Chocolate chip pikelets

I have no idea at all why it popped into my head, but recently I remembered one time when I was eight, and my parents went to a wedding so my Grandma came to stay the night with my brother and I. I remember two things about that visit - one is the skivvy my Grandma wore that read "Recycled Teenager" (she was a cheeky lady) and the other is the chocolate chip pikelets she made us for dessert. Which she made in the jaffle iron.

Why they were made in the jaffle iron remains a long lost mystery. As does, sadly, the recipe. My Grandma died when I was 14, and before she did I never thought to ask these questions.

But since starting this blog I've found myself getting more and more daring with food, and finally decided chocolate chip pikelets could, quite possibly, just be a process of adding chocolate chips to pikelet batter. So I made some pikelet batter I learned from my mum, who learned it from her dad (Poppy), and tossed in a fistful of dark chocolate chips. Interestingly Grandma wasn't mum's mum, she was dad's mum, so both sets of grandparents had a hand in this dish.

This is Poppy's recipe for pikelets:

1 cup self raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarb

3 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter

Stir the dry ingredients together, then whisk in the egg and milk. Melt the butter in a frying pan, and pour into the batter, whisking to incorporate it. Cook dessert-spoonfuls of batter in the frying pan until bubbles form, then turn and continue cooking until cooked through.

And as I said, I added a heap of chocolate chips.

Results - As you can see from the picture, the pikelets were not very pretty. Also I understand now why cooking them in the jaffle iron was a good idea. It cooked both sides at once. The chocolate chunks melting made it very hard to flip these pikelets. But OMG, so yummy! This is comfort food at it's best. Simple, warm, chocolately.