Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Mint

These double chocolate pancakes taste like a cup of peppermint hot chocolate in breakfast form! A decadent, delicious, and festive winter holiday recipe.

This is a great breakfast or brunch recipe, but is especially fun to enjoy as breakfast for dinner alongside some homemade breakfast sausage patties.

These pancakes are a variation of my peppermint hot chocolate cookies. They've been a big hit at my virtual cooking classes since 2021, and I'm finally bringing the recipe to my website for everyone to enjoy!

Whether you top these with a little homemade peppermint whipped cream, mini marshmallows, crushed peppermint candies, extra chocolate chips, a drizzle of maple syrup, or some combination thereof, they're guaranteed to bring a little holiday cheer to your breakfast table.

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Jump to:

• 🧡 Why we love this recipe
• 📝 Ingredients
• 🥣 Ingredient Spotlight: Baking Powder
• ✅ How to make this recipe
• 📌 Tips
• 🌱 Mint extract vs. peppermint extract
• 🍽️ More festive recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🧡 Why we love this recipe

• The pancakes are infused with just the right amount of peppermint flavor to make them taste like a cozy winter treat.
• It one-ups regular chocolate chip pancakes by starting with a chocolate pancake base and adding chocolate chips into the mix.
• They can be enjoyed as-is, or you can add extra holiday flair by garnishing with crushed peppermint candies or candy canes.

📝 Ingredients

Here's everything you need to make these chocolate chocolate chip pancakes with mint. Jump to the recipe card below for exact measurements amounts and full, printable directions:

• All-purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Dutch process cocoa powder
• Baking powder - see note below
• Fine grain salt
• Unsalted butter
• Buttermilk - be sure to shake it before measuring
• Large eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Mint extract
• Chocolate chips - use your favorite type (or a mix of types) here
• Optional garnishes: maple syrup, mini marshmallows, crushed peppermint candies or candy canes, crushed peppermint bark, whipped cream (this peppermint whipped cream is a fun addition)

✅ How to make this recipe

This is an overview of the steps of this recipe. Jump to the recipe card below for full, printable instructions.

1. Preheat griddle or nonstick skillet.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients.
3. Whisk together wet ingredients.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together until no dry pockets of flour remain. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Melt butter onto the hot griddle and start portioning out your pancakes.
6. Cook in batches until you've used up all of your batter.
7. Serve pancakes sprinkled with extra chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and/or crushed peppermint candies or candy canes as desired. Feel free to also add maple syrup or whipped cream.

📌 Tips

• Melt your butter in the microwave, in 30-second increments, pausing and giving it a shake or stir in between each increment to keep it from melting too quickly and exploding. Alternatively, you can melt it in a small saucepan on the stovetop.
• Be sure to shake your buttermilk before measuring it. Buttermilk tends to separate as it sits in the fridge, so you want to get it mixed together again before you measure out what you need for this recipe.
• Look for baking powder marked "aluminum free" to avoid a potentially sour, metallic taste in your pancakes.

• The pancake batter will look lumpy, and that's a-ok! You don't want to overmix the batter. They'll cook up nice and fluffy and tender.
• Use a measuring cup (I like a ¼-cup size for this recipe) to dish out your pancake batter to keep them all a consistent size.
• You can line a sheet pan with a wire rack and transfer your pancakes to it when they finish cooking. Place the pan in the oven set to warm (or the lowest setting) to keep them warm while you cook the rest of your pancakes.

Have fun with the garnishes! You can absolutely enjoy these pancakes "plain", but adding one or a few toppings does wonders for making these pancakes feel more festive.

To crush the candies, unwrap your peppermints or candy canes and place them inside a zip-top bag. Then just whack them with a meat tenderizer, rolling pin, or heavy-bottomed skillet to crush them into smallish pieces.

I like to start by tapping lightly - if you smash too hard you may end up with shards of peppermint candy all over your kitchen.

This is super fun for kids to do, and it's a nice way to take out your frustrations as an adult, too.

If you're a huge chocolate fan, you could even do a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top of these pancakes.

This recipe really toes the line between breakfast and dessert. But bringing a little cheer into the cold weather months is always welcome in my book!

🌱 Mint extract vs. peppermint extract

When I was out shopping for this recipe I noticed that the store sells both mint extract and peppermint extract.

Either will work here, but in case you're curious (I know I was!), there's a difference between those 2 products.

Mint extract is usually a mix of peppermint and spearmint extracts. Peppermint extract only contains peppermint.

I have a friend who can't stand the taste of spearmint, so in that case, I'd recommend looking specifically for peppermint extract.

The price at my local grocery store for both types of extract was the same. Not sure if that's always the case, but I thought it was worth noting.

🍽️ More festive recipes

These are some of my favorite recipes that have the same wintery vibe as these minty chocolate chocolate chip pancakes:

Doing some online shopping? Check out my Amazon shop page for recommendations!

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📖 Recipe