Caffeinated coffee pancakes with chocolate chips, chopped sandwich cookies and plenty of chocolate sauce.
Did you know that coffee was apparently discovered in the 9th Century by goat herders? The herders noticed that their goats appeared to ‘dance’ after eating coffee berries. Then a local monk made a drink from the caffeinated berries and stayed up all night (or so the story goes).
Those goat herders probably had no idea that, hundreds of years into the future, coffee would be a multi-billion dollar industry and the brew would be jazzed up with caramel, pumpkin spice, chocolate and/or whipped cream.
As for Coffee Cookies ‘n’ Cream Pancakes? Well, I bet the goat herders didn’t see that one coming.
Dancing goats and their herders aside, today’s breakfast – or dessert? – is all about coffee, chocolate, sandwich cookies and pancakes. Here we have some coffee pancakes studded with chocolate chips and chopped chocolate sandwich cookies, all topped with chocolate sauce and more chopped cookies.
So I suppose you could say these pancakes were on the ‘decadent’ side. That being said, the basic batter (i.e. without the chocolate chips and cookies) is made without butter or oil. Instead, there’s some Greek-style yogurt for moisture (and the protein doesn’t hurt).
And, because it’s me, there are some rolled oats in the batter too.
As you may have noticed, I used Oreo ‘thins’ in these pancakes, simply because I had a bunch of them in my pantry (another impulse buy). Regular Oreos or mini Oreos should be fine. Or, of course, use a brand of sandwich cookies other than Oreos.
It’s important to use cold or room-temperature coffee in this recipe. I used my new Dolce Gusto Stelia coffee machine (in case you missed it, here’s my review of the coffee machine) to make some cold coffee.
As promised in the last post, this is the first of several coffee-related recipes that I’ll be sharing over the next few weeks. Next up… muffins!
But first there’ll be a couple of non-coffee posts – there’s only so much caffeine one blog can handle!
- Pancakes
- 1 cup (130g) all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (10g) cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (50g) rolled oats
- 2 eggs, separated
- ½ cup (120g) Greek-style yogurt
- 2 tablespoons (25g) brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons (30mL) maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120mL) cold coffee
- ¼ cup (60mL) milk
- ⅓ cup (30g) chopped chocolate sandwich cookies
- ¼ cup (45g) chocolate chips
Chocolate Sauce- 1 tablespoon (15mL) milk
- ¼ cup (45g) chocolate chips
To Serve- Chocolate sandwich cookies
- For the pancakes: In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Add the salt and rolled oats, and mix well.
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with a fork. Whisk in the yogurt, brown sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Add the coffee and milk, and mix until well combined.
- Pour the dry ingredients (the flour mixture) into the wet ingredients (the coffee mixture). Mix until just combined.
- In another bowl, use electric beaters to whip the egg whites into firm peaks.
- Fold the egg whites, chopped chocolate sandwich cookies and chocolate chips into the batter. This is easiest if you fold in one tablespoon of egg whites first, and then add the remaining egg whites, cookies and chocolate chips.
- Preheat a skillet over medium-low heat. Grease with cooking oil spray, and then add around ¼ cup of batter for each pancake. If necessary, use the back of a spoon to gently shape the batter into circles.
- Cook the pancakes for about 3 – 4 minutes on one side, or until the edges are set and bubbles appear on the surface. Flip, and cook for 1 – 2 minutes on the other side. Adjust the stove heat as needed.
- For the sauce: Pour the milk into a microwave-safe bowl, and heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Add the chocolate chips and stir vigorously until the chocolate has melted.
- If the chocolate has not completely melted, microwave the bowl for 10 – 20 seconds on a low wattage, and stir well.
- Serve the pancakes with plenty of chocolate sauce, as well as some additional chocolate sandwich cookies.
For a thicker sauce, add more chocolate. For a thinner sauce, add more milk. The sauce will become thicker as it cools down.