I can’t believe it, but valentines day is rapidly approaching. It’s my daughters absolute favorite holiday. She likes it better than Christmas. Mostly because everything is pink and has hearts on it, which of course is her idea of perfection. Me, I like it because I like chocolate, and gifts. Last year I made the kids pancakes that were in valentines day shapes. Going with that idea, but taking a step further I made some brownie flavored heart pancakes. The cookbook that my grandmother passed down to me had a recipe for brownie waffles but I went ahead and changed things up to work better for pancakes. While chocolate flavored waffles are tasty, I wanted to make these into cute shapes for my kids.

Here is the recipe for awesomeness. I mean brownie heart pancakes.

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons dutch process cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

Mix all the dry ingredients, then pour in the wet. Once everything is nice and mixed together cook just like you would any other pancake. I like to pour my batter into a squirt bottle. An old cleaned out mustard or ketchup bottle works great. They give you the ability to make shapes out of your pancakes very easily. To make the hearts, you just draw a “v” and when the battle spreads it shapes itself into cute little hearts. I also like to make x and o shapes as well. When you serve these tasty little guys try putting a little freshly whipped cream on top. I like to add red food coloring to mine so that the whipped cream is red. It keeps things in the spirit of valentines day. At least to my daughter.

-Stephanie Wright