Perfect Chocolate Pancakes

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Author: Delphine Fortin
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 12 pancakes 1x
Category: Breakfast
Diet: Vegetarian

Perfect chocolate pancakes are easy to make, fluffy, and topped with a rich hot chocolate sauce (not optional!).

Ingredients

Scale

For the chocolate pancakes:

1 ¼ cup (180g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coffee granules + 2 Tablespoons water, hot*
⅓ cup (35g) unsweetened cocoa powder**
1 cup (240 ml) semi-skimmed or whole milk, warm***
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons (30g) melted butter, slightly cooled, or vegetable oil
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the hot chocolate sauce:

½ cup (90g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup (60 ml) heavy whipping cream

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Instructions

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Dissolve coffee granules with hot water in a medium bowl*. Add cocoa powder, and pour in the hot milk over, whisking as you go, until completely dissolved. Let cool down until just warm to the touch.*** Once cooled, whisk in the eggs and the slightly cooled melted butter (or vegetable oil).
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir (do not overmix)****. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes on the counter before using.
Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate sauce. Heat chocolate chips and whipping cream in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until perfectly smooth.
Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat, and coat generously with vegetable oil. For each pancake, spoon 2 or 3 Tablespoons of batter onto skillet. Cook until the surface of pancakes have some bubbles, about 1 minute. Flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until set on the underside.
When ready to serve, pour the warm chocolate sauce over the pancakes, and serve with toppings of choice and additional maple syrup if desired.

Notes

* For a kid version, you can skip the coffee part, and simply dissolve cocoa with hot milk.

** Cocoa powder. Use ⅓ cup (35g) unsweetened cocoa powder, Dutch processed. This makes about 5 Tablespoons cocoa powder.

*** Hot milk. Warm up the milk in the microwave for about 40 seconds. Milk should be hot enough to easily dissolve cocoa powder. It’s important to let cool slightly before using to make sure it does not interfere with the action of baking powder in the recipe.

**** Add chocolate chips (optional). For very chocolate-y pancakes, you can add some chocolate chips to the batter or sprinkle them over each pancake while they are cooking on the first side (my preferred method as you can easily spread them over the pancakes the way you like).