These secretly vegan and healthy brownie batter pancakes taste like eating dessert for breakfast!
This is the pancake recipe for chocolate lovers.
Dark, rich and fudgy, yet healthy enough for breakfast at the same time!
The delicious homemade chocolate pancakes are magically made without any eggs at all and can be completely dairy free and vegan.
You may also like these Overnight Oats – 15 new flavors
Pancake Topping Ideas
Chocolate Syrup
Sliced Strawberries
Mini Chocolate Chips + Banana
For the past few days, one of my friends has been staying with me while she waits to move into a new apartment, so basically, it’s been an ongoing slumber party.
We’ve had movie nights, spa nights, and every night is chocolate night.
On the menu last night: Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Yet both of us woke up craving chocolate again this morning, and the only way to remedy this was to make a chocolate pancake feast.
Brownie Batter Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup spelt, white, or oat flour (for flourless, try these Keto Pancakes)
- 1 tbsp dutch cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tbsp sweetener of choice
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/16 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tbsp oil, or applesauce or mashed banana for fat free
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 – 5 tbsp milk of choice
Instructions
- Stir dry ingredients well, then add wet. Add more milk of choice as needed to form a batter consistency. Grease a nonstick pan well and heat on medium. When skillet is hot (add a drop of water to test – the pan is ready if it sizzles), drop small ladles of the batter. Use a spatula to flip when edges begin to look dry. Re-grease the pan after each set of pancakes.*I personally much prefer the oil version but some readers really like the fat-free one so I'm including that too. I haven't tried subbing regular cocoa powder for the dutch, so be sure to report back if you experiment with that. View Nutrition Facts
Notes
More Dessert-For-Breakfast Ideas
(Or this Vegan Banana Bread)
Love them! Doubled the ingredients for a full 3 person meal. However, the batter was way to thick (breaddough), so I doubled the milk again. Left out the sugar, added a bit more appelsauce. Perfect dark rich chocolatey pancakes, without being sweet. I finished them with a thin layer of homemade sugarfree blueberry/blackberry jam. This added a sweet-and-sour fruity touch that was absolute heaven with the chocolate. What a feast!
I made these, and they were unbelievable! And you get such a huge serving size. I will make these many, many more times
These are amazing!
Since they’re vegan, do you think the batter would work as a ganache or frosting?
I don’t know… it sounds like a fun experiment, though!
I’ve always loved this recipe but today I made it with dark chocolate almond milk and omitted the applesauce…it really tasted like I was eating brownies! (And when I inevitably ate half of the raw batter it really felt like I was eating brownie batter :p)
Just made these to satisfy my chocolate craving earlier, and I did indeed dunk them in chocolate syrup because I am an chocoholic for sure! The amount in this recipe is perfect for a light snack, and I love how low-maintence it is and how easy it’d be to double it. You’re a genius Katie, and so your blog is so fun to read for a die-hard vegan like me! 🙂
I just made these, delicious. I am going to add chopped walnuts next time.
What kind of oil do you use for these!? It’s low calorie!
What kind of oil do you use for these!? It’s
low calorie!
Going to make these on sunday! What sort of syrup/topping did you use in the pics?
That was just chocolate syrup, just for the photos. You can use anything, really! Some ideas: (Scroll down to the section titled “frostings and nut butters”)
https://lett-trim.today/chocolate-covered-recipes/snackity-snacks/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> or
https://lett-trim.today/2011/06/16/chocolate-raspberry-sauce/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
thanks! Also, another question, I do have applesauce but being abroad I think it’s a little thiner than the one you peeps in the US use. Could I sub it for natural yogurt?
Haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. But it sounds ok.
oh god, I just made and ate them. Amazing! Cannot believe there are so few calories in them!
I used one T of low fat yogurt but because the batter was a little thick I also added a T of applesauce and an extra T of skimmed milk. Perfect! Next time I’ll try adding some kind of syrup (maybe golden syrup) as I was out of any today, to make them a little more moist but they were still great as they were!
Thank you katie!!
huge serving size too!
Thanks for a great recipe Katie! I’ve toyed around with grandma’s PA Dutch pancake recipe for years, but my chocolate version never tasted this good. Absolutely love the spelt flour and applesauce substitutions, they make this healthy version taste phenomenal. I used xylitol as my sweetener just to keep the blood sugar in check, no discernible difference in the flavor. And we had no plain applesauce- the choices were blueberry, mango, and spiced Asian pear. My husband opted for the blueberry and it definitely added a great fruit component to the mix. Just waiting for the boy child to wake up and smother his in Nutella now!
I just made these, and the taste is INCREDIBLE, but the texture came out weird. I just subbed the flour since I didn’t have any spelt, but other people have subbed different things too and said they turned out fine. What did I do wrong? I used coconut oil (not as much) at first, then I had to add some almond flour and a little flax seed flour (the only three I had available). The texture of the batter seemed great, but they didn’t hold together, before or after I added the extra flour. 🙁
We still loved them though and just ate them up like crumbles of brownies! I made a simple sauce of butter, cocoa, milk, cream and xylitol. It was perfect. YUM!
Sorry, that should say that I used coconut FLOUR instead of spelt.
Coconut flour is very different from other flours. I can’t vouch for the results if you used coconut flour. Glad they were still ok though!
Just wondering if you have a recipe for the chocolate syrup in this recipe? Also, what kind of chocolate chips do you use that do not have added sugar? Love this blog, thanks!
I don’t have a recipe, but here is my favorite chocolate syrup: https://lett-trim.today/2011/06/16/chocolate-raspberry-sauce/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> As for chocolate chips, my favorite are the ghirardelli 100% discs, but you could always crumble up a sugar-free chocolate bar to make sf chocolate. I’ve bought a brand with a red label before… don’t remember the name, but it’s 70% chocolate and sugar-free.
Oh, or you can use my three-ingredient chocolate bar recipe to make chips.
My kids loved these pancakes. I don’t think they set quite right, though. The texture was not pancake-y at all. Not sure why. I did use spelt flour. Maybe because I used all applesauce and no oil? Maybe too much almond milk? Not sure. Will keep tinkering with it, because my kids did enjoy them a lot! Thank you!
Actually, im in highschool and have an after-prom sleepover coming up in a few nights, so guess who’s convincing her friends that vegan food doesn’t taste like rabbit food? (That’s literally what they refer to my lunches as!) These look wonderful, can’t wait to try them out! They’ll be wonderful with an almond milk lattee. 🙂
Oh have fun!! 🙂
Just made these, topped with your hot chocolate butter, for dinner!
These were absolutely delicious! I loved that they weren’t too sweet, just chocolatey!!
This is probably a strange question for a food blog, but would you mind sharing what kind of blush you use? It’s such a perfect pop of pink!
Aw Lia, thank you :).
I have one by Urban Decay that I really like. I don’t use it very often, though, because that brand is crazy-expensive :-?. So I also have a free one from Clinique that came in a gift!