Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Pancakes recipe


Don’t you hate it when you go look in the pantry for something, only to find out you’re out of the product you are looking for? Having to run out to the supermarket, especially at breakfast time is a bummer, so if you are ever out of pancake mix, here's a recipe to make some delicious pancakes from scratch!


It's summer vacation time, take it slow, sleep in late if you can, and enjoy this morning treat.


 

Chocolate Chips Pancakes

 
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon of salt
4 Tablespoons of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups milk or buttermilk
2 Tablespoons melted butter or oil
⅔ cup chocolate chips
Maple syrup, to serve

Preparations: 
1. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add eggs, milk, and melted butter. Let stand for 5 minutes, then add chocolate chips.

2. Heat a griddle or nonstick skillet over medium heat and grease lightly with Pam spray or butter. For each pancake, place ⅓ cup of mixture in the pan and spread as much as possible.

3. Cook for 1-2 minutes until you see bubbles on the surface of the pancake. Turn and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from skillet and keep warm until serving. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.

4. Place 2 or 3 pancakes on each serving plate, served with maple syrup.
Yield: 8-10 pancakes.

 
Variations:
  • You may also add a peeled and shredded apple together with the chocolate chips or omit the chocolate chips and just add apple and cinnamon.
  • You could substitute the milk with buttermilk.


There will be circumstances and people that can bring out the worst in you, but you have the freedom to choose if you let out the best or the worst of you. That’s your decision.
by Mari Nuñez
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Divinity


Divinity Fudge is a traditional American, meringue type confection, made with granulated sugar, water, egg whites and corn syrup. There are many variations of this recipe, the one I share today also calls for nuts and vanilla as flavoring. I didn’t find a translation for it in spanish, so I named it suspiritos o merenguitos divinos. 


 No matter what variation you prepare, the result remains the same, a fluffy, air like candy with a crisp outer layer. It's recommended to prepare this recipe on sunny days as humidity prevents the candy from drying and alters its texture. What I hope doesn’t happen to you? After several days of extremely high temperatures and no rain, I thought this would a perfect dessert to prepare, since there is no need to turn on the oven, but as soon as I started preparing the syrup, clouds began to form. This is a photo of the cloudy sky above our home.






Divinity 
(Recipe adapted from Southern Living)

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups sugar
½ cup water
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
Garnish: pecan halves

1. Lightly grease a large sheet of wax paper or tray with butter; set aside.
2. Cook first 4 ingredients in a heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium heat about 15 minutes or until sugar thermometer registers 248˚F. Lower heat and begin to beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Pour half of hot syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating constantly at high speed, about 5 minutes.
3. Cook remaining half of syrup over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 272˚F. Slowly pour hot syrup and vanilla extract over egg white mixture, beating constantly at high speed for 6 to 8 minutes or until mixture holds its shape. Place machine in stir (low speed) and add 1 cup chopped pecans.
4. Drop mixture quickly by rounded teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased wax paper or tray. Garnish, if desired. Cool.


YIELD: 4 dozen (I got 34 candies).

Notes: 
a) The process used when beating egg whites is as important as cooking the ingredients to the proper temperature. Start with a clean bowl. Any greasy residue in the bowl can reduce the volume of beaten egg whites.
b) Having a partner isn't necessary, but in helps to complete the procedure quicker. Drop candy by teaspoonfuls quickly, dipping from the bottom of the bowl and using the back of a second spoon to push the mixture off the dipping spoon. The candy will start to harden on the bottom of the bowl first.



A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. ~ Proverbs 15:18

 
 Photos © Mari's Cakes
by Mari Nuñez
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How to Make Italian Meringue in Dark Colors

Whenever decorating a cake with Dominican frosting in red or with any dark color, you must keep in mind that too much coloring adds bitterness to the Italian meringue. What I do and also recommend is to make just simple and small decorations on the cake with the dark color,  this way you get what you want without sacrificing the taste.


Personally I don't like a lot of coloring added to frostings, but many people do like dark colors and at times need to match certain party decorations. The color red is constantly requested due to it's popularity in several holiday decorations. Many of my readers have asked me how too add a lot of coloring to the meringue without making it bitter or losing the strong consistency to be able to create borders, roses, rosettes or shells. I made it my task to find a way to achieve a dark color in meringue without the disadvantages mentioned.

In contrast to buttercream, with the meringue recipe it is difficult to achieve dark colors. Those of us who work this frosting know that no matter how much coloring we use, the outcome is always a pastel tone and the taste is not all the best. I have found a way to get a darker tone that works well for me and of course I'll be sharing it with all of you.

Note: The following process is my way of making red meringue frosting, it worked well for me, but it does not mean it's the only way to do this. As with all recipes and techniques, you should practice in advance first to see if you get what you want. You should not practice with the actual client product or family event cake.


I prepare the syrup to make meringue with just water and sugar. For this technique I removed two tablespoons of water and replaced it with coloring. Since I only needed enough to decorated the edges, I used the Italian meringue recipe halved found: HERE.

This process can be used with any color. The coloring I used to make this red: RED RED by Ateco Spectrum, Soft Gel Paste Food Coloring.

Steps:
 - In a small saucepan mix the sugar bowl with 2 tablespoons water and stir until sugar dissolves, then add 2 tablespoons of red food coloring and mix well.
- Cook following the normal process of making meringue.
- Towards the end of beating, you can add more drops of food coloring if you think necessary.


For the decoration, I decided on something simple, and I am sure you have seen these techniques around the web. I wanted to do something with the Wilton 1M tip and since the color is very intense, rather than covering the whole cake with roses, I just settled for large rosettes around the top edge. For the sides swirls I first traced them with a toothpick to use as a guide and then lined with colored meringue using Ateco tip # 2.





Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ~ Hebrews 11:1
by Mari Nuñez
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