Clinton Street Baking Company

I have had a killer sweet tooth lately, and last night I got an overwhelming urge to have chocolate chip pancakes.  I even considered making a batch late last night, but seeing as it was 9:30pm I figured that was not the best option.  So, instead I spent the night thinking about chocolate chip pancakes and trying to figure out when I would be able to have them.  Since I finished my summer class last week, my Tuesdays and Thursdays are now free so I decided that I would take the plunge and have chocolate chip pancakes for lunch today.

When you want pancakes in the city, you must go to Clinton Street Baking Company.  I went there for the first time three years ago after reading about them incessantly online.  Since pancakes are my favorite food, I had made it my mission to find the best pancakes, and kept seeing Clinton Street's blueberry pancakes pop up.  I have never ordered blueberry pancakes because I don't like the tart flavor in my pancakes, so at first I was a little skeptical.  They also have banana walnut and chocolate chip offerings, so I decided that I would go and try out one of those options.  The first time that I went I chose to go for dinner because I had read about the crazy long waits, and the only pancakes offered at the time were blueberry.  Since I had traveled all the way to the lower east side, I put my doubts aside and try the blueberry.  They were so delicious and fluffy, that I chose to order the blueberry pancakes every time I went back, instead of my usual chocolate chip or banana.  I even went here for my birthday dinner just to have the pancakes.  While they are expensive for a stack of pancakes, they are SO worth it.  With the exception of Thomas' Diner that I previously posted about (I have hometown loyalty to them) these are the BEST pancakes I have ever had.

Anyway, to get back on point, I knew that a visit to Clinton Street was the perfect way to satisfy my chocolate chip pancake craving.  I even made sure to work out for an extra half hour this morning so that I could fully enjoy the pancakes without feeling the guilt.  When I arrived at 1130 (on a Tuesday morning) there was a 35 minute wait for one person!  While it is pretty small inside, it still goes to show you how good everything is here, because there are not many places that have that long of a wait on a weekday, and the location is pretty off the beaten path.

After waiting for about a half hour and dreaming of the pancakes, I finally got seated.  I looked at the menu simply to see what else they had for future reference, but there is no way I could ever come here and not get the pancakes.  I sat close to the kitchen, and I probably saw more than 10 stacks of blueberry pancakes leave the kitchen before I even ordered.  While it is clearly the most popular dish and what they are famous for, they also supposedly have great eggs, biscuits, and actual lunch/dinner foods like fried chicken, in case you are going with someone who is not a huge pancake lover.  I ordered pretty quickly, and after about 15 minutes my pancakes finally arrived.

Not only were there chocolate chips in the pancakes, but there was a huge pile of chocolate chunks on top of them!  You really can't get much better than that.  After I took my first bite, I was in pure bliss.  The pancake on its own is amazing, and the chocolate just makes it that much better.  All the pancakes here come with not maple syrup, but maple butter, which is basically a maple syrup/butter hybrid.  While it is very good, it is very rich so I never really use too much of it, especially since the pancakes themselves are pretty rich.  I would probably rather have maple syrup, but the maple butter is one of their signatures. 

The best part of the pancakes is the mountain of chocolate chunks in the middle that get all melty from the heat of the pancake. It is so delicious and sweet, and puts every other chocolate chip pancake to shame.  The chocolate chips were pretty concentrated in the center, so even though the outsides of the pancake were delicious, it was a bit disappointing that the chocolate wasn't more evenly distributed.  

Since they are so sweet and decadent, I was only able to get through about 1 1/2.  I, of course, was very strategic about it and ate the top pancake (the best one) and the center of the second most chocolatey one, leaving over the outsides and the third pancake.  I could not let the pancakes go to waste, so I took the rest to go.  I left feeling stuffed, yet happy that I satisfied my chocolate chip pancake craving. 

In NYC, if you want a great stack of pancakes, you really must come to Clinton Street.  There is a reason that they are on the top of every "Best of" list and have a 2 hour wait on the weekends.  The pancakes are the stars in my eyes and are the best I ever had, but they also have a ton of other delicious breakfast offerings to appeal to everyone.  They also sell baked goods that you can take home, like cakes, cookies, muffins and scones.  I have had the banana chocolate chip muffin in the past and it is delicious, but I of course could not get one today since I made basically the same thing for breakfast!  They also have "Pancake Month" in February where they feature a different specialty pancake every few days.  I didn't get a chance to go this year, but when I went two years ago they had coconut pancakes with passion fruit syrup.  Needless to say, they were heavenly.  

If my rave review of the pancakes isn't enough, just go on Yelp and read all of the reviews and look through the 1,000 pictures, and I'm sure you will be convinced to pay them a visit!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Like I have said previously, I am generally not a fan of muffins with fruit in them (unless it is banana) because when I want a muffin I am looking for something sweet, not tart.  With that being said, these blueberry oatmeal muffins are pretty darn good!  I mean, I probably would not end up making them if they weren't my sisters favorites, but I still think they are delicious.  Again, the recipe is from skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/03/insanely-good-blueberry-oatmeal-muffins.html), which is pretty much my go to blog for healthy recipes.

This recipe takes a little more time than my usual muffin recipes, but I wake up early enough that I don't mind waiting a bit longer for these.  First, you have to put the oats in a food processor and soak them in milk for a half hour.  I get pretty restless waiting for the 30 minutes to be up, but in the meantime I prep the other ingredients and preheat the oven.  Once the oats are soaked, it only takes about another 5 minutes to finish the mix and get them in the oven.  This is one of the only recipes that I don't need to substitute anything because it is already super healthy, and making any substitutes would probably taint the recipe.  Besides the oats, it has a very small amount of whole wheat flour to give them the muffin texture, and then it just has egg whites, brown sugar, honey, vanilla, a little bit of olive oil, applesauce, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and of course blueberries!  The muffin tins get filled pretty much to the top, but you don't have to worry about them spilling over because they don't really rise a lot in the oven.  Once the tins are filled, you just put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 22 minutes, and then they are ready to eat!

I prefer this recipe way more than the Honey Coconut Blueberry Bran Muffins that I previously blogged about, because while those muffins tasted healthy, these still have the sweetness that I look for in a muffin.  The combination of the oats with the brown sugar reminds me of a nice bowl of oatmeal, and the blueberries do a good job of breaking up the sweetness.  This recipe put my distaste for fruity muffins to the test, and ultimately I do enjoy these.  It is a nice change from what I usually make, and they feel healthier than some of my other muffin recipes.  If you are someone that likes blueberry muffins, I would give this recipe a try.  It is a bit different from a traditional blueberry muffin because of the oats, but it is still very delicious!

Honey Coconut Blueberry Bran Muffins

Today is Tuesday, which in my apartment means muffin day!  Since about January, I have tried to make a new and healthy muffin/scone every week.  I use recipes that I found on skinnytaste.com, emilybites.com, and a bunch that I adapted off of Pinterest to make a bit healthier.  Most, if not all, of the muffins that I make have no butter and use unsweetened applesauce instead of oil to keep them moist and low in fat.   I usually limit the quantity of muffins that I make to 4 because even though they are healthier, they are still muffins and should be eaten in moderation.  After making a new kind of muffin every Tuesday for about 3 months, I finally got to the repeats and there are about 8 that made it onto the permanent list (including these)!

So, today was Honey Coconut Blueberry Bran Muffins.  Again, I found the recipe for these on skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/08/honey-coconut-blueberry-bran-muffins.html).  I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of fruit in muffins with the exception of bananas.  But, my sister love blueberries in muffins so I try to be a good roommate and make blueberry muffins once in a while.    That being said, I'm glad that I gave this recipe a shot because I really enjoy these muffins.  They are very hearty and filling, and have nice texture because of the blueberries, coconut, and chopped nuts.  They also have a significant amount of wheat bran which makes them more healthy!  The only real change I made from the skinnytaste recipes was to use pecans instead of walnuts, because I just love pecans.

To me, this muffin has the perfect balance of sweetness, moistness, and healthiness!  Adding the coconut and the chopped nuts adds another layer of taste to them, and the wheat bran makes them very fiberous (not sure if that is actually a word) and filling.  I highly recommend trying this recipe, even if you are skeptical about fruit muffins like I was!