We love pancakes at our house! However, I don’t really love the sugar-high and sticky mess which comes along with drenching them in syrup (which my children enjoy doing!). So I found them if we sprinkled in some chocolate chips, the mess and sugar was reduced because the chocolate chips eliminate the need for syrup!
Here’s our family favorite recipe which we’ve made time and again. It was originally tweaked from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.
Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour (we use freshly-ground flour)
- 2 tablespoons turbinado (or sugar)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 beaten eggs
- 2 cups milk, buttermilk or sour milk*
- 4 tablespoons melted butter (you can also use oil or coconut oil, but we prefer butter)
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl. Combine the eggs, milk and melted butter in a separate bowl.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add egg mixture and chocolate chips. Stir until just moistened.
Cook on a greased pancake griddle. Serve immediately or cool and freeze.
To freeze: Lay cooked and cooled pancakes on a baking sheet and stick in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour (until frozen). Remove from pan and place in airtight freezer bags or containers.
To thaw: Take desired number of pancakes out of freezer bags and heat one to two at a time in the microwave for one to two minutes. Or, place on a baking sheet and cook in a 350-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until heated through. Serve immediately.
Makes around 10 regular-sized pancakes. I usually double or quadruple the recipe when I make it for the freezer.
*I freeze milk that I find marked down at the store or milk which is almost souring and then we just thaw it in the refrigerator or in a sink full of warm water and use it in pancakes.
What we like to do at our house to reduce the maple syrup ‘drownings’ is to mix a bit of maple syrup into some plain (regular or non-fat) yoghurt, and use that over our pancakes!
Brilliant.
also to make sour milk, you take whatever regular milk amount is, and add 2 tablespoons of vingar. Let is sit for 5 min.
You can also add lemon juice to milk if you don’t have buttermilk on hand.
I’m not a fan of messy syrup either. I let the kids put “snow” (powdered sugar) on their pancakes. I love how versatile food can be!
I never realized you could freeze pancakes. This will make such a nice weekday breakfast for my kiddos before school. Also I totally agree about not using a ton of maple syrup. I mash sweet ripe strawberries and use it as a healthy pancake topping. I think I might freeze some of my topping in muffin tins so I have portioned amounts to serve with my pancakes. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
@$tephanie, Stephanie, your post sounds as if you are able to find SWEET strawberries year-round… I hardly ever find naturally sweet strawberries. Is there a secret to finding perfectly sweet ones any time of the year?
Wow I never would have thought you could FREEZE milk!!!! Although we use soy…not sure it work out the same since it already lasts a lot longer and I never see it marked down.
@val, hee-hee. Me too. Until I was breast-feeding and freezing the surplus and I had one of those “doh” moments….
We make chocolate chips pancakes too and instead of syrup, we spread a thin layer of peanut butter on top … Melty and YUMMY!!
I was just thinking that I needed to find this recipe on your site and then it pops up in my reader. Crazy.
Thanks!
I take frozen pancakes directly from the freezer and pop them in the toaster. It keeps them from being soggy or rubbery from the microwave.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I have 1/2 gallon of sour milk, so it’ll be a good time to try it out.
Thanks for posting your recipe – looking forward to trying it!
:-p I am super curious how adding chocolate chips to your pancakes has made them less messy!! Certainly less sticky – but less messy?! 🙂
We serve ’em cold a lot of times. And a few chocolate chips don’t add much mess… at least not at all in the proportions that syrup does!
@Crystal,
It must be the boy factor. Judah and Wesley can make a mess of ANYTHING!
We don’t do syrup at all here, so that mess is eliminated – I decided when they were very young to never introduce it so they haven’t a clue that there’s a world of happy children getting syrup on their pancakes!
Smart woman. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to do so. 🙁
These sound delish, I haven’t made pancakes in ages and will have to give these a try. Thanks Crystal for sharing the recipe!
I love the idea about mashing strawberries for a healthy topping. I buy frozen strawberries, so I guess if you thaw them in the microwave, it would be about the same effect.
We don’t make anything from scratch, but I add oatmeal to the pancake mix, to make it healthier. We do make chocolate chip pancakes, but still use syrup on top. I’d love powdered sugar too. I may try the strawberry idea or powdered sugar and see if we can cut down on the syrup.
My kids (ages 4 & 2) actually don’t like syrup, so we add a little butter and a little bit of crumbled brown sugar. They love their pancakes like that!
@Christy, This is what we do as well! It was how my grandpa ate them so we did it because he did it and now it is on to the next generation….
@Homestead,
It’s the best, isn’t it! 🙂 Yum! I’m getting really hungry for some pancakes right about now.
I’ve been making mini pancakes and freezing for my daughter for some time now. She likes to dip them in syrup, which is quite messy because it leaves a string of syrup from the bowl to her mouth, but recently she has been opting for no syrup, just butter. We were also given a huge bag of frozen blueberries that my uncle grew, and my husband has either thrown a few of those into the mix an made blueberry pancakes, or he threw them in a pot with a bit of sugar and cooked them down and we used that as a pancake topping and it was amazing!
Awesome recipe. I will definitely be using this, in the near future. Had no idea, you could freeze pancakes. Thanks, for sharing.
Oh my yummy goodness!! Crystal, you have made this pregnant mommy crave these now, something awful! We eat pancakes alot in our house, almost as much as grits. (Which, by the way, are as messy to clean off the table and your wee ones as syrup is. I can never get all the grits out from baby boy’s finger pudge!) 😉 Haven’t made choc. chip ones in a while, so these are definitely on the menu now!
My son almost never has syrup on his pancakes. Mostly I use no-sugar or low-sugar (storebought or homemade) jam. Doesn’t cut down on the stickiness, but I feel like it’s at least marginally healthier. I also mash fruit like peaches or strawberries as someone else suggested.
So how does one go about getting whole wheat? And how does one go about grinding it and using it? And turbinado? I would love more info on that. Maybe an idea for a post Crystal : ) Thanks for all you do!
@Jana Biel, You can get wheat berries (I’m not sure where “normal” people get those, I would get them from a co-op) and you buy a wheat mill (which ranges from cheap but a ton of work to expensive and you just plug it in) and grind your flour fresh.
If you like chocolate chips in your pancakes you should try out the Hershey’s cinnamon baking chips for a nice fall-flavored treat. Maybe even in pumpkin pancakes, or possibly sprinkled on plain ones with sliced bananas.
@Elizabeth, Okay! I’m going to have to avoid this site now to a avoid all these cravings throught my pregnancy! 😉 Sounds so yummy….awesome idea!
My whole wheat pancakes are sugar free:-) Sometimes we put chocolate chips in them… we almost always top them with applesauce! (sugar free) Sometimes we top them with peanut butter.
@Danielle, Never thought of adding PB to pancakes…I bet that would be super good on these choco chip ones! I’ll have to give it a try!
@Danielle, Applesauce! Great idea… maybe I’ll try that one.
OK, we do syrup, and I’ve never felt bad about it. But I do love the idea of sprinkling brown sugar on top!
We also use the toaster to warm ours up. Such an easy breakfast!
Just a friendly warning: coconut oil makes delicious waffles and pancakes, but remember that it has a super-low melting temperature! If you put it into a batter with cold milk (or any milk less than about 75 degrees) it will chunk right up into a solid and your batter will be a mess. Ask me how I know. 😉
a light dusting of powdered sugar makes my three kids soooo happy!
I heat-up frozen pancakes and waffles in the toaster too. It keeps the pancakes soft and the waffles crispy.
My son loves to dip his pancakes in ketchup (oh, yes he does). He has done this since he was a toddler and continues even at age 6. It doesn’t bother me so much at home but when we go out for breakfast (or breakfast for dinner at IHOP) we get a lot of strange looks and comments!!
Thanks for the recipe! I made a double batch last night and almost everyone had some for breakfast. They crisp up nicely in the toaster and only 1 of my 5 children used syrup. We used mini choco chips and they worked great. Usually when I use the regular chips they burn on my griddle. Thanks again!
Do you think these would be ok on the P90X program. I know you are doing it and we are starting on Monday. Just trying to get a menu plan together
Can’t wait to try this recipe! My 4 year old is on a pb/j kick with cottage cheese on the side so hopefully, the thought of chocolate chips will intrigue him to try something else!
(Husband is taking night classes 4 nights/week so it’s just my boy and me so supper has gone to the super classy pb/j for him, cereal for me) . Me-I LOVE pancakes for supper!
Does anyone know if it is possible to turn these into waffles? I like the thicker texture of waffles over pancakes. It is so nice to find whole-wheat recipes!
We make a lot of pancakes at our house, too. I have several different recipes and am glad to add a new one. Half of my kids like chocolate chips, half prefer peanut butter chips. We also like them plain with homemade strawberry jam, or a little whipped cream on top. Yum!
Just made these and Yummy! Made a double batch and ended up using 1/2 cup of applesauce and 2 eggs instead of the 4 eggs because I dropped 2 on the way to the bowl…
They turned out really good. Just a hint of apple flavor and it still went really well with the chocolate chips.
thanks for the recipe!
I’m surprised no one has tried these with banana in the mix! I made them this morning and reduced the milk to 1 1/2 cups and added 1/2 cup of mashed banana and they were so good. My 2 yr old and 4 yr old LOVED them!
I love syrup, it’s what we’ve always used. The kiddos learn as they age, and whats a little mess for delicious pancakes. We’ve even added blueberries or chopped strawberries to our mix.