.puffins, yes, puffins.

as of late, i've honed in on the power of the spatula and the whimsy of the whisk. i've let the sweet recipes speak to me and most of them are saying to whip them up. so when my cousin shared with me a recipe on bakerella.com, i took it as my personal challenge to make it happen.

mini-chocolate-pancake-muffins or as i like to now call them, puffins.

making brinner at my house probably happens more often than it should. wait, i retract that statement. there is nothing wrong with enjoying a meal and if breakfast for dinner makes us happy, then brinner it is! that was always one of my favorite surprise meals growing up. it didn't happen all that often, but i was super pleased when it did.

although the recipe's intention was for mini muffins, i do not have that equipment so instead changed mine into full grown muffins. there were also a few items on the list that i did not have at my pantry disposal. take buttermilk, for example. i didn't feel like running to the store so i looked up substitutions for it with my fingers crossed. for simplicity, i was hoping it was just a mix of milk and butter. amazingly though, the most widely used substitution requires a cup of milk and a tablespoon of real lemon juice. the lemon curdles the milk like a real buttermilk would be. i definitely learned something new there.

once i had all my ingredients set out, i got to work on these puffed up pancakes. starting with flour has become a staple in my life. i think we should just plant a flour tree with as much as i'm using.

a consistency in many of these baking recipes has been the method in which the ingredients are combined. the dry parts are in one bowl and the wet in another. then, they are formed together in the last stage with a slow melding and stirring of the two. this seems to do the trick because i haven't combusted anything yet.

while the recipe suggested one half a cup of chocolate chips to mimic chocolate chip pancakes, i said nay, why stop there? instead, i did half a cup of chocolate and peanut butter chips (mainly because they were leftover from my recent cookie recipe). that punch of peanut butter turned out delicious.

with the muffins baking away, i then put the rest of brinner together. when i brought our plates out with the new recipe on them, my husband asked, what are these? why puffins of course. after a puzzled look, i explained. we both thoroughly enjoyed them and especially with each bite dipped in extra sticky syrup. this is going to be a recipe that will stick in our home.