It's the first weekend of the New Year and I wanted to make something fun and light in the kitchen. 🙂 I love getting healthy stuff in the toddler most mornings and what can be more fun then chocolate pancakes!
Actually, I can't lie. I was the one who wanted them. When I asked he said...
"I don't like chocolate pancakes. I only like regular pancakes."
Ahhhh what does he know. He's three. Plus he's never even had chocolate pancakes. I made them anyway because once I got them in my head I couldn't get them out. 🙂
Now, let me warn ya. My idea wasn't to make an overly sweet cake. Actually I purposely kept them a bit bland knowing I'd be topping them. See, my theory is by not presenting overly sweet things to the toddler he won't get that taste for it. Just like salt, if you don't eat sweet stuff every day then when you do you really only need a little bit to satisfy the craving. It's also like milk. When we were kids we drank whole and I remember skim being, well, yucky. Then slowly we started shifting to skim and now I think whole is gross. It's all in what you are used to.
Sorry, I got off track didn't I? Anyway, I am very happy with my first attempt at these. I took my old Quick Whole Grain Banana Pancakes and just modified slightly. And added a topping of course! Here's how I made them this morning. 
- 1 overripe banana
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (75g) fat free yogurt
- ¼ cup water
(water and yogurt can be replaced with ½ cup (4oz) skim milk) - ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (20g)
- ½ cup (60g) whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat white)
- pinch of powder sugar for presentation (optional)
Mash the banana in a medium bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, yogurt, and water. Whisk until a bit frothy and smooth.
In a smaller bowl mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa powder. Sift it into the banana mixture. Mix until just blended. It will be thick.
Plop with a tablespoon and smooth the batter into small cakes in a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cook about 1-2 minutes a side, bubbles will form when ready to flip.
Easy Blueberry Topping
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 tbsp whole wheat flour
- ½ tsp stevia (or your sweetener of choice)
Place all ingredients in a small pan over medium heat. Stir frequently. once blueberries thaw and mixture gets thick add a tbsp of water. Stir to incorporate. Keep warm over low hear adding water if it gets too thick before serving.
Here's the toddler chowing down on the cake while watching Lazy Town. He didn't want anything to do with my topping so he ate them plain like cookies. Notice I have to now take pictures in his natural habitat as he's not as easily amused as he once was. 🙂
To serve place 2-3 cakes on a small plate and top with a dollop of the blueberries. Now, I actually got 10 cakes out of the batter but I can see others getting 8. I make them quite small. So I'm basing the nutritional info on 4 servings. That would be 2 cakes each if you got 8 cakes. What you see pictured is a little less then a serving.
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 2 Cakes with a Tbsp of Topping | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 250 | 3g | 9g | old: 5 | new: 7 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 9g | 1g | 51g | 10g | |
I think I'll make these for MY toddler and pre-schooler tonight to celebrate national pancake day! They look AMAZING, if they are anything like those chocolate cookies...look out! My son (22 months) asks for those cookies on a regular basis and I'm happy to have a healthy cookie to be able to give him! Hopefully these will also be a hit, how could they not be!
yum, those look scrumptious!
Mandy - That's a great question! I was actually anticipating it! LOL I used a "soup" spoon. I call them tablespoons. Anyway, I used one heaping one which actually turns out to be just under 1/4 of a cup. I think it's just easier to use the soup spoon.
Does that help?
Please never fear in asking a question. I'm here to help! 🙂
roni, sorry to ask this - but is each pancake only 1 tbsp of batter?
These look good. I've been using the Fiber One mix, which is REALLY good. I put bananas and nut in one batch and blueberries in another.
Jamie - ohh yeah! That would be YUMMY! Blackberries too! 🙂
Could you make the topping the same way with frozen raspberries?
I made a batch of these yesterday to freeze so they would be readily available during the week. Of course, I had to try one since I made 9 (don't want to freeze and unevent amount). These are great!!! My bananas were still green so I used some cinnamon applesauce instead but they came out great. Love the idea of chocolate pancakes. I think they will be my new favorite.
Can I say you've inspired me to start creating again? I'm ADDICTED to chocolate pancakes and thought I'd sworn them off for good!
Gonna have to run out to pick up some whole wheat floor...everything else is in the fridge or freezer!
Keep the recipies, dollface! I'm itching to start making food from stratch again this year (I got lazy, what I can I say...lol).
Love the website and the blog, you're truely an inspiration.
I made these this morning. The moistness was dead-on, but since I wasn't topping them, there were a bit non-sweet. You warned me, LOL! I used Dutch Process cocoa which gave a really nice deep choc flavor. I'm considering using brewed coffee instead of water to amplify the choc flavor even more. Thanks for the idea (all recipes to me are a starting point 😉
I made these for my kids this morning as a treat to start our new semester of homeschool. Thank you for posting this recipe. They were terrific! And I appreciate all you do to encourage us to eat right. Thank you,
Jenn
Hey Roni! I just made these, with some minor changes from what I had on hand. I am about to post it so check it out later if you have time!
Happy Sunday!
Roni,
I used to religiously read your blog about a year and a half ago. I reached my goal and spent the last year and a half slacking off. I'm back on the diet/fitness bandwagon and clicked my bookmark to find your site and couldn't believe how far you're little blog has come! Congratulations!! Okay so I tried these for breakfast this morning. The texture was great! I only had dark chocolate cocoa laying around and perhaps it was a little too dark, because I really felt these needed some sweetener (or perhaps I'm just a little too conditioned to sweet, as you mentioned above). I'll definitely try them again either with some splenda or with some regular cocoa...or both! Thanks for sharing!
I am SO making these! Thanks, Roni!
These sound awesome, can't wait to try them!
barb - WOW I can't believe you already made them! So glad you liked them!
Priyanka - That was my favorite part too! 🙂
I'm thinking about making these, but adding peanut butter chips to the batter and forgetting the blueberry topping. Nothing like chocolate, banana, and peanut butter!
The pancakes look great and appetizing, but I am really drawn to the blueberry topping. Just felt like scooping it out from the picture!I know I am sounding crazy, bit I love Blueberries!
Too funny. I felt like having pancakes this morning, but wasn't sure I had the necessary ingredients on hand. With this recipe, I did. They were easy to make and excellent. My husband liked them too.
Thank for brightening my day!
Looks great thanks for sharing!
They look delicious! I can't wait to try them.