Nutella Filled Pancakes

Letter # 1

Dear Blog,

       I haven't been doing any blogging lately. There are a few reasons behind this. Firstly, all the cooking that I have been doing lately turned out delicious but didn't look picture taking worthy. I have made delicious chicken with lentils, strawberry jam and then used that jam to make fruit leather and super yummy maple glazed Brussels sprouts. These all tasted great but did not look pretty.

       Secondly, being a novice photographer that I am, indoor lighting does not work well for me. Initially when I started this blog, I did take pictures on my kitchen table with the yellow light shining not so bright and post them. They are terrible. But now that I have taken pictures using natural light for the entire month of February I can not go back to taking pictures in my kitchen in the evening. I got some standards to meet in my own eye. Hence, no pictures worth posting.

        Last but not least, I put a lot of pressure on myself about blogging. The recipe has to be perfect (which must be- no excuse there!), the pictures have to be good (I try my best), and then write a nice post which needs to be interesting and funny (I don't consider myself funny) such that readers will like it and may be come back and visit again. Not being able to do this on a regular basis (thrice a week) was making me feel like I am not fulfilling my own expectations. When the food I was making in the evening after my work as a scientist in a lab, didn't look pretty, I was so upset with myself. I went to bed disappointed with myself. I felt that may be blogging was not a good idea as I am not good at writing. I always used to get the lowest grade in English language and highest in Math and Science in school. I love cooking but the pressure of blogging was taking the fun out of my cooking.

        That's why, I decided to write this blog like a diary. Let you (my blog) be my extension. I would like to continue sharing recipes here. Now, today's recipe is nutella filled pancakes. It does not necessarily need to be nutella, it can be peanut butter (that will be very nice), jam of any fruit or chocolate. So, this isn't a recipe really. It is about how to make pancakes a little more interesting.
Here are some pictures taken in natural light which looks good in my novice photographer's eyes:

I used:

Pancake mix (store bought or homemade). Because I made these for my husband and myself, I used gluten free pancake mix. Gluten free homemade pancake mix recipe here.

Few teaspoons of nutella or fruit jam or chocolate sauce.

Powdered sugar to make them pretty!

This is how I did it- 

Prepare the pancake mix following the package directions but the milk. Add a little less milk (I used almond milk to make it dairy free) than the package instructions. The pancake batter needs to be little thicker than usual.

Heat up a skillet on medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the pancake batter. Add about ¼ teaspoon of nutella in the middle of the pancake. Cover the nutella with a little bit more of the pancake batter (This is why the batter needs to be thicker than usual. If it is too thin, the batter will not cover the nutella, instead run to its sides). Flip and cook the other side of the pancake for another minute or two. Serve them warm with powdered sugar on top.

The pancakes can be filled with jam or peanut butter. The key is to not add too much filling such that it will spill.

Servings: For about 10-12 pancakes, I started with ¾ cup pancake mix.

Until next time, without much pressure of blogging but happily cooking,

Love,
Smita