These Chocolate Protein Pancakes are the easiest, healthy chocolate pancakes to start the day with as much as 12 grams of protein per serving. Bonus, these pancakes are also dairy-free, egg-free, and a perfect vegan post-workout recipe.
I love making my own breakfast food, from my homemade granola to protein bars. I make everything homemade. So here is a new protein powder recipe for you: fluffy chocolate protein pancakes!
Ingredients and Substitutions
It’s very simple to whip up a batch of protein pancakes using chocolate protein powder and a few basic ingredients.
- All-Purpose Flour or spelt flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour. Learn how to measure your flour.
- Chocolate Protein Powder – I tested the recipe with peanut protein powder and pea protein powder. Both provide amazing results. I am confident that any other plant-based protein powder works as well, including hemp protein powder or soy protein powder. I didn’t try the recipe with whey protein powder (it’s not vegan), but it should probably work as well.
- Yogurt of Choice – any non-dairy yogurt works, including soy, almond, or coconut yogurt. Soy is generally the option that brings the most protein.
- Soy Milk while any plant-based milk works, soy brings more protein, especially if you use protein-enriched soy milk!
- Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice.
- Baking Powder – To make them fluffy.
- Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
- Cocoa Powder – I prefer unsweetened cocoa powder to make it easier to balance the sweetness.
- Maple Syrup or sweetener you love, I prefer a liquid sweetener as it adds more moisture to the pancakes.
How To Make Chocolate Protein Pancakes
Let me share how to make ultra fluffy protein chocolate pancakes without eggs. It’s very easy and you can see all the details in the recipe card below. I’ll include here pictures of the key steps.
- First, add the soy milk, yogurt, and apple cider vinegar to a bowl. Stir the batter before setting it aside for 5 minutes for it to curdle and form a creamy dairy-free buttermilk mixture.
- Next, in another mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients: flour, protein powder, cocoa powder, and baking powder.
- Whisk to combine the protein powder and flour evenly. If lumps form, pinch them between your fingertips to create a thin, consistent dry ingredients mixture.
- Finally, pour the milk onto the dry ingredients followed by maple syrup, and vanilla extract.
- Whisk until the batter is slightly thick, shiny, and consistent
- Warm a non-stick crepe pan or pancake griddle over medium heat. Slightly oil the griddle’s surface with coconut oil and use a piece of absorbent paper to rub the surface and remove any excess oil.
- Pour 2 tablespoons of batter on the hot griddle per pancake. Cook until bubbles forms on top of the pancakes and the sides of the pancakes dry out. It takes roughly 2-3 minutes.
- Then gently slide a spatula under the pancake and flip to cook on the other side.
- Cook for an extra minute on the other side until the pancakes are cooked through and fluffy
- Cool down on a plate or wire rack while you are cooking the remaining pancake batter
- Re grease the pan between each cooking session to avoid the protein pancakes sticking to the pan.
Storage Suggestions
You can make ahead the chocolate protein pancake batter up to 24 hours before cooking and store it in a sealed container in the fridge.
You can also store the cooked vegan chocolate protein pancakes in a zip-lock bag in the fridge for later. They last up to 3 days or 3 months in the freezer. Rewarm pancakes in a bread toaster, hot griddle, or sandwich press.
Serving Protein Pancakes
These chocolate protein pancakes are even better served with a homemade chocolate sauce. To make the sauce, melt the ingredients below in a small mixing bowl in the microwave or a saucepan over medium heat.
- Dark chocolate
- Coconut oil
- Nut butter – can be peanut butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter for a nut-free option.
Next, top up the pancakes with fresh fruits. Some of the below go very well with chocolate:
- Berries – Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
- Sliced bananas
- Kiwifruits
Serving Size
A decent serving is 3 pancakes topped with fruit slices and a dollop of nut butter or chocolate sauce. You get 12 grams of protein and 216 kcal without toppings for one serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, this recipe has no eggs, and a low-carb flour like almond flour wouldn’t work. The batter would remain soft and undercooked.
Yes, you can use homemade oat flour for this recipe. Replace with the same amount of all-purpose flour.
The texture of the pancakes is slightly denser, less fluffy, and a bit grainy if your oat flour is not fine.
Yes, you can bake up to 1/4 cup of batter at a time, but the pancakes would take much longer to cook.
Plus, if you use oat flour, larger pancakes would be more difficult to flip.
More High-Protein Recipes
Below I listed more vegan high-protein recipes for you to try.
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Chocolate Protein Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons Apple Cider Vinegar - or lemon juice
- 1 cup Soy Milk - or non-dairy milk you love
- 3 tablespoons Dairy-Free Yogurt - I used soy yogurt
- ¾ cup All-Purpose Flour - or white whole wheat flour
- ⅓ cup Plant-Based Chocolate Protein Powder - pea powder works the best (40g/1.4 oz)
- 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whisk soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Set it aside while measuring the remaining ingredients.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk dry ingredients evenly: flour, protein powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Stir the milk mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients until a thick pancake batter forms with no lumps. Then, incorporate the maple syrup, yogurt, and vanilla extract. It should be pretty thick, and that's normal.
- Warm a pancake griddle greased with a tiny bit of coconut oil over medium heat.
- Scoop 2 tablespoons of pancake batter per pancake on the griddle and spread in a round shape. If the batter is too thick, thin it out by adding an extra splash of almond milk.
- Cook the pancake for 2-3 minutes on low-medium heat until dry on the edges, then flip and cook an extra minute until it puffs.
- Cool down on a wire rack and cook the remaining batter.
- Serve with vegan toppings you love like peanut butter, maple syrup, chia jam.
Would like to make these and use wheat flour. Do you think any adjustments need to be made for liquids/yogurt?
Wheat flour is what I am using in the recipe, it’s called all-purpose flour which is 100% wheat.
Thanks for another great recipe! I made this once before and forgot to add the yogurt b/c it was not listed in the “Instructions” portion of the recipe at the bottom of the page – although I noticed after making that it was listed in the “Curdling the milk” portion of the step-by-step at the top of the page, so I’ll definitely try again and not forget the yogurt next time 😛
These were delicious even without the yogurt! I didn’t add maple syrup either but I did stick some stevia/erythritol dairy-free chocolate chips on top whenever I heated one up as a dessert.
Question: Instead of all-purpose or oat flour, do you think 3/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour + 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum would work? I’ve got some of both sitting around and am trying to use it as much as possible before the expiry dates.
I love how there are always substitutions provide in each recipe and you also explain why something will or will not work as a substitution. I find this type of information very informative and helpful and truly appreciate it! Thank you for sharing all your great recipes 🙂
Thanks for such a lovely comment! GF All purpose from Bob Red mills already contains gum I think, check and if so don’t add more. I guess it should work as a 1:! ratio swap to all purpose for a GF options, even if often the result is denser and chewer.