Really Good Chocolate Multigrain Pancakes

Sometimes, I'm obsessive compulsive to the point that even I get sick of myself, literally. I usually try variations on a single recipe and different recipes relating to the same thing for days on end until I satisfy myself that the recipe is the one I want as my "to go to" recipe, or the one recipe I'm willing to replicate to eat for the immediate future.

Just take bread for example. My very first post in the blog was of bread using the tangzhong method. What you didn't know was that I probably tried tens (I am not joking) of recipes before I finally settled on my bread recipe. My family members had to suffer through weeks and weeks of bad, not so good, and not bad breads just so that I could come up with 'the one'. Right now, my brother proclaims that my bread making is my "拿手好菜" (my best dish) and that I should just stick to that. Obviously I don't listen.

Right now, my current fad is granola and yogurt. I've been making my own homemade yogurt (low-fat and unsweetened) and my own granola. As for the yogurt, the experimentation was a few years back, so I've more or less settled on my usual technique. No one in the family is willing to eat my yogurt because they think it is too sour :( But that's the way I like it - natural yogurt tastes like that! So anyway, as for the granola, I've probably tried more than 10 granola recipes and am still experimenting. No one in my family eats that either, so I've to slowly make my way through the granola before making a new batch. I'm currently eating a banana-hazelnut granola and an olive oil-raisin-assorted nuts granola, both of which are so different and taste so good together!

Oops somehow the jam looks horrible on the pancakes :/

So you can probably imagine how it was with my quest for pancakes. I was so obssessed with getting THE pancake recipe that I tried pancake recipes every other day (because I'm the only one willing to eat the pancakes and one recipe of pancakes lasts me 2 breakfasts) for weeks until I finally got sick of having pancakes for breakfast :/ The result of the quest is my basic pancake recipe, which I have blogged about before, and whenever I have yogurt on hand, this is the recipe I turn to.

Chocolate Multigrain Pancakes
Inspired by Smitten Kitchen
Makes 4 thick pancakes

35g egg (about ½ an egg or a small egg)
120g unsweetened low-fat yogurt (or any storebought yogurt)
15g olive oil
½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp castor sugar

5g cocoa powder
7g oat flour (or ground oats)
15g whole wheat flour
34g all-purpose flour
15g rye flour
7g sorghum flour
(or replace with 78g of all-purpose flour and 5g cocoa powder)

Method:

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg and yogurt. Add in the olive oil and vanilla extract.
2. In another bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients - the flours, sugar, baking powder and baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until the dry ingredients are moistened. A few remaining lumps are okay - do not overstir!
4. Melt some butter in your pan and ladle a scant ¼ cup batter for one pancake. Cook the pancake until the edges are firm and dry and you see the centre bubbling. This will take about 3 minutes on medium heat. Flip the pancake to the other side and cook for another 3 minutes, or until golden brown (or in this case, until dry to touch on both sides since the pancake is brown anyway)
5. Repeat for the remaining batter. Drizzle the pancakes with some maple syrup and serve with fresh strawberries and compote. Bon appétit!

Janine's jots: 

• Note: As with most recipes that I try, I can't help but tweak and modify it to my preference, so in actuality, you see very few similarities with the original (hence making it my very own recipe ;p) For those who want to know what I have tweaked, I have used less egg (lower cholesterol), more yogurt and obviously made it chocolate pancakes instead of normal ones. Because of that, I added a bit of baking soda. Note that this is only for natural cocoa powder. If you are using dutched cocoa powder, you have to use baking soda together with an acidic ingredient, for instance, a touch of lemon juice or vinegar OR you can just replace with an equal amount of baking powder instead.  
• Taste: Because the yogurt is the bulk of the recipe, the resultant pancake will taste of the pancake (and chocolate of course). Be sure to use good quality cocoa powder and yogurt. I loved how the pancakes tasted - in fact, this is probably the best chocolate pancake I've ever made and eaten!  
• Texture: I also loved the texture of the pancakes here. I'm a fan of thick, almost cake-like pancakes, so these fit the bill perfectly. They are reminiscent of buttermilk pancakes, so do try these if you like the texture of buttermilk pancakes!
• Serving size: I have tweaked this recipe such that it makes 4 pancakes - I tend to consume 2 pancakes during a single breakfast. This recipe is easily doubled.
• Modifications: If you have thick or greek-style yogurt, do use some milk to thin it out (about 1-2 tablespoons will do). You can also refer to Deb's note on this. If the yogurt is already sweetened, you might want to reduce the sugar to 1 tsp as well. As for the combination of flours, feel free to experiment! Deb used a combination of whole wheat, all purpose and barley/rye flour. I went a step further to use a greater variety of flours. I haven't tried a gluten-free version yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll work the same :]
• Storage: As with most pancake recipes, do not store the uncooked batter because the resultant pancake tends to be tough and does not rise well. For the cooked pancakes, try to consume them when warm, otherwise, these keep well in the fridge for a few days, when stored in an airtight container. Give them a zap in the microwave to heat them up a little.
• Would I make this again?: Hell yeah!