Cookie Dough Pancakes

Afternoon....so remember I told you to make extra cookie dough for a special something coming soon? Well here it is, and you will either take one look at it and judge me as a trashy glutton as you turn away and nibble at alfalfa sprouts, ooooooooor you will contact the Nobel Foundation immediately and insist that they add a new prize entitled 'Contributuion to Food Joy' just so you can nominate me for this GENIUS concoction.

I do hope it's the second one, I'd love a Nobel prize, and these immense 'joy-bringers' require some sort of recognition, if only a groan of satisfaction from you. It all started when a friend of mine told me about a hotel she worked at in the States that cooked an entire homemade cookie into a pancake. This sounded aMAYZENNN' to me and I knew immediately that I neeeeded my own version.

I couldn't really imagine quite how a cooked cookie would work inside a spongey pancake. But I cooooould imagine how the raw dough of the ultimate chocolate chip cookie, which is indeed the ultimate cookie dough, would work. And goodness heck I was right. From the outside, they look like normal, bland but brilliantly springy pancakes...it's just the odd chocolate shadow or ooooze of goooo from the side that hints at the fabulousness within.

Now this is not a breakfast for the faint hearted, in fact it doesn't have to be a breakfast at all. The first time I made these was with my lovely friend Alex and they made the perfect lunch following an Autumn walk and accompanied by Mad Men Season 3 (FYI Mad Men and pancakes, a match made in heaven). But they are a great breakfast if you know you need to be well fueled for they day ahead. I had them yesterday because I knew I wouldn't get a chance to have any lunch, and they kept me going right though, well of course they did, they're not exactly light on the calorie front, especially when served with marscapone and Nutella....but you can't eat lettuce and natural yogurt all the time, and these are definitely worth running a few (hundred) extra miles or swimming a few extra (million) laps for. So go on, dig in, and thank me after. With Love and Cake.

Cookie Dough Pancakes

A few notes:

• When I first made these I added several little blogs of cookie dough to the top of each pancake while they were cooking, instead of embedding one big disc. This worked fine but the dough cooked a bit too much to achieve the goo I was going for. I like this method better, but feel free to experiment.
• Of course you could use any cookie dough you like, I would imagine you could even by it ready made, you definitely can in America...whatever's best for you.
• I like making my pancakes in a blender, but you could just as easily whisk everything together in a mixing bowl.

Makes about 10 giant pancakes

You will need

a non stick frying pan (or several if you're impatient like me)

For the pancakes

225g self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

300ml milk

For the cookie dough

follow the recipe here, up until the baking part

• First get you pan/s on a medium heat and grease with butter or flavourless oil.
• Whiz the flour and baking powder together in your blender (that's the lazy girl's version of sieving).
• Blitz in the egg and milk, stirring everything up a bit by hand so it gets properly combined.
• Pour out the batter into pancakes in your pan, then grab a bit of cookie dough, roll and squash it in your hand to a disc, about 1/3 the size of your pancakes and pop it on top of one in you pan.
• Pour a bit of extra batter over the cookie dough to cover it, like in the pictures above.
• Do the same for every pancake and when the bottom half of them looks cooked and bubbles start appearing in the uncooked side, flip flip flip.
• Cook this second side for a few minutes, and when both sides are golden and they have a springy texture, pop them in warm oven so you can carry on with the rest of the batter.
• Serve warm with whipped cream or marscapone, Nutella and a big grin.