Raspberry and Chocolate Chip Pancakes

On our way home from a camping trip we had breakfast at this diner in Vermont called the Blue Benn.  It was a tiny place with a long counter and jukeboxes at each table.  We had a group of 10 and had to eat in scattered places, but that was ok.

Our table spent the time picking songs to play from Elvis, to Jimmy Buffet, to Ernie's "Rubber Duckie."  Oh, the joy 75 cents can buy you!

The menu was so interesting and varied.  The fun thing about VT is that most of the restaurants I've encountered there have interesting vegetarian items on their menus.  The Blue Benn was no exception, and I saw lots of really neat dishes.  Ultimately I had to go with my sweet tooth and pick the raspberry and chocolate chip pancakes, with home fries on the side.  These were probably the best pancakes I've ever had!  Even though I was full, I made sure I finished every bite.  Topped with VT maple syrup, how can I go wrong?




I thought I could duplicate this at home.  I must say, I got pretty close.  It's never quite as good when someone else makes it for you, brings it to you, and cleans up after you!

Here's what I used:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup white sugar
Large pinch salt
1 cup - 1 1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk since that's all I had on hand
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
2 eggs
Frozen raspberries, thawed out
Mini chocolate chips

1. Mix your dry ingredients together: flours, sugar, baking power, salt.
2. Scramble your egg, and mix in the other wet ingredients: milk, vanilla extract, and honey.  I started with a cup of milk, and then decided to add in another quarter cup.
3. Heat up your griddle, and grease with butter or spray
4. Working with a couple pancakes at a time, drop by roughly quarter cup batter onto a hot griddle (temperature should be medium at most).  Immediately put a spoonful of the raspberries and a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips on.
5. When the tops of the pancake get dry and bubbly, flip over and cook the other side
6. Keep warm in the oven while you continue with more pancakes

Serve with the best syrup you can get, maybe some butter or whipped cream.  We also made some hash browns on the side.  I had some doubts about how to most effectively get the filling in the pancake.  I also tried out mixing the fillers in the batter.  My tester (hubby) said both were equally as good, but with the mixed in version the raspberry flavor was equally distributed.  With the original version, there was a "raspberry explosion" that was very yummy.

One of my favorite Fiestaware colors- Paprika

Someday I want to get a big electric griddle!