These pancakes have my name written all over them: thick, fluffy dark chocolate pancakes studded with peanut butter cups and topped with a peanut butter-maple syrup sauce. Possibly eaten for lunch yesterday, but preferably eaten for breakfast today, on my birthday. It’s like birthday cake for breakfast! 
As fate would have it, I was born three days after Christmas; precisely when everyone is sick of desserts and ready for a break from parties and celebrations. I get it, we all need a few days of respite before New Year’s Eve. For years I’ve been smiling and telling people it’s not that bad when they ask how terrible it is to have a birthday right after Christmas. The truth is, I was lying, every single time. Sorry friends and acquaintances, it does suck to have a birthday right after Christmas. No one is that excited for cake and celebrations on December 28th- not even me. (Fun fact- Denzel Washington has the same birthday as me. I bet he feels my pain on this one). 
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good birthday celebration, and am obsessed with making cakes (I made my own wedding cake, after all…). The problem is that there’s a quarter of a blueberry crumb pie and a half-eaten citrus olive oil cake on the counter, along with a handful of peanut butter cups, chocolate turtles, and homemade marshmallows lingering in the kitchen. All leftover from Christmas. There’s just no possible way I could make another cake and hope for it all to get eaten in the foreseeable future. Enter pancakes.
Even with a house full of leftover desserts, we all still need breakfast, right? To make my birthday extra special, I made myself these ultra rich pancakes, which, all things considered, are actually pretty healthy. I started with my Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancake recipe, adding cocoa powder and peanut butter to the batter. Then, just for good measure, I chopped up a few homemade peanut butter cups and stirred them in, too. The pancakes get cooked with a little oil or butter on the stove-you know the drill- and then topped with a mixture of peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and water.
The resulting pancakes are somewhere between a cake and a pancake, with an unmistakable resemblance to eating a giant peanut butter cup for breakfast. To quote Ina, how bad could that be? 
Don’t start feeling bad for me yet; I’ll be celebrating my birthday on Sunday at my grandparents house, where there will be plenty of cake and merriment. Until then, I’ll be here, feasting on peanut butter cup pancakes, enjoying my birthday alone. Want to join me? Grab the recipe below, and leave a comment below telling me how they turned out! Better yet, snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram or Facebook. I love to see your creations!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour can sub all-purpose, if desired'
- 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- a pinch of salt
- 1 cup warm tap water
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoons peanut butter the kind with just peanuts and salt in the ingredients
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 peanut butter cups chopped (can sub 1/4 cup mini peanut butter cups or 1/4 cup chocolate chips)
Maple-Peanut Butter Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons peanut butter the kind with just peanuts and salt in the ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon warm tap water
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- 1. Put a large skillet on the stove over medium heat.
- 2. Make pancake batter by adding all ingredients to a bowl and stirring until just combined. Fold in the peanut butter cups last.
- 3. Grease the hot skillet with butter or coconut oil, and pour batter onto the pan. I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to get 4 evenly sized pancakes. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook another 2 minutes, or until cooked through.
- 4. Make peanut butter sauce by thoroughly mixing all ingredients in a small bowl. Spoon sauce over pancakes, and top with extra maple syrup and butter, if desired.
Notes