The Making Of “Chocolate, Chocolate, Say It Twice Pancakes”

Chocolate Pancakes
I hope you enjoyed this post as I took you behind the scenes in writing, editing, photographing, editing, and celebrating the creation of a cookbook. Today, I’m going to share the scoop behind taking photos – specifically of the Chocolate, Chocolate, Say It Twice Pancakes. And you can grab the full recipe! The book contains 60 glammed up (but all real) food shots. That means that amongst all of the work in just coordinating the whole shebang, every photo came down to the tiniest bit of detail. Prior to this specific experience, I had absolutely no idea how the magic wands waved to create truly mouth-watering food photography. The Chocolate, Chocolate, Say It Twice Pancakes is by far one of my favourite photos and favourite recipes from the book. I have offered you the recipe as a sneak peek at the bottom, but I first want to share with you how we made the photo magic happen. And when I say we, I mean I did very little except stand behind my photographer, prop-stylist, food stylist and kitchen assistants and just take photos. I was a really good observer on photoshoot days. It began with making and then stacking the pancakes. A delicate game with gluten-free pancakes. Yes, a wooden skewer was poked through the middle to keep our p-cakes stacked. Stacking the pancakes We then carefully carried them from the prep kitchen over to the set and started to frame up the shot. Precision styling The framing of the shot was important, because of the syrup pouring that was about to go down. We only had one chance to get this one right.Framing the pancakes We did a few test shots without the pancakes to try out different backgrounds and lighting. Testing backgrounds And then it was time to pour. Ashley Denton meticulously poured the syrup. The cute little blue syrup jug belongs to our prop stylist Sara Kuntz’s partner’s parents. And Maya Visnyei was ready to get every shot of every drip. The syrup pour This is how it went down in real time!
How cool is that? Maya just kept shooting away as the syrup slowly dipped down the stack of cakes. The ultimate shot The final photo was actually a combination of a few shots as we attempted to get just the right amount of syrup drips. And here’s the final, final, final photo as printed in The UnDiet Cookbook. gluten-free chocolate pancakes Print
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Chocolate, Chocolate, Say It Twice Pancakes


  • Author: Meghan Telpner
  • Total Time: 35 mins
  • Yield: 8-10 Pancakes 1x

Description

A delicious gluten-free and dairy-free pancake recipe from The UnDiet Cookbook


Ingredients

Scale

Dry Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/2 cup arrowroot starch
  • 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
  • 1/4 cup chickpea flour
  • 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
  • 2 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 1 egg or 1 serving Chia Paste (page 205 in The UnDiet Cookbook)
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/3 cup organic unsweetened organic applesauce or Simple Applesauce (page 204 in The UnDiet Cookbook)
  • 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
  • 3 Tbsp coconut oil or organic ghee, softened
  • 1 Tbsp tahini
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. The sifting is a bit tedious, but it does help with the pancake fluff factor. (You can skip it if you want, though.)
  2. In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. If your coconut oil is solid, you may wish to warm it over the stove to liquefy it. (Sometimes I’ll totally cheat and throw all the wet ingredients into the blender.)
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mix, and then stir in the chocolate chips. If you like your pancakes on the thinner side, add a little more water to the batter. It doesn’t take much to thin the mix, so be careful. You don’t want your pancakes to become a runny mess.
  4. Heat your skillet to medium heat and dollop on some coconut oil or ghee. Scoop 1/4 cup of batter at a time into the hot skillet. Once you see bubbles start to form, it’s time to flip these babies over. The trick with pancakes is to keep the heat high enough to cook them through, but not so high that it burns the outside while the inside is left raw. Once you find the right spot on your stove, take note! Let the pancakes sit for 5 minutes before serving. This helps them firm up in the middle.
  5. Serve with your favorite toppings. I love shredded unsweetened, dried, shredded coconut, ground flax, ground goji berries, and a drizzle of Special Syrup (page 205 in The UnDiet Cookbook).

Notes

Excerpted from The UnDiet Cookbook: 130 Gluten-Free Recipes for a Healthy and Awesome Life by Meghan Telpner. Copyright © 2015 Meghan Telpner. Photography Copyright © 2015 Maya Visnyei. Published by Appetite by Random House, a division of Random House of Canada Ltd., a Penguin Random House Company. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 25 mins
  • Category: Breakfast

7 Comments

  1. Hi we made these twice and loved them both times. Both our kids said “These are really good, mom” comments. And my husband said that it should be put on the shortlist. Once I made it without tahini and the second time I made it with. Both good love it that back to him he needs to have the add in.

    Thanks for your spark!

    -Katie

  2. Totally delicious Meghan! I’ve just made a batch and they are so good. Would these freeze ok?

  3. Thanks for sharing! I love all the behind the scenes stuff. As I get more into food photography I find it all so interesting.

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