Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes With Oats & Buttermilk

Banana chocolate chip pancakes are one of our favourite breakfast treats! Be sure to serve them hot with lots of maple syrup.

photography by Kelly Neil

Homemade pancakes for breakfast are a hard and fast yes any morning, but banana chocolate chip pancakes are a serious no brainer! This recipe is a great way to use up those black bananas in the back of your freezer. And adding chocolate chips makes banana pancakes a family favourite in my house.

I use buttermilk in this recipe (mostly because I love buttermilk and always have it in my fridge). The reaction of buttermilk with both the baking powder and baking soda gives these chocolate banana pancakes a fluffy lift and texture you won’t get without it. If you don’t use buttermilk often, it’s super cheap and freezes well for later use. You can use it in many delicious recipes like these buttermilk raspberry muffins or this homemade buttermilk quiche.

I also add a small amount of quick oats to the batter for a boost of fibre, however, this may be purely an illusion? Ha! Either way it makes me feel better about feeding banana oat pancakes to my family (especially since we drown them in maple syrup).

A hot griddle is your best bet for cooking banana oatmeal pancakes but if you don’t have one, preheat a large skillet over medium heat while the pancake batter rests. I recommend using a neutral oil like vegetable oil for cooking, as butter will burn.

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• Ingredients
• Method
• Tips & Notes
• Substitutions
• Recipe

Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.

Ingredients

Method

Tips & Notes

This recipe makes about 12 medium-sized pancakes (approximately ¼ cup (56g) of batter each). It also doubles well.

You don’t have to use two mixing bowls for this recipe. You can mix the wet and then add the dry to the same bowl. I like to premix my dry ingredients to make sure everything is well distributed beforehand which prevents over mixing of the batter.

I like to use a silicone pastry brush to brush my griddle with oil to prevent sticking.

If using a cast iron griddle, be sure it is well seasoned or else the pancakes may stick no matter how much oil you use.

If any exposed chocolate chips may look like they’re starting to burn on the griddle, reduce the heat a bit.

To Freeze Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Once cooled, I like to freeze leftover chocolate chip oatmeal pancakes in a zipper top freezer bag. I lightly toast them until they are thawed and warmed through on busy mornings. You can also microwave them.

Substitutions

You can substitute half of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour, or all of the all-purpose flour for light spelt flour if you want.

Use any chocolate chips you like or have on hand.

Consider stirring ½ cup (75g) of chopped strawberries into the batter before cooking.

Any neutral oil will work in this recipe. Common options are canola oil, avocado oil, or grape seed oil. Be sure to choose an oil with a high smoke point.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter if you like.

More Banana Recipes

Banana Nutella Muffins
Cinnamon Banana Waffles
Banana Breakfast Cookies With Dark Chocolate
Pumpkin Banana Muffins With Pumpkin Pie Spice Streusel
Spelt Banana Bread
Easy Banana Bread Cookies

Recipe