Chocolate Chip Pancakes

What’s more comforting and indulgent than starting the day with chocolate chip pancakes? These are light, fluffy, versatile, and downright delicious — ideal for serving to company or elevating any weekend morning at home.

These chocolate chip pancakes are a chocolate lover’s delight, gooey with ample melty semi-sweet chocolate. Pick your style: If you choose to make them with chopped chocolate, you’ll get a result almost like chocolate batter, with consistent flavor throughout. Or if you make them with chocolate chips, you’ll get pockets of melty chocolate in every bite. Either way, you can’t lose. 

Learn how to make chocolate chip pancakes. Serve with maple syrup and softened butter — even whipped cream, if you like — for a crowd-pleasing breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Pancakes

To make chocolate chip pancakes, you’ll need several ingredients that are widely available at any conventional grocery store: 

• All-purpose flour: This type of flour provides the best body and texture for these griddle-cooked pancakes.
• Granulated sugar: Sugar adds sweetness to the batter, but it also helps enable better browning on the pancakes.
• Kosher salt: Balance is essential for flavor, and salt balances the other ingredients so the pancakes aren't too sweet.
• Baking powder and baking soda: These leaveners help the pancakes cook up tall and fluffy. We use two leaveners since the cooking time on these pancakes is so short; the batter needs extra power to fluff up.
• Large eggs: Eggs give structure to the batter.
• Whole buttermilk: We prefer buttermilk in pancakes because it keeps the batter thick, activates the leaveners, and provides a subtle hint of tartness.
• Unsalted butter: Melted butter adds richness to the batter. You'll need more for greasing the pan, as well as for serving.
• Vanilla extract: Balances all the flavors of the pancakes and elevates the other ingredients.
• Chocolate: You can choose: Use either semisweet chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate from one four-ounce bar. (Use the same amount of chocolate either way.)
• Pure maple syrup: For serving, we like pure maple syrup because it's thinner and has a more complex flavor. Pancake syrups tend to be thick and overly sweet.

How To Make Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Whether this is your first time or 100th time to make pancakes, this recipe couldn't be easier to follow. Here's a brief guide; the full recipe is further below:

• Step 1. Ready the ingredients: In one bowl, combine dry ingredients, including flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients.
• Step 2. Make batter: Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients, and use a spoon or spatula to mix until the batter it just combined. Fold the chocolate chips into the batter.
• Step 3. Rest batter: For the fluffiest, most tender pancakes, let the batter rest for several minutes. During this time, the flour will absorb moisture and turn extra light. The final result is pancakes that are out-of-this-world fluffy.
• Step 4. Cook pancakes: Warm a griddle or pan over medium-low heat. Melt butter, and coat the pan or griddle. Then, scoop batter onto the pan, and cook until golden brown. Flip to the uncooked side, and finish cooking. Keep warm while you cook the remainder of the pancakes.

Should You Let Pancake Batter Rest?

Yes, allowing pancake batter to rest gives the flour time to hydrate, or absorb the liquid, which results in a lighter and fluffier pancake. You won’t necessarily get a strong visual cue that indicates when this process is complete, but you will notice that the batter will look slightly thicker and have formed small bubbles on top. 

How To Store and Reheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Cooked pancakes can be fully cooled to room temperature then stored in a freezer-safe large resealable bag in the freezer for up to three months. Or, store pancakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

To reheat pancakes — whether frozen or from room temperature — place them in the toaster until heated through, at a low setting. (Use the toaster’s frozen button if available; it adds one minute at a lower temperature for warming.)

Chocolate Chip Pancake Recipe Tips

Our Test Kitchen made dozens of chocolate chip pancakes to get this recipe just right. Here's what they learned in the process:

• Don't overmix. Overmixing will lead to a chewy, tough pancake; only mix until you still have some small lumps.
• Give some space. Make sure that you don’t overcrowd the pan as you will need room to maneuver the pancakes and flip them.
• Let them spread. Pour pancake batter from a little bit of a height, about four inches away from the pan. The height of the pour will help the pancakes to spread into a circle.
• Flip with confidence! Quickly push your spatula under the whole pancake and then flip quickly for the most even cooking and appealing shape.

More Pancake Recipes

While the griddle is hot, try one of these pancake recipes next:

• Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
• Sheet Pan Berry Pancakes With Honey-Butter Syrup
• Zucchini Bread Pancakes
• Big-Batch Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes
• Ricotta Pancakes With Brown Butter Maple Syrup and Blueberry Compote
• Old-Fashioned Pancakes

Editorial contributions by Alesandra Dubin.