Chocolate Pancakes with Homemade Chocolate Nut Spread

BY RACHEL GREEN

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 150g plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 medium eggs lightly beaten
• 300ml of full milk
• 50g butter melted plus extra for cooking

Chocolate spread

• 50g hazelnuts
• 55g caster sugar
• 200ml whipping cream
• 200g dark or milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

Method:

Place all the pancake ingredients with a pinch of salt into a food processor or blender and blitz well. Pour the batter into a jug and chill for one hour if you have the time.

To make the chocolate spread. Blitz the hazelnuts with half the sugar until finely ground in a food processor. Place the cream and the rest of the sugar in a pan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat, add the sugar hazelnut mixture and chocolate. Leave to stand for a minute then stir well until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

Heat a small 20cm non-stick pan over a medium heat. Brush with the melted butter and pour in a little of the batter using a small ladle. If the batter is a little thick add some more milk and mix in. Tip the pan around so the batter is evenly spread around the pan, cook the pancake for 1 minute then flip it over and cook for a further few seconds on the other side. Remove from the pan keeping warm while you repeat the process cooking all the batter to make approx. 8 pancakes.

Serve with the chocolate spread.