Maple Syrup | 20something cupcakes

It was a rainy weekend and an even rainier Sunday morning, and I couldn’t imagine getting out of bed for any reason other than pancakes.

Cinnamon-Dark Chocolate Whole Wheat Pancakes

Pancakes are a good bet for a morning like this, when you haven’t yet been to the store, and you definitely aren’t considering getting up and going anytime before noon. You can usually make pancakes with stuff you’ve already got on hand. I like to think of them as “pantry pancakes.”

Sometimes, though, I get bored with basic buttermilk pancakes. Even chocolate chip pancakes or blueberry (easy enough for pantry pancakes if you keep frozen blueberries on hand, which, of course, I do) aren’t always doing it for me.

This recipe was inspired by Deb’s recipe for a chocolate chip-sour cream coffee cake over on Smitten Kitchen. I’m still dreaming about making that coffee cake at some point, but in the meantime, I took the components that were singing to me and I put them right into these healthy-ish pancakes. Cinnamon and chocolate, and buttermilk in lieu of the sour cream.

But, really – it was all about the cinnamon. Now, I know what you’re thinking … cinnamon is hardly an ingredient to get hung up on in a pancake recipe. Don’t, like, all pancakes have cinnamon? Well, some do and some do not, but what I was really falling in love with was the idea of making cinnamon the star of the show.

Some of you may have learned by now that I like to drink as I cook.

Usually, no one gets hurt. The food is always delicious, and sometimes I even like to think that the wine helps the cooking to flow together more perfectly. This time, however, our precious baby cobblers fell victim to my ways.

We had extra pears, and extra-hungry people – it’s how our family rolls – so I decided to double the recipe, or more precisely, to multiply it by 1.5 since that’s how many extra pears I had.

There is a lesson to be learned from this: Drinking and re-calculating recipes do no go hand in hand.

Lucky for me, the only ingredient I really screwed up here was the butter. I think I added a whole extra stick to my cobbler topping, and somehow, these sweet little bowls of mapley-pear goodness turned out okay. The whole family seemed to think that they turned out even better – don’t be fooled, they’d had lots of wine, too – and everyone happily ate them up, as well as the leftover {extra-buttery} dough. I mean, it’s butter – how bad can it be?

The cobblers did still taste good, but without my mishap I know they would have been perfect, with a much crunchier and crispier topping. My favorite thing about the recipe was the fact that it calls for individual ramekins. Sure, you could easily use one big dish for a cobbler, and it would be equally as delicious – but I find the miniature portions to be so much more adorable. The pear and maple flavor combination was also a winner, and I loved the heavy hand with the nutmeg. It’s truly a perfect recipe for fall, and it all comes together in a snap – perfect for a dinner party.

I’ll definitely be making these again, only next time I’ll be sticking to the recipe.

{Because we all know the wine isn’t going anywhere}

For the recipe, please check out Josie’s beyond-fabulous blog – it’s one of my all-time favorites!