Chocolate Orange Pancakes – this was a moment of pure genius frankly. Pancake day is fast approaching, it’s blood orange season, chocolate and orange together make a winning combination. The only way I could make these any better was to make them into double chocolate orange pancakes – so I did! AND I added a blob of orange blossom whipped cream, just for good measure. Indulgent, grown up pancakes for Shrove Tuesday – or any day when you need a pick-me-up treat!
When the big day rolls around I will, as usual, be whisking crepe batter together and churning out a massive pile of them. It’s conveyor belt flipping and each one will be topped with lemon and sugar because, in my family, there is no other way to treat them. On Shrove Tuesday we are tradition all the way, but pancakes aren’t just for pancake day and they are not just a once a year treat – fluffy buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, banana pancakes for tea or savoury pancakes for a satisfying supper all pop up throughout the year, and pancakes for pudding is always a good idea!
My daughter and I played around with the batter for our chocolate orange pancakes – we started with just cocoa but that wasn’t chocolatey enough so we added chocolate chips, ground up in the blender and that was perfect. Subtly chocolatey, not overwhelming, with the odd surprise gooey chunk. You could layer these pancakes up with the orange blossom cream and slices of blood orange, that would be amazing, but we plumped for total indulgence and slathered on some chocolate hazelnut spread – OH MY WORD! Will you look at the chocolate ooze on that?!
Of course you can use regular oranges once blood orange season is over but these beauties are utterly delicious and they make for a very good photo – I couldn’t resist!
I sliced up more than I needed for the recipe so I could pick and choose the prettiest coloured slices for photographs (as you do) and when Bonus Boy and his chum came in from school they dived right in, emerging sticky fingered and happy, before heading off to cause chaos in my sitting room – one of their ten a day, easily sorted!
We used Mr Organic chocolate hazelnut spread this time (mainly because we were feeling a bit lazy) but it is easy to make your own and you can even add in a little bit of orange blossom water to make it chocolate orange all the way! This quantity makes 10 pancakes which is enough for 2 very greedy people or for more if you’re feeling more moderate!
Double Chocolate Orange Pancakes
Ingredients
For the Pancakes
- 100 g plain flour
- 150 ml milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 20 g chocolate chips
- pinch of salt
- sunflower oil for frying
To Serve
- 50 ml whipping cream
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
- 1 blood orange
- chocolate hazelnut spread
Instructions
- Whizz all the ingredients for the pancakes together in a blender, leave the batter to stand for a few minutes (preferably half an hour)
- Heat a little oil in a small non stick frying pan or well seasoned skillet over medium/high heat.
- Pour in 2 - 3 generous tablespoonfuls of batter mix and allow to spread. Cook for about two minutes on each side - you'll know it's ready for its first flip when bubbles start popping on the top and it moves easily in the pan.
- Repeat with the remaining batter, keeping the cooked pancakes warm in a low oven.
- Whip the cream until soft peaks form, fold in the orange blossom water.
- Use a sharp knife to slice the top and bottom off your orange and remove all the skin and pith. Cut into slices.
- Layer the pancakes up, spreading each one with chocolate hazelnut spread. Top with orange slices and serve with the orange blossom cream.
What will you be serving up this pancake day? Are you a traditionalist or will you be going off piste?
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I make chocolate orange brownies but never have I made chocolate orange pancakes. These look super fab, especially with uber-seasonal blood oranges. Lush!!
Ooh these look dark and seductive and so delicious. Blood oranges are just marvellous and you’ve got some lovely coloured ones there. As for chocolate? Well you just can’t have too much in my humble opinion 😉
These photos make me want to dive right in. I’ve not ever made chocolate pancakes but I love how your recipes sounds and I don’t see anything wrong with using a good chocolate spread. Blood oranges would go so well with the rich chocolatey flavours too. Thanks for mentioning my pancakes :))
Thanks Laura – your pancakes looked incredible!
The pancakes sound lovely and that Orange Blossom Cream sounds wonderfulx
It was a bit too moreish, if you know what I mean?! 😀
Those blood oranges are flipping gorgeous! I actually really love that the orange flavour isn’t in the pancakes themselves, just in the cream – that way you can serve the chocolate pancakes with all sorts of other toppings too if you fancy a change 🙂
Exactly Becca and who doesn’t love a chocolate pancake?! They are blooming’ delicious with raspberries 🙂