Nutella Stuffed Pancakes

Elliface here, and I am somewhat ashamed to admit this, especially on a cooking show's blog.... But I use a boxed mix to make pancakes.

I'm ashamed to own this thing, but it was a gift! And i can't say it doesn't get the job done...

I know, but it's true! Whenever I whip out the Babycakes donut maker to make pancake donuts, I never spend the time pulling together a pancake recipe from scratch. Mostly because we have about a pound of pumpkin spice pancake mix from Brent's Basic Trader Joe's Shopping Days in November. And the boxed mixes are perfectly balanced for making donuts!

In this recipe, however, Amy saved the day by pulling together pancakes-from-scratch instructions with a cool trick we found on Pinterest. And believe it or not, Nutella Stuffed Pancakes starts like 4 hours before you can even turn the oven on...

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tbsp melted butter
1 small jar of nutella

Instructions

On a baking sheet covered in wax paper, spread a 3" round, 1/2" deep puck of nutella (one for each pancake you plan on making, we recommend 6)
Stick your nutella pucks in the freezer until firm (this can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, so poke them occasionally)
Once your pucks are mostly firm, begin the pancakes by sifting the flour and baking powder, or use a food processor to combine
In a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, vanilla extract and melted butter and stir.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir or whisk, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the flour. The batter should be thick, but still pourable.
Heat a pan to medium-high and add butter or another oil to prevent sticking.
With a frozen nutella puck ready, pour a 4-5" pancake onto the hot pan and quickly set the nutella puck into the middle of the wet cake. Add another scoop of pancake batter to fully cover the nutella.
Cook pancake on each side until golden brown
Plate with fresh fruit for extra Instagram likes