These delicious banana chocolate chip pancakes fill the kitchen with the aromas of rich chocolate and sweet bananas. These are also the simple ingredients you’ll find packed in the tangy buttermilk batter. You won’t believe how easy it is to make a stack of satisfying fluffy pancakes from scratch!
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Completely customizable.
Whether you like your flapjacks lightly golden, extra dark brown, or somewhere in the middle, you can prepare your chocolate chip pancakes just the way you prefer. Pack them full of chips, or go heavy on the fruit – it’s your choice. - This easy chocolate chip pancake recipe is fun for kids.
A regular short stack is delicious, but you can go a step further and let your kids or grandkids use cookie cutters to make fun or silly shapes. - It’s an easy weekend breakfast or brunch idea.
They pair well with other easy breakfast recipes like crispy breakfast potatoes, seasonal pumpkin pie baked oats, or as a sweet side to a scrambled egg sandwich recipes.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Butter – Unsalted, as we’re adding a measured amount of salt with the dry ingredients. If you have to use salted butter, omit the additional salt.
- Buttermilk – Either whole or 2% milk can be used instead. Alternatively, make a buttermilk substitute by combining 2 tablespoons of either white vinegar or lemon juice with 2 cups of regular milk (or half and half, for denser flapjacks).
- Bananas – Use a total of ¾ cup mashed bananas — the equivalent of 2 small ones.
- Baking Powder – This is what keeps these banana chocolate chip pancakes light and fluffy, even with the dense, moist fruit.
- Chocolate Chips – Use your judgment for whether to use milk, semi-sweet, or dark. It’s all about how you want your chocolate chip banana pancakes!
Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes Recipe Tips
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients — in that order!
You’ll first whisk all of the wet ingredients together, then combine the dry, and then gradually stir the dry components into the wet.
This is the absolute best method for preventing the batter from clumping, and it also helps to prevent pockets of dry ingredients.
- Be sure your griddle or skillet is preheated.
We have a quick little test that you can use to know for sure that the pan is hot and ready to start cooking your banana chocolate chip pancakes.
Before adding butter to the skillet, sprinkle just a few droplets of water onto the dry surface of the pan/griddle.
If the water jumps around on the surface and then evaporates quickly, the pan is hot and you can proceed! If it just sits and sizzles, heat it for just a bit longer.
- Look for bubbles to know when to flip the pancakes.
Once small bubbles are constantly popping up on the surface, lift the cake just a tad. If the color is lightly brown, it’s ready to flip.
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- Want perfect banana chocolate chip pancakes? Leave them be!
Whether you’re making pancakes from scratch or following the back of a box, it’s hard to resist nudging those cakes to see if they’re ready to flip…
… but that will actually reduce the quality of your chocolate chip banana pancakes! Don’t push them, and don’t press down on them — this will make them less fluffy.
This is also why you don’t flip them more than once if pillowy cakes are your goal!
Other Great Ways to Use Ripe Bananas
Soft, over-ripe bananas can be added to both sweet and savory recipes to introduce moisture, nutrition, and flavor. Obviously, they are the key ingredient in sweet banana pancakes with Bisquick, but you can add them to blueberry muffin mix pancakes too!
But those ripe bananas are good for more than adding flavor! They can be used as a substitute for up to half of the fat in many baked goods, like cookies, cakes, and even brownies.
For example, our banana sourdough muffins would look like a platter of golden treasures in a brunch spread, as would our moist banana bread with Bisquick recipe! They pair well with bitter coffee and tangy mimosas alike — perfect to start your day or even serve as a snack later on.
Recipe FAQs
The fruit will naturally make banana chocolate chip pancakes gooier than others, but the batter shouldn’t be raw or mushy.
If this is the case, and the cakes are browning while leaving a mushy center, the heat is probably too high. Lower the heat and try again!
Overly ripe bananas are perfect for making pancakes from scratch! However, if they’ve reached the point at which the flesh itself is black, pooling, or leaking liquid, and their scent is off, play it safe and dispose of them.
Make sure there isn’t too much banana weighing down the batter and making it too gooey. Take a look at the process images for an idea of the right batter consistency.
Additionally, make sure the heat isn’t too high. It’s good practice to let the pan cool and return to the right temperature between batches so that the outside doesn’t cook faster than the inside, leading to mushy banana chocolate chip pancakes.
Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 5 days and reheated on the stove at a low temperature, as well as in the microwave in short, 10 to 15-second spurts.
The batter itself can also be refrigerated overnight if you anticipate leftovers. Chocolate chip banana pancakes cook just as well the next morning!
Love Fruity Breakfast Recipes? Here’s More
- Cottage Cheese Cups with Fruit
- Strawberry French Toast
- Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Scones
- Baked Apple Fritters
If you tried this banana chocolate chip pancakes recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled (6 tablespoons = 3 ounces, or 3/4 stick)
- 2 cups buttermilk *see Notes for substitutions
- 2 large eggs slightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 small bananas mashed (about 3/4 cup mashed)
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder aluminum-free recommended
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Optional (For Serving)
- banana slices
- whipped cream or powdered sugar
- butter
- maple syrup
Instructions
- To a large mixing bowl, add butter, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk well to combine. Add mashed bananas and stir well to combine.
- To a separate mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, then whisk to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredients. Set aside to allow the pancake mixture to rest for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat a large griddle or skillet over medium heat.
- Test the skillet by adding a few drops of water to the surface; If they “dance” around, it’s time to cook!
- Add 1 tablespoon butter to the pan/griddle. When butter has melted, use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to portion pancake batter to the hot pan, leaving at least 1/4-inch space between each pancake.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon chocolate chips evenly over each portion of batter.
- Cook banana chocolate chip pancakes on the first side for 1-2 minutes, until bubbles appear on the top, and the edges are drying.
- Use a pancake turner to flip the pancakes over, then cook for another 1-2 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom.
- Note: For the fluffiest pancakes, do not press down on the batter, or flip the pancakes more than once.
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TAYLER ROSS says
I made these pancakes for breakfast this morning and they were AMAZING! Both the hubby and kids loved them!