Chocolate and olive oil pancakes

Now that I've eaten at The Bazaar, I'm even more motivated to cook from my Jose Andres cookbooks. I turned to my Made in Spain book for these chocolate and olive oil pancakes. Chocolate and olive oil may seem like an odd flavor combination, but it's actually pretty common in the Catalonia region of Spain. It's also common to see a third ingredient thrown into the mix: sea salt.

I've had olive oil gelato on a couple of occasions; it tastes much better than it sounds. In fact, a few years ago I had a dessert at Manresa that combined olive oil ice cream, chocolate mousse and flaky sea salt, so I knew what to expect with these pancakes.

This recipe is pretty simple. It's the same ingredients you'd find in any other buttermilk pancake recipe, with the addition of dark chocolate pieces and the substitution of olive oil for butter. I used half white and half whole wheat flour with great results.

The pancakes are cooked in a little olive oil and drizzled with honey instead of syrup. The recipe doesn't call for any sea salt, but I decided to sprinkle a little bit on some of the pancakes. I preferred the pancakes with the sea salt on top to those without the salt.

These are great pancakes - the chocolate adds richness, and the olive oil flavor is quite subtle.

Chocolate and olive oil pancakes
Adapted from Made in Spain
Serves 4

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I think King Arthur's white whole wheat flour produces the best results. Alternatively, you could just use 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour)
2 T granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate
Coarse sea salt such as Maldon for serving (optional)
Honey for serving

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk in the egg, buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, mix until the batter is mostly smooth (a few lumps are ok). Stir in the chocolate.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and cook until golden. Flip the pancake and cook until golden on the other side. Transfer the pancake to a serving plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Serve the pancakes topped with honey and a light sprinkling of sea salt.