BROWNIE PANCAKES

Some foods are tremendously flexible. Bread is an obvious one. Pasta less so. I wrote before about cooking an entire package of pasta at a time even if not using it all immediately. The remainder I refrigerate. Many toppings work very well with it and not just tomato based toppings.

Pancakes are also a flexible food. Try cooking a sausage with the batter or separately. I prefer that to any hot dog bun. Mustard blends in with the whole much better than you might expect.

Here’s another invention from the kitchen of the Guest mansion. We had a box of pancake mix and a package of brownie mix sitting side by side on a shelf for weeks. What would happen, I wondered, if I combined them? I thought about it for days. What held me back? The fear of failure, as usual. But then early one morning, long before anyone was up, I went ahead and did it. It turned out great.

Here’s how I did it. I mixed the pancake batter (400G nearly a pound) according to the instructions on the package. I added two tablespoons of vegetable oil and one egg along with the brownie mix and blended it all.

Plop some down on a heated, oiled skillet.

Here’s the tricky part. Chocolate scorches relatively quickly. As soon as the bubbles get solid on the top, turn the pancake over. It will still be a little runny on top so use a firm stroke with the spatula and flip it. The other side will cook quickly.

It made a couple of dozen large, delicious, brownie pancakes. I served them with nothing but gobs of melted butter on top but I can imagine how strawberry syrup would work.

Not for everyday but, what the hell, you deserve a treat.