Valentine Heart Pancakes – Using DIY Tinfoil Shapes (A Tutorial!)

I wanted to make something sweet for my family this Valentine’s Day – and I wanted that sweet thing to be chocolate chip pancakes before school.  But not just ANY chocolate chip pancakes: I wanted to make them in the shape of hearts.

Just one problem…. I don’t have any heart-shaped pancake molds. (Which, thinking back – are really not that expensive considering you can use them every year….)

 I did have some plastic heart cookie cutters though, and I figured I could somehow MacGyver something out of tin foil. I set out to experiment and did a trial run with my all-too-willing preschooler. Here’s how to make them!

Tutorial: Heart Pancake Molds from Tinfoil


1) Start with a plastic heart-shaped cookie cutter – even if you just have one, you can make several molds. Do these a few days ahead, and you’ll be ready to cook up some love come Valentine’s morning!

2) Tear off a square of tin foil and fold it longways into a stiff 1″ strip – I folded mine over about 6 or 7 times. Make nice sharp creases and press it tightly to mimic a stiff metal strip. Trim any jagged extras.

3) Using your cookie cutter as a template, press your foil strip along the inside edge until you have a nice heart shape. If your ends don’t quite meet, no biggie – you can bend it a little to make it touch in a moment.

4) Here is my heart, after I took it out of the cookie cutter. My ends don’t quite meet (It just wouldn’t be me if things worked out perfectly!) so I pulled them together more by bending the heart in a little.

 

5) Fold one end over the other a bit to close the gap and pinch together – that way no pancake batter can seep out of the opening.

6) Now – coat the inside of your mold very well with nonstick cooking spray. I used the baking spray that has flour in it – and it worked beautifully!


7)  You’re ready to cook! With your skillet on medium-high, gently pour in the pancake batter. You can turn it down to medium after a moment – but setting it higher at the start will help fry the bottom surface of your pancake solid before it can try to seep under the edges. (Sneaky batter….)

8)  While it’s cooking, sprinkle some chocoate chips into the batter.

9)  It’s impossible to check on the bottom without ruining your heart – so I made sure mine had extra cooking help by covering it with the lid for a few minutes.

When the edges seem to be pulling off the foil and firming up – it’s time to flip. Simply peel away the foil and set aside, flip as usual. Hold your breath…….

10) AHA! That’s a heart folks! (Brief happy dance)  Remember there are chocolate chips hiding under there, so don’t let it cook on this side too long or they’ll scorch. Drumroll please………

TA-DA!

The Finale: If you’d rather not ruin your delicate love-offering by pouring syrup all over it – just sprinkle some powdered sugar on top for a pretty effect.

A Side of Heart-Bacon?

While I’m cooking my heart pancakes on the stovetop – I also plan to make Bacon Hearts in the oven…..(My husband will LOVE this!)  Just preheat your oven to 400 and slice each strip of bacon in half. Shape them into a heart on a sheet pan with edges (so you don’t get grease dripping into your oven). Bake for 18-25 minutes.

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