Chocolate Chip Pancakes w/ Cherry Compote!

Hi everyone!  Ok, so I know that I mentioned in my last post that this post would be about nachos with a twist, but, you're just going to have to wait for that post.  It took me two tries to make them properly and on the second try I forgot to take a picture!  We were really anxious to eat, and it lasted for about two seconds.  I think if I had asked everyone to wait an extra second I would have lost a limb, lol.  I also need my brother's chili to really make it right, so you may have to wait 3 weeks for this dish.  ;-)

Buuuuut, you don't have to wait three weeks for something tasty!  This morning (ok, so it was closer to this afternoon, but who is keeping track?) I decided that I wanted to try making chocolate chip pancakes with a cherry compote. From Wikipedia, "compote is a dessert originating from 17th century England made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup. Whole fruits are immersed in water and with sugar and spices added to the dish, over gentle heat."  I think the most difficult part of preparing the cherry compote was pitting the cherries.  We don't have a fancy kitchen tool to help me pit the cherries, sooo I got to get right into it with my knife and fingers.  When I was done my left hand looked like it had been through a battle, lol.

Pitting cherries:

Bowl o' cherries:

I yoinked the compote recipe from this recipe.  

• 4  cups  pitted sweet cherries (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1/4  cup  granulated sugar
• 2  tablespoons  water
• 2  teaspoons  cornstarch
• 1/4  teaspoon  almond extract

You put everything (except the almond extract) together in a pot over medium heat, stirring constantly.  The recipe says to cook for 1 minute then remove from heat but I let it cook for a bit longer so it got a bit more syrupy.  The only thing I changed was the 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract.  We don't have that on hand, so I used vanilla extract and that worked out just fine.  (It smelled so good when I poured it in at the end, mmmm.)  Also, I didn't measure the cherries prior to cutting them, so I think I ended up with more cherries than necessary.  It still turned out tasty, so yay!

Right off the stove:

I didn't do anything fancy with the pancakes.  I just followed the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box and threw some chocolate chips onto them after they were poured on the skillet.  The cherries tasted great on plain pancakes as well as chocolate chip ones!  (Yep, I was a fatty and had a whoooole bunch of pancakes.  It was so worth the stomach ache, lol!)

Plated and delicious!

Overall, this was a really easy and tasty way to jazz up pancakes!


~Mich