I made this recipe for the first time yesterday. Considering that there are only a few pancakes left and I doubled the recipe intending to freeze most of them, I’d say these were a hit!
Whole Wheat Chocolate Pancakes Recipe
Makes 12-16 full-sized pancakes
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 1/4 cups buttermilk (or make your own)
- 4 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 4 Tablespoons brewed coffee
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, combine beaten eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, coffee and vanilla.
Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients and fold in with a spatula until just combined. Allow the mixture to set for a few minutes to thicken.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Melt a teaspoon of butter in the pan. Ladle 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and cook pancakes until small bubbles begin to form on the surface. Flip and cook one to two minutes more. Transfer to a serving plate and repeat for the remaining batter.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.
To Freeze:
Lay cooled pancakes on a cookie sheet in a single layer and freeze for one to two hours. Remove from pan and stack in a ziptop bag. Seal tightly and freeze for up to a month.
To serve: Remove from freezer and warm in the microwave on high for one to two minutes, warm on a cookie sheet in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or heat in a toaster oven. Serve.
Recipe adapted from February/March 2011 issue of Kiwi magazine.
Ever since I made these, my kids ask for them every morning for breakfast. I think you have some raving fans here. I used fresh soft white wheat and kefir for the buttermilk. Absolutely amazing.
Yum, yum, yum!!
These were absolutely delicious!! I didn’t have buttermilk — or means to make any — so I used organic half & half and organic 1% milk and they turned out GREAT! Thank you so much for your inspiration, Crystal!! 🙂
I am hoping that someone can help me with this baking problem. When I use freshly ground wheat flour, my pancakes always turn out flat and thin. It happened again with this recipe. I did make a couple adjustments to the recipe (1/4 cup less sugar & 1/4 cup less cocoa-replaced with 1/2 cup more flour), but I don’t think that would have caused my thin pancakes. Besides this has happened before with other recipes. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? Thanks!
If pancakes are turning out thin, I just start adding more flour until they aren’t thin anymore. Usually 1/4th to 1/2 cup extra will do it.
If you are using freshly ground flour and pancakes are turning out flat I would 1) figure out if your 1cup measurement is accurate by weight-my fresh ground flour is super light and fluffy-like it’s been sifted, so you may be measuring way less than a true cup of you are not using grams but measuring by volume 2) make sure the flour is cool, not hot as I imagine it could impact it slightly depending on leavening agent and 3) MOST IMPORTANT! With whole wheat flour you have to let it sit or “autolyse” to give the flour time to soak in the liquid and soften the bran….it will make your baked goods softer and way more enjoyable.
Great recipe! I just made it this morning– we had almost a whole can of pumpkin I needed to use up, so I threw it in there instead of the eggs and butter… worked out ok, for a low-fat version. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
Also– We’ve been eating these out of the freezer all week (yum!) and have found that a little vanilla yogurt makes a great, not-too-sweet, not-too-overpowering topping for a pancake that already has so much flavor in it! Thanks again!
Ok, so I made these this morning since my son is always begging for pancakes. They were a super hit! And both my 5-year-old and 2-year-old ate them without the powdered sugar or syrup or anything (which is AH-mazing)! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I added 3 tbsp of butter and cooked them in a waffle maker. I am freezing them for toaster waffles.
Tastebuds are so different – I wouldn’t touch a chocolate chip pancake, muffin, etc!
I just wanted to make a suggestion. Most of your food is very healthy, I commend you on that, and I didn’t know if you ever looked into the Sneaky Chef recipes, where you add veggie/fruit purees into food to make them even healthier. I highly recommend it. For examply, the recipe you just posted with the chocolate pancakes, we add a blueberry spinach puree, and they are still delicious and you get an extra boost of nutrients. The french toast recipe is awesome as well with a carrot/sweet potato puree. Just a suggestion 🙂
sounds yummy!
… on the buttermilk – if you often wish for it in recipes but don’t normally buy it – try the dry buttermilk. it gets you more of the buttermilk flavor vs the milk/vinegar method. i use it for pancakes constantly (i order it on multipacks on amazon and it ends up much cheaper than buying either fresh or dried in the grocery store)
Crystal, did you use real buttermilk or the make-your-own option?
Also, you can add coffee to most any chocolate recipe. Try one recipe w/coffee and the same recipe w/o it. See the suble difference.
If you’re a coffee lover, try adding some healthy cinnamon to the grounds before brewing…yummy!
Your recipes and pics of food always make me hungry:)
Sounds delish! I sometimes make a vegan pancake recipe even though we aren’t vegan, because it’s much cheaper. No eggs, no buttermilk or milk. You simply use water. I would replace the coffee with water as I’m positive it wouldn’t ‘mess’ up the consistency, etc.. you simply will miss that little flavor enhancement. I’m definitely going to try this one!
Can you use whole wheat pastry flour for the above recipes? If so, do I need to add anything or leave anything out?
I think that should work just fine. Let us know if you try it.
can you use splenda instead of sugar maybe??? i have a house full of diabetics and a child i dont want to be one..lol
You can substitute xylitol in equal amounts for the sugar. Xylitol has a glycemic index of 7 and has been shown to prevent tooth decay. You can buy it at amazon.com.
This is so cool! I am going to try this the weekend coming up! See if they notice the difference and thank you so much for posting freezing instructions! What a time saver.
These sound great! For those wondering about the coffee, often coffee is added in small amounts to chocolatey recipes not to make the finished product taste like it has coffee in it, but to enhance the flavor of the chocolate. Many times it just makes the chocolate taste more chocolatey instead of like coffee.
I can taste even the teenyist bit of coffee in a recipe. I once had a cookie recipe that had 1/2 teaspoon of coffee for the entire batch and I couldn’t eat them because I tasted the coffee lol
I know what you mean, Rae. I can taste the coffee flavor even in recipes with very small amounts of it. I guess I’m just sensitive to the taste 🙂 Substituting with another liquid (as suggested here) has always worked for me! 🙂
Great recipe though!
I agree Cassie. The coffee is probably to enhance the chocolate flavor. But, if you don’t want coffee, just use an equal amount of another liquid. I would use more buttermilk personally.
Do you have a Village Inn in your part of the state? They have amazing whole wheat pancakes (that are a tad sweet and I’m pretty sure there’s cinnamon in them) and I WANT THE RECIPE. 🙂 Do you (or anyone else out there in blog land) know which ones I’m talking about? Help!?!?
I’ve not had them before, but maybe someone here has a link to the recipe. Maybe?
YUM! (except for the coffee yuck) I bet they wouldn’t make it to the freezer here either
You won’t taste the coffee.
could you recommend something to replace the coffee with?
I’d probably just replace it with water or milk (unless someone else has another brilliant idea?)
chocolate syrup! What you were trying to make them somewhat healthy? oh darn lol can you tell I’m a chocoholic? haha
Or chocolate milk? 🙂
Replace coffee?? That’s what got me from “maybe I could make these” to “oh yes! there’s coffee! it’s on the menu now.” :0)
I just checked my Kiwi magazine recipe and it used 2 tbsp of coffee (which I left out), this adapted recipe uses 4 tbsp so than I would NOT just omit the coffee I would swap it with another fluid. Sorry, didn’t catch that.
I doubled the recipe and posted the doubled instructions here, which is why there are 4 Tablespoons in the recipe posted. Just FYI. 🙂
The coffee helps to bring out the full flavor of the chocolate, so you don’t want to eliminate it. You can use decaf coffee, if the caffeine is the issue for you.
Is that the REAL Sandra Lee??
:))
I made these too (I subscribe to Kiwi) and I just left out the coffee without adding anything else. They turned out fine, couldn’t tell
Thank you for this!!! I have been waiting for this alll day! It sounds soooo yummy and would be great for my hubs in the morning since he tends to skip breakfast! Thanks!!! You are awesome!!