Today is National Pancake Day and we are celebrating with Hot Chocolate Pancakes!

Who doesn’t love pancakes?  When I think about the ultimate comfort foods pancakes always come to mind.  I make my pancakes tons of ways.   From bananas and nuts to blueberry to pumpkin.  Whatever the season, I can figure out a way to infuse the flavors into a pancake.

In addition to National Pancake Day falling on February 5 this year, there is also a tradition of eating pancakes on Fat (Shrove) Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning on the lenten season.  For 2013, Fat (Shrove) Tuesday falls on February 13th, just in time for Valentine’s Day.  Wouldn’t these pancakes be a great Fat Tuesday/Pre-Valentine’s Day breakfast?

So, for National Pancake Day, I decided to take a little inspiration from the cold weather and snow on the ground.  With a basic pancake recipe, and a few pantry staples, I served up Hot Chocolate Pancakes to my crew and received thumbs up all around.

To start, I used the Basic Pancake Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart.   From there I added one packet of instant hot chocolate mix and 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips.  My instant hot chocolate mix happened to have little marshmallows in it which didn’t really make that big of a difference and melted away once the pancake mix hit the skillet.

Once pancakes were cooked through, I topped them with butter, syrup, mini marshmallows (pictured here are the Jet Puffed  Mallow Bits (Vanilla) – although regular mini marshmallows would do) and more chocolate chips.

The result is a sweet little breakfast for a perfect cold day.  I also served mine with a side cup of hot chocolate, topped with tons of mini marshmallows.  Can you say best mom ever?  How fun!

Super simple, but what a fun way to turn plain, boring pancakes into something new and exciting.   At Giggles, Gobbles and Gulps we strive to develop easy, relatable recipes which can be created with things you have in your pantry now.

Fun cooking doesn’t have to be hard.  Go on, give it a try.  xoxo