Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I’ve decided that mini chocolate chips are pretty much the greatest invention since, um, regular chocolate chips. First of all, they’re a tiny version of something that’s usually large(r), which automatically makes them awesome in my book. My irrational love of tiny things aside, they’re just so darn useful when you want a bit of chocolate, but regular sized chips would add be intrusive or ill-fitting. For example, if I’d put regular ol’ chocolate chips in the raspberry-banana soft serve I made the other day, they would’ve been annoying to eat – y’know how chocolate chips harden in ice cream? Yeah, I hate that; I don’t like crunching while eating ice cream. The mini chips, however, aren’t big enough to necessitate crunching when frozen; you just bite into them, release their chocolaty goodness, and that’s it! Perfect.

Enough about ice cream, though. Mini chocolate chips have another place where they shine – pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes.

Like 99% of the food blogosphere, I’ve been putting pumpkin into everything lately. Cookies, coffee, cinnamon rolls, other things that begin with C… they all get pumpkin-ified. So when I was home sick yesterday and wanted to make myself pancakes for breakfast, it was pretty much a given that they’d include pumpkin. And when I realized that I could add mini chocolate chips, well, that’s when things got really crazy. Pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes? Oh yes. They happened. And the mini chips were perfect – they added just the right amount of melty chocolate without overwhelming the pancakes or making them seem too dessert-y. Not that dessert for breakfast is a bad thing, of course. ;)

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients
(makes 10 – 15 smallish pancakes)

1/2 C whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C non-dairy milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Heaping 1/2 C pureed pumpkin
2 T vegetable oil
Scant 2 T vegan cane sugar
1/4 C mini chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, add the vinegar to the non-dairy milk and whisk until it’s frothy. In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients except the sugar and mix well. Add remaining wet ingredients and sugar to the vinegar-milk mixture and whisk until it’s well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined – do not overmix! (Keep the chocolate chips aside for now.) If you have time, put the mixture in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before cooking.

Spray a nonstick pan with a bit of oil and heat on medium. Add batter to the pan in 1/4 cup measurements, or your measurement of choice, and drop a few chocolate chips on top of each pancake. If the batter is too thick, add a tablespoon or two of water to the bowl of batter and gently mix until it’s more liquidy. Cook pancakes until they start curling around the edges or bubbling in the middle and then flip. Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes and remove from pan. Continue until you’ve used all the batter.

Note: I like my pancakes on the slightly undercooked end of the spectrum. Cook your pancakes until they’ve reached your preferred level of doneness

Mini chocolate chips, y u so cute?!

These pancakes might not have cured what ailed me (I’ve still got a pesky sore throat), but they sure did brighten my day!

What’s your favorite application for mini chocolate chips?