dark chocolate banana pancakes

husband and i just had a marvelous weekend that sped by in a hurry. friday we dedicated ourselves to a much needed date night after hibernating for the last two weeks due to my still lingering flu bug. we love to eat (love is a big time, major understatement in this case... big time, my friends), so friday was all about the food (and a little bit of convo too). we had one of those dinners where we order one thing at a time and savor every last bite. dinner nearly lasted 3 hours...divine stuff. we ate at one of my favorite french joints, coquette cafe...i like it so much i even worked here at one point. if you haven't been and get to milwaukee, you must pop in.

naturally, we rounded out the weekend with more food and these beauties here. i love a good pancake (yes, yours too dad!) and these really take. the. cake. so to speak. the secret ingredient in my book is the sour cream. these cakes are dense and moist and devishly delicious. share them, like we did, with good friends. trust me, they deserve it.

>> dark chocolate banana pancakes <<

ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 diced bananas
• 1.5 oz. dark chocolate
• pure maple syrup

instructions

in a medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. in a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla. add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined. do not over mix...the batter should be lumpy.

heat griddle or a large skillet over medium heat until a small drop of water bubbles. ladle the pancake batter onto the pan or griddle and drop some of the banana and chocolate over the batter. cook for 3-4 minutes or until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. flip the pancakes and then cook for another 1-2 minutes, until browned. continue until all batter has been cooked. makes about 8-10 pancakes.

recipe adapted from urbanspork