Eggnog Pancakes

My husband made fun of me the other day when I came home from the grocery store with Eggnog. He made some comment like "Welcome to 'November', the season on Eggnog" As to say that you are really not supposed to buy eggnog until December.

But everyone knows a month of December is not enough for eggnog. There should be at least two months we are permitted to drink eggnog and make all kinds of eggnog goodies. It's kinda like the pumpkin craze in October that carries into November and December! Eggnog should have it's time too!

And so, I decided to make Eggnog Pancakes

And I can promise you my husband was no longer complaining about me buying Eggnog in November. It's no Betty Crocker kind of recipe. It's straight from the box with a few minor adjustments! I hope you enjoy! I know my family did because there are none left to share!

Here is what you will need: 3 Ingredients

1. 3 cups of  Pankcake mix. 
(Anything you have in  your pantry will do. Otherwise, if you are looking for a good mix inexpensive mix, I buy mine at Target. It's $2.12 per box and then I get my 5% off by using my Target Card! )
2. 2 cups of Eggnog 
(I like the real Eggnog. Nothing that has artificial sugars or non-fat crap. And it's always cheaper when you buy the store brand.  
3. 1 cup of Chocolate Chips
(Let's face it, chocolate chips make everything better! But let's also be real about how expensive they are lately....Everywhere. So I buy mine from Costco in a huge bag for about $8.00 and they last a while. I put them in the kids muffins, yogurt, and obviously pancakes too. With Chocolate Chips, I do not substitute for the off brand. They are no good. Always get Tollhouse. They are the best! If you find the mini's, they are even better!

Directions

1. Follow mixing directions on the back of the pancake mix box. Except where it calls for water or milk, substitute Eggnog in it's place. For example, if box calls for 2 cups of water, use 2 cups of eggnog instead.
If the box does not call for any eggs, you can still add one. It'll make your pancakes extra fluffy, as will the eggnog.

2. I pour my mix into a cupcake batter dispenser or also called a cupcake pen. If you do not own one of these you should buy one right now! They are amazing for pancakes or the like. My kids love pancakes and these help make all pancakes fun. You can make animals, letters, number and other things so easily! Even if you are just doing circles, they come out even and perfect every time!

3. If you are using a griddle, set it for 325. If only take a second to warm up and use your dispenser pen to make circular pancakes.

4. Place two or three chocolate chips on each pancake while it is cooking. One the top of the batter starts to form little bubbles, flip pancake to chocolate chip side down. Only leave down on the chocolate chip side for about 30 seconds before using a spatula to scoop up and put on a warm plate.

5. I like to stack the pancakes as they come off the hot griddle so they keep each other warm. The only problem I have is that my kids don't wait for breakfast to be served, They immediately start steeling warm pancakes off my stacks and by the time I'm finished baking all the batter, the pancakes are nearly gone!

The reason why I put chocolate chips in pancakes

For many breakfasts I have made pancakes and used syrup or honey for dipping sauce. With a two year old, two four year olds and a six year old, syrup and honey end up everywhere. All over my table, all in the hair and if it is a school day then we would spend time getting syrup and honey out of hair. It drove me nuts.

So I switched to plain pancakes and I started to spread a bit of Nutella or Peanut Butter on each pancake and served them that way. Well, I had no luck with that. I ended up getting peanut butter and chocolate all over the kids hair, hands and faces.

And this is why I landed on putting chocolate chips inside the pancakes. Something about having those little bites of chocolate inside eliminates any need for any kind of dip or spread. No syrup in the hair or peanut butter smeared all over their clothes.

Hope you enjoy some Eggnog Pancakes yourself! If you've made them before or do something different, please comment on your Eggnog Pancake secrets! Or if you try this for the first time, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!