Chocolate chocolate-chip pancakes

Yes, sometimes breakfast gets a little extra indulgent and borders on dessert.  I can think of no better excuse (though who needs one) to indulge than Valentine's Day so the weekend beforehand, we did just that as I served up these chocolate pancakes for breakfast.  

These chocolate pancakes are made with buttermilk - tender, fluffy, and light, chock full of chocolate flavor from cocoa powder as well as mini chocolate chips that I folded into the batter.  I substituted some of the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour and I think these pancakes can really handle it.  In fact, I think chocolate and whole wheat flour work really well together in general, often giving the finished product a subtle nutty flavor and texture.  

It's a little like eating a light and fluffy chocolate cake.  Think of it as an alternative to chocolate muffins.  I'd like to think I showed some restraint in not topping the pancakes with chocolate sauce like you often see.  As tempting as that may be, some berries and a few extra sprinkles of mini chocolate chips does the trick.

Looking at these pancakes is helping me deal with Valentine's Day withdrawals.  I hope you had a lovely one, filled with love and plenty of chocolate!  Lucky for me, there's Chinese New Year to continue the celebrations and the feasting on sweets.  I can't complain at all!

Valentine "Kisses"

It's almost Valentine's Day!  I love this little holiday because I adore all the hearts, the pink & red, the treats, the chocolate, and symbols of love.  We can all use more expressions of love and we can all appreciate a little sweet treat!  

I've been in the Valentine spirit and trying to spread a little of it through food.  These cookies are an example of that.  I'm calling them "Valentine Kisses" - essentially, they're soft chocolate cookies with a Hershey's Kiss on top.  I first saw this recipe as rainbow kiss cookies from Sally of Sally's Baking Addiction; I spotted them around Christmas and the colorful nonpareil sprinkles caught my eye and I haven't stopped thinking about them.  

Since I didn't get a chance to make them over Christmas, I thought I'd make them as a Valentine treat, and simply swapped the rainbow nonpareil sprinkles with pink-and-white ones.  You can easily customize these cookies for any holiday/occasion.  Sprinkles are versatile and always, always smile-inducing!  These cookies are not only fun to look at but really tasty.  They are soft and a little fudgy inside, packed with plenty of deep chocolate flavor.  The little chocolate Kiss on top makes the cookies what they are (and they are so cute to look at) but they're frankly equally good without it.  You'd just have to rename them from "kisses" to "bon bons" or something.

I could not resist making them in their original rainbow version as well.  They really make me smile!

Whatever sprinkles you roll these kiss cookies in, I think they're bound to make you smile and remind you of the joy of chocolate (not that anyone needs a reminder of that)!

Soft chocolate frosted cookies

We've come to February (already)!  I can't seem to let the second month of the year slip away without taking advantage of upcoming Valentine's Day to present a chocolate treat here on the blog.  Truth be told, we're still working our way through our stash of chocolates and biscuits from Christmas.  On top of that, we have treats from Chinese New Year so there is really very little need for making chocolate cookies except it's certainly not about need...

A batch of soft chocolate cookies, frosted with creamy chocolate frosting, and decorated with a few Valentine's Day sprinkles is an easy way to say "Happy Valentine's Day".  I think it's particularly cute for kids so I made them with my son and his cousins in mind.  I also had my husband in mind; he's a big kid at heart, with a bigger sweet tooth than most children, so he got a fair share of these.

You might know I'm always looking for an excuse to try a different chocolate recipe of some kind!  This one came my way via Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  When I saw "super soft" chocolate cookies, with chocolate frosting, I thought my family would enjoy them and I wanted to give it a try.  Apparently, these cookies are a homemade rendition of "Swig" cookies.  I have no personal knowledge but it seems Swig is a sweet shop in Utah and their signature Swig soft sugar cookies have a big following.  

I just saw super-soft chocolate sugar cookies and thought my husband, who prefers thick, soft cookies above all else in terms of texture, would really dig them.  And true to the description, as long as you make sure not to over-bake them, you end up with a chocolate sugar cookie that has a wonderfully unique soft texture.  The cookies might lean on the sweet side but there's also plenty of deep chocolate flavor to balance it out.  My fellas and I enjoyed them very much.  Though I've never heard of or had a Swig cookie before, there is a familiar flavor to these cookies that my husband and I had to smile at.  

You can leave your frosted chocolate cookies unadorned (the way my husband likes it) or I think it's great how you can essentially dress them up/customize them for any holiday with some sprinkles!  So make these cookies for no particular reason or for a holiday like Valentine's Day, Easter, or Halloween by simply mixing up the decorations you place on top.  How fun and versatile is that! 

I packed a few of the cookie individually in small clear cellophane bags, sealed with a heart-shaped sticker, to give to my nephews and niece as a little early Valentine's Day treat.  It's a fun little gesture - I think it's always nice to spread the love with cookies. I also think if there's any group of people who deserve love and sweetness on Valentine's Day (and any other day), it's got to be kids!  

Double chocolate cookies

I revel in February and Valentine's Day because it gives special meaning and purpose to all the chocolate baking and eating that I readily do.

I think that if there's one thing I've established, it's how much I love chocolate. Chocolate treats are commonplace here.  However, Valentine's Day puts a special light on it.  Yes, I'm a sucker for the frills, the ribbons, the heart-shaped boxes...how can I possibly not love a holiday that's synonymous with chocolate!

So I took the occasion to try out a cookie recipe I've had my eye on for a while. Of course, they're chocolate.  In fact, they are very chocolaty, made for full-on chocolate lovers like myself.

This recipe comes from the Flour Bakery cookbook.  As I've mentioned before, this bakery based in Boston is special; they offer a lot of classic baked goods but there's some element or twist in what they do that makes the food just really good. In the case of these cookies, I think the special element, what makes them truly chocolaty, is the use of unsweetened chocolate.

There's really no shortage of chocolate in these cookies - both unsweetened as well as bittersweet chocolate.  The two get melted as part of the cookie base while more unsweetened chocolate is finely grated and folded in with chunks of bittersweet chocolate to make the final cookie dough.  

What you end up with is a cookie that my husband describes as a mix between brownie and flourless chocolate cake.  I think he's pretty spot on.  You've really got to take a big bite and get into the center of these cookies.  It's a bonus when you hit a chunk of bittersweet chocolate and overall, the moist center is brownie-like and full of a deep chocolate flavor that comes from the unsweetened chocolate as well as the bittersweet component.  

As a serious chocolate lover, I heartedly approve of this recipe.  It's good enough for Valentine's Day!  And I think sharing a couple of homemade cookies with your sweetie is a very good plan for a simple V-Day celebration.