Healthy Chocolate Chip Pancakes
When I was a child, there was something magical about waking up on a weekend morning to the sounds of clinking pans and the smell of something cooking. I can still hear my parents voices, the sink turning on and off, and the spontaneous sizzle of whatever was on the menu. Was it bacon? Sausage? Or, maybe if I was really lucky, it was CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES…
In my opinion, pancakes are one of the most underestimated and most highly taken for granted foods. Think about it. What was one of the first foods you learned to cook as a child? What is one of the most requested breakfasts on birthday mornings? When you think of a special breakfast, what’s almost always included? I bet the answer is pancakes.
There’s nothing like a giant stack of flap jacks sitting in the middle of the table to bring a family together. So, when I became a mother, I couldn’t wait for the day when I could pass this memory on to my kids. Unfortunately, the food allergies and anti inflammatory restrictions that became our family made that very difficult.
Boxed Options
Most boxed pancake mixes contain a peanut cross contamination warning. Unless I want to stick my son with an EpiPen, those are probably best to avoid. There are paleo-allergy friendly brands out there. However, the ones I’ve tried have a gooey or sticky texture. If you know our family personally, you probably know none of us are getting that mess down.
Making a homemade recipe is a great option, but most contain all purpose flour, buttermilk, whole milk, or butter to make the recipe fluffy and flavorful. So, I decided it was time to whip out my mad scientist skills and get to work.
My favorite grain free flour alternative is a mix of almond flour and arrowroot starch. Almond flour is a little more gritty that all purpose flour and doesn’t hold together in recipes as well. Adding the arrowroot starch helps to balance out the texture and create more of a compact batter. I learned this from my favorite grain free muffin recipe here.
Since I already knew the muffin recipe was a success, I decided to use it as my jumping board and then adapt it into pancake batter. I just can’t help myself. Recipes are suggestions, not rules after all. Right?
Recipe
- 1 cup finely ground almond flour
- 1/2 cup arrowroot starch
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, or substitute egg alternative for egg allergy
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 melted coconut oil or avocado oil butter
- 1-3 tbsp oat milk, almond milk, or coconut milk
- Enjoy Life chocolate chips, omit or substitute stevia sweetened chips for paleo option
Step By Step Visual Guide
Step 1
Combine all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix until well combined.
Step 2
Add in all the wet ingredients except the milk. You can adjust the honey amount if you’d rather have less sweet, or more sweet, pancakes. Your batter should be thick.
Step 3
Add your milk in 1 tablespoon at a time until the batter is loose enough to resemble pancake batter. Too thick and your pancakes won’t cook. Too thin and they won’t keep their shape in the pan. It should resemble the picture here.
Step 4
Preheat your skillet on medium heat. Brush your pan with oil of choice to prevent sticking. Grab your bowl, your chocolate chips, and a scoop to spoon the batter into that pan.
Step 5
Spoon your batter into the pan. Keep your pancakes mini sized so they cook all the way through. The flour alternative mixture does not cook at the same speed as all purpose flour. Low and slow is the name of the game.
Top with chocolate chips. Remember, you measure chocolate with your heart, not a measuring cup. 😉 I prefer doing this instead of premixing into my batter because I get a more even distribution of chocolate throughout the batch.
Flip when bubbles start to form and bottom is browning. Cook the other side until cooked through and brown.
Easy Peasy!
And that’s all folks! Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy! We like to use sun butter and 100% maple syrup, but you can also use honey, fresh fruit, coconut whipped cream, or even more chocolate chips. There are no wrong answers!