Chocolate Chip Pancakes Recipe

One of my favorite memories as a child, is sitting around my Grandmother’s table eating thick, fluffy and flavorful pancakes. Although she didn’t call them pancakes. To her pancakes were the skinny and flat breakfast food. To her, these were called hotcakes! So I grew up with the idea that there are pancakes and then there are hotcakes. Hotcakes are always my favorite. But really the difference is how thick and fluffy they turn out. After years of hunting and trial and error playing with ingredient portions, we found a recipe that comes close to replicating my grandmother’s chocolate chip hotcakes pancake recipe! It is one of the most frequent breakfast requests of our family. I hope you enjoy this simple, but fully delectable breakfast recipe.

Grandma’s Hotcakes pancake recipe ingredients

What I love about this hotcakes recipe is that it doesn’t call for obscure ingredients. All the ingredients are common staple items in our pantry and we can always make this recipe on the fly with no pre-planning. It’s perfect for those lazy Saturday or Sunday mornings. To make this delicious pancake recipe you will need

1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 – 3/4 cup chocolate chips, cinnamon chips and/or chopped nuts (optional, but highly recommend)

Need a dairy free alternative? No problem. We cook dairy free all the time due to milk allergies. Almond milk and coconut milk is amazing in this recipe. Soy works as well, but the almond and coconut give the best flavor.

Turning Pancakes into Hotcakes.

Mix all your ingredients together until the batter is smooth. It will be thicker than most pancake batter. This is a good thing. Then fold in the chocolate chips. Using a soup ladle or the equivalent drop batter in round mounds onto a warmed griddle pan.

You can cook these in a pan on the stove, but you will need to be more diligent in watching them. It is a lot easier to burn them as you can’t regulate the temperature as easily. Also it takes a lot longer to cook them all. I can usually cook 6-8 pancakes at a time on our griddle depending on how large I make the hotcakes. This makes breakfast cooking time go a lot faster, which is very important when you have hungry kids barking “When’s breakfast going to be ready? I’m hungry!”

The trick to turning pancakes into hotcakes is merely how thick the batter is. The thicker the batter, the thicker the pancake will turn out to be. That is as long as it has baking soda in the recipe. That is the key to getting the pancake to pop and fluff during the cooking process. Although with a thicker pancake you need to cook them at a slightly lower temperature for a little longer time. This ensures you have a fully cooked center and not left with gooey batter. It also prevents them from burning on the outside.

For our griddle cakes I usually start the griddle off at 350 degrees but often times I lower the temperature down to 325 degrees if I find it starts to cook them too quickly on the outside. I cook the pancakes until the bottom edge begins to turn golden. You won’t be able to use the old trick of seeing bubbles form and pop on the top. The batter is too thick. When you see those bubbles form on top, it is too late the bottom is burned.

You want to just keep an eye on the bottom edge to see when it begins to turn golden. Keep track of the amount of time it takes to cook the first side. Then flip. Cook the opposite side the hotcakes for slightly less than what it took to cook the first side.

Remove from griddle and serve! We love to top with pure maple syrup. But another great topping ideas are sliced berries, natural peanut butter, and Nutella. Together or separate. My husband loves the natural peanut butter with pure maple syrup. I’m a purist and love just the pure maple syrup. The kids love it all.

Another great favorite of ours is using Cinnamon Chips instead of chocolate chips. But since Jade has developed a slight allergy to the cinnamon chips, we can’t use them very often any longer. But they are also absolutely delicious in these pancakes! When I’m really motivated, I will mix the batter and portion out a bit for Jade’s pancakes and add chocolate chips into hers and use cinnamon chips in the rest of the batter for the rest of the family. Sometimes I use both chocolate chips and Cinnamon chips. Oh my, those are delicious too! Just have fun with your additions.

For your convenience, We’ve also added in a simple printer friendly version below!

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Chocolate Chip Hotcakes Recipe, Best Thick & Fluffy Pancakes

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup chocolate chips, cinnamon chips and/or chopped nuts

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Gently fold in Chocolate chips, cinnamon chips and/or chopped nuts
3. Portion out on warm griddle set between 325-350 degrees.
4. Cook until golden on bottom
5. Flip
6. Cook until golden
7. Serve hot with your favorite toppings.

Which do you prefer, hotcakes or pancakes?

Are you a thick or thin pancake fan?

What is your favorite pancake topping?