. I CAN'T TELL IF I'M BEING HEALTHY OR NOT! WHAT IS GOING ON??"

This is how we figured out that we should not use whole wheat flour the next time we make these. Because apparently it is bewildering to the taste buds. And we <3 our taste buds.

So then more pancakes were made and Mr. Hand Me That (aka HMT) was all, "MAN PROTEIN YUM YUM PANCAKE" and dumped in his body weight of vanilla-flavored protein powder. Which made the pancakes taste like vanilla. (Surprise!) It also doubled the amount of pancake batter, which meant we had to add MOAR SPRINKLES.



Not only the rainbow sprinkles--which make plain jane pancakes into FUNFETTI PANCAKES!!--but also CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES. Because chocolate is the best.

We also added more sugar because you can never have too much sugar. Also the pancakes were not sweet enough. So HAH!

These magnificent protein pancakes are pictured below.

THEN WE MADE CHOCOLATEFRENCHSILKPROTEINBOMBPANCAKES.



I am just going to say that these were all Mr. HMT's idea. Again, these bombs of deliciousness were adapted from How Sweet's blog, but we made some HMT-style changes.

As poor college students without cars, we made do with skim milk cartons from the servery instead of the required lite coconut milk. Mr. HMT also read the recipe wrong and used regular granulated sugar in stead of powdered sugar. Lastly, instead of the two cups of whole wheat flour, we used 1.5 cups of flour and approximately half a cup of CHOCOLATE COCONUT CANDY BAR FLAVORED PROTEIN POWDER BY BSN!!!!!! (Insert sound of men grunting here.)

Though Ms. HMT was super skeptical of the protein powder, it actually added an interesting dimension of COCONUT TWANG.

Aka everyone who ate the pancakes would be all, "HEY HMTS. IS THERE COCONUT IN THIS?"

To which Mr. HMT would smugly reply, "HAH. IT'S PROTEIN POWDER."

At which Ms. HMT would roll her eyes. And proceed to eat another stack of pancakes.

Since we already had the super sugary glaze made by HMT mini for the cake batter pancakes, we decided to use it on the proteinbombs as well.



Which worked out well with the chocolate sprinkles. Although one tip for making glaze in the future: DRIP IN THE MILK. If you dump it in, you will end up with super sugary milk water. (No one wants that on their pancakes. Or their conscience.)

OH. Mr. HMT also added a veritable buttload of chocolate chips. (1 cup perhaps? A lot.) Enough so that each bite was "injected with chocolate syrup" according to Mr. HMT. Melty and delicious, they added both texture and extreme decadence. (Because really, these pancakes would be health foods minus the chocolate right?)

Cake Batter Pancakes

makes about 12 pancakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup yellow cake mix

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 cups milk (I used vanilla almond milk)

assorted sprinkles

Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. I suggest a small taste test as well to see if the pancakes are flavored enough.

Preheat a skillet on medium heat (I use an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more. Serve with vanilla glaze.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

Chocolate French Silk Pancakes

serves 3-4 (about 12 pancakes)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 heaping teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, well beaten

2 cups lite coconut milk + more if needed to smooth out batter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Stir together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add eggs, milk and vanilla. Stir until dry ingredients are combined and batter is smooth. Preheat a skillet on medium heat. Drop 1/4 cup of batter on skillet and cook until bubbles form. Flip and cook until lightly browned.