Mini Pancake Muffins

Do you ever find yourself with something in your fridge that you just can't seem to use up, even though you are pretty sure you have used it in about 17 different things?

That happened to me this week with a quart of buttermilk. The Powers That Be don't sell small containers of buttermilk, and so I had to buy a full quart to use in whatever I was making recently. Maybe it was the crumb cake? Who can remember. Anyway, whatever it was did not call for an entire quart of buttermilk, and so there it was lurking away in my fridge, taking up valuable space that could be used for butter, or bacon, or one my other major food groups.

So when I was browsing through my mile-long list of Things I Want To Make Someday and I saw these cute little pancake muffins, they catapulted right to the head of the line when I saw they called for...you know what. Even better, they come together in about 10 minutes of mixing, they bake for about 12 minutes, and 5 minutes later there you are, eating chocolate chip muffins for brunch because they have the word "pancake" in the title and therefore count as an entree. (Right?)

I found these on the always wonderful Bakerella website (go visit! she is AWESOME!) and followed her recipe pretty closely. I did bake mine a little bit longer than hers, and I used the mini chocolate chips instead of regular. They are sweet and tiny and simply adorable. I followed her advice and loosened them by running a toothpick around the edge while I let them cool - I also flipped them around a bit in the muffin tin...

I didn't let them cool TOO long because the ravenous Southern husband was circling. I'd say about after 5 minutes of cooling, they were on the plate. I served us up about 5 each...

AND...get ready, this is the very best part...I put out little bowls of melted butter and warm syrup to dunk them into for the full pancake-tasting experience. Can you STAND it???

We, um, had seconds. And maybe thirds. And as we speak, the teenager is polishing them off as a before-dinner appetizer.

Okay, go make them. And don't forget to visit www.bakerella.com.

MINI PANCAKE MUFFINS, adapted from Bakerella

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Extra melted butter and maple syrup for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
3. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
5. Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
6. Divide batter into well-greased mini muffin tin
   
7. Bake for 12 minutes.
8. Cool in tin for 5-10 minutes. You may want to loosen around the edges with a toothpick to help them pop out.
9. Serve with melted butter and syrup for heavenly dunking.

Click here for printable recipe.