Peanut Butter Pancakes

I made these pancakes for my family for breakfast yesterday morning and they were honestly some of the best I've ever had! They are super fluffy and have just the right amount of peanut butter flavour. I added chocolate chips to half the batch and left the other half plain, and both variations were delicious. They were perfect paired with bananas and fresh strawberries, and a mug of hot coffee.

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick oats - If you don't have quick oats you can substitute with more flour

2 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups plus 6 Tbsp. milk - I used sweetened vanilla soy milk and it worked just fine

1 cup creamy peanut butter, melted - Melt it for 30-40 seconds in the microwave

4 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Butter or nonstick spray for greasing the skillet

Chocolate chips (optional)

Pancake toppings of your choice - I used maple syrup, bananas, and strawberries

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, quick oats, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk/soymilk, melted peanut butter, oil, and vanilla.

Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. You may need to add a little bit more milk if the batter is too thick.

Heat a griddle or large frying pan to medium-low heat. Grease with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Pour out 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the griddle for one pancake, and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until the outside is golden brown. If you want to add chocolate chips then sprinkle about 1/2-1 Tbsp. of chocolate chips onto the top of the pancake before flipping. The peanut butter makes this batter really thick so it won't bubble like normal pancakes to signal it's time to flip, so just watch them carefully as they cook.

 Repeat with the remaining batter. This recipe will make about 25-28 pancakes. You can halve the recipe if you want less; or you can just make the full amount and freeze the leftovers.

Top with fresh fruit and maple syrup and enjoy!

*Recipe by Brooke McMillan