Olive Oil Pancakes with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt

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Author Notes: Amanda's chocolate toast (baguette + dark chocolate + olive oil + sea salt) easily makes the top five list of my favorite flavor combinations. Whenever the stars align and i have extra good bread and chocolate in the house, that aren't destined for some other end, I make myself a few pieces of that wonderful toast. These pancakes were inspired by Amanda's chocolate toast, and I think the combination is just as wonderful in pancake form. I used Cook's Illustrated's Light and Fluffy Pancake batter as a jumping off point, swapping the melted butter for olive oil and subbing buttermilk, but then I added a few tricks borrowed from Aretha Frankenstein's brilliant (genius!) waffle recipe- I replaced 1/4 of the flour with cornstarch and let the batter rest for 30 minutes before cooking. Finally, in order to enhance the crispy edges I had achieved by adding the cornstarch, I fried each pancakes in a couple of tablespoons of canola oil (I did a side-by-side comparison of olive oil-fried and canola oil-fried pancakes, and preferred the canola), just like my friend Molly's mom would do when she made us chocolate chip pancakes in high school. - arielleclementine

Food52 Review: The olive oil, salt and chocolate combo really is a good one. And these super easy, fluffy pancakes are a great backdrop for it. The recipe is a good buttermilk pancake batter on its own before you add chocolate and salt. With the resting and the starch they are quite tender. The orange zest and drizzle of olive oil work nicely, but I have to admit that syrup was good too. To avoid burning the chocolate when you flip, add a spoonful of batter on top of the chocolate bits. - biffbourgeois

Makes 10-12 six-inch pancakes

• This recipe is a Community Pick!
• This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Pancakes, Sweet or Savory