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Chocolate Chip Buckwheat Pancakes

May 10, 2018 · Natalie 32 Comments

The fluffiest vegan buckwheat pancakes – made with dairy-free yogurt for protein and loaded with chocolate chips, they are the perfect easy breakfast or brunch!

Today feels like the perfect day to share a new pancake recipe with you because a) mother’s day is soon b) the weekend is soon c) tomorrow morning is soon. All of which are occasions that pancakes can only enhance. Especially pancakes that involve chocolate.

Let’s chat for a minute about the immense make-mornings-much-better power of these particular pancakes. Big time thick and fluffy cakes speckled with mini chocolate chips in melty-sweet abundance. Vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt to flavor up all that fluff. A little maple baked in (optional) and a lot of maple syrup-drizzled on top (not optional). This is a very satisfying, very simple, healthy-meets-cake breakfast situation.

You know my standards for pancake fluffiness are high. Like half inch thick and stacked minimum five cakes high high. For the sake of trying new things and variety and stuff, I ventured away from my pancake favorite, quinoa flour, and experimented with buckwheat flour (for the first time ever in my life, WHY HAVE I WAITED SO LONG?). Buckwheat flour definitely delivered on fluff, and bonus points for being much cheaper than quinoa flour too.

Just like quinoa flour, it works solo (no other flours/starches needed!), is gluten-free, and is not technically not a grain. But most importantly the texture – we’re talking light and defined on an almost birthday cake level. There is no uncooked mush lurking at the center of this stack. You deserve better than that kind of sadness in your breakfast life.

True/funny story. My inspiration to even buy buckwheat in the first place came from my dear friend Mandy and her Chai Spiced Buckwheat Pancakes. Because history has proven with food and ingredients that if she likes it, chances are high that I will too. So when I was kitchen free-styling the first test batch for this recipe with what I had in the fridge, the base ended up being a very breakfast-y combination of buckwheat flour and non-dairy yogurt…which is the same thing she used! There are of course other small differences, but if you are feeling spicy and want to hop over and make her recipe instead I wouldn’t blame you because they look AMAZING.

Or if you are anything like me and your mind just jumped to chai spices AND chocolate chips…So. Much. (Yummy.) Yes.

So specifics…

Buckwheat flour. I made my own buckwheat flour with raw buckwheat groats ground in the Vitamix. Whether making your own or buying it, RAW is key. Toasted will yield much darker pancakes with an intense buckwheat flavor. You can usually find raw buckwheat in the bulk bins for pretty cheap.

Yogurt. I tested this recipe with both almond and cashew yogurt, both turned out great. I did test it with just yogurt (no milk), but the batter was a bit too thick. If you want to play with the ratio for thinner/thicker pancakes you could – more yogurt = thicker pancakes, more milk = thinner pancakes. But I wouldn’t recommend going below a one-to-one ratio (1/2 cup of each).

You could try applesauce in place of the yogurt, but I haven’t tested it personally so the texture may be less fluffy/cakey.

Sweetener. I added 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the pancake batter, but it’s optional. If you are going to load them up with chocolate chips and drown them in maple syrup, maybe not 100% necessary. Up to you!

Substitutions. I have not tested any other flours in this recipe, but if you want an oat flour pancake try these instead. Or for quinoa flour, these.

May these wildly fluffy pancakes bring you all the choc chip breakfast joy!

Chocolate Chip Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes

★★★★★ 4.6 from 10 reviews

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 6 pancakes 1x
Category: breakfast
Cuisine: american

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Description

The fluffiest vegan buckwheat pancakes – made with dairy-free yogurt for protein and loaded with chocolate chips, they are the perfect easy breakfast or brunch!

Ingredients

Scale

3/4 cup (170g) non-dairy yogurt*
1/4 cup (60g) non-dairy milk
1 cup (160g) buckwheat flour**
1–2 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

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Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, milk, vanilla, and maple syrup. Whisk.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir to form a thick batter, but do not over mix.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat (I still spray it lightly with coconut oil just in case!).
Drop about 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and spread into a circle. Not too thin or the pancakes won’t be as fluffy.
Cook until the edges are starting to look brown and you can easily slide a spatula underneath (3-4 minutes). Flip and cook for 2-3 minutes on the second side.
Repeat until all the batter is gone. I got 6 medium sized pancakes.
Top with fruit, nut butter, coconut, maple syrup, etc. Enjoy!

Notes

*I have tested them with almond and cashew yogurt, both worked perfectly. You can use other dairy-free or dairy yogurts, although if quite thick (like greek yogurt) consider using less yogurt and more milk (1/2 cup of each). **Either ground from raw buckwheat groats or store-bought raw buckwheat flour. Do not use toasted, that will yield a much darker color and intense nutty buckwheat flavor.

Keywords: breakfast, gluten-free, vegan, fluffy, easy

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Favorite Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream

May 7, 2018 · Natalie 38 Comments

My favorite vegan chocolate ice cream! Made with coconut and almond milk, cacao powder, maple syrup, and sea salt. Dairy-free, healthier than most, and so YUM!

I’m semi embarrassed about how long I’ve put off sharing this recipe with you.

The ratio of batches made to months it’s take to finally write it down in shareable-with-the-internet form…it’s not good friends, not good.

The delay wasn’t because it’s not good, it’s perfect. Taste, texture, ingredients – it’s everything I could ever want the basic but essential chocolate ice cream recipe on this blog to be. And it’s not because I needed to test or tweak, I’ve made it so many time I could do it with my eyes close (challenge = accepted!) For a hot minute (cold minute?) there it was winter which did get in the way, but you and I both no true ice cream love knows no season.

The real reason it’s taken so long is because every time I would make a batch I couldn’t keep my own personal ice cream spoon out of it long enough to finish the video. Next time I’ll turn on the camera. Next time I’ll write down exactly how much almond milk. Next time I won’t devour it all without using a bowl or toppings or such other frivolous things that only get in they way of me and this tantalizing frozen chocolate bliss.

The day I finally shot these photos, I made two batches – one to photograph and one to eat. Yup, true story.

Ice cream obsession level: shamelessly greedy.

I admit I’ve been selfish, hoarding all the scoops just for me. You may not understand now, but three ~~bites~~ scoops in and you will.

I think it’s clear at this point that I’m deeply in love with this recipe. It is probably the most thoroughly “tested” recipe to ever grace these blog parts. So that means that even though using words like PERFECT feels risky when it comes to recipes because everyone has different tastes, I feel confident enough to go there.

This vegan chocolate ice cream is healthier than most. Made with a combination of full fat coconut milk and almond milk, so it’s not as high fat. But churned, so hello still superbly luscious texture. Sweetened just a little…or a little bit more. With an optional collagen protein boost. Salted, of course. 110% irresistible, obviously.

I’ve tried and tweaked this recipe a dozen different ways, so I’ve got lots of options to make it as HEALTHY and decadent or DECADENT and healthy as you like:

Sweetener. Personally I think 2 tablespoons of maple syrup (or honey, agave, etc.) is just perfect, but anywhere from 1-4 tablespoons is delicious. Coconut milk is naturally sweet so you don’t need a lot.
Cacao or cocoa. Cacao powder is my preference, but either is fine. Or even carob!
With collagen. I like to add a couple of scoops of collagen peptides, but skip this if you are vegan. I don’t recommend other protein powders as they will mess up the creamy texture.
Thickener. I have found tapioca starch to work best, but you can substitute with arrowroot or cornstarch.
Gum-free coconut milk. I typically use the Trader Joe’s full fat coconut milk, which doesn’t contain guar gum. Using a brand with guar gum will make it even creamier, but not necessary.
Make it nut-free. Use hemp milk, soy milk, or light coconut milk in place of the almond milk, and you’ve got dairy-free + nut-free ice cream.

Proof I’ve made this ice cream way too many times.

This recipe is simple, but there are quite a few steps: blend the ingredients > cook to a thick pudding consistency > cool completely > churn > eat immediately or freeze and scoop. Yes, you will need an ice cream maker. (If you don’t have one I recommend a higher fat or banana based ice cream instead!) I have and really like this one from Cuisinart.

Frozen berries are my favorite thing to throw on top, but simple, homemade, GOOD chocolate ice cream like this is a deliciously blank topping canvas so feel free to get crazy – sprinkles, syrups, cookie chunks, brownie hunks, the whole pantry. Or nothing at all, and just relish in every perfect creamy bite.

Happy healthier ice cream making to you!