How to make fluffy heart shaped pancakes with chocolate chips, using a cookie cutter. Easy, kid-friendly breakfast you can make for any occasion. Perfect for weekends, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and more!
Valentine's Day is just around the corner and after that, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and all those celebratory family holidays. Chocolate chip heart pancakes and heart shaped buttermilk pancakes are a great way to say “I love you” to the ones you love.
All you need are a few simple ingredients and a heart shaped cookie cutter. Then you can make a small batch of the most festive I love you pancakes ever.
If you love blueberry pancakes, you can make heart shaped blueberry buttermilk pancakes. If you want to make more pancake shapes, strawberry dinosaur shaped pancakes are super fun to make.
Why Make Heart Pancakes?
- Chocolate chip pancakes from scratch are fluffy pancakes full of chocolaty goodness.
- You can make this heart-shaped pancakes recipe for different holidays and occasions; make it into Valentine pancakes for a fun Valentine's Day breakfast, Mother's Day pancakes, anniversary pancakes, birthday pancakes… The list could go on.
- They're yummy and so much fun!
Ingredients and Substitutions Notes
To make this heart pancakes recipe, you'll need just a few simple ingredients…
- All-Purpose Flour – We use unbleached all-purpose flour. If you want to make these gluten-free, like I do much of the time, use a good gluten-free all-purpose flour (<– my favorite one). You can also sub pancake mix if you want, though do keep in mind, pancake mix usually has all the dry ingredients including flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar; so you likely won't need those extra dry ingredients.
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- Sea Salt – You can use regular table salt, as well.
- Cane Sugar – You can also sub granulated sugar.
- Unsweetened Applesauce – I love that this is an eggless pancake recipe. Instead of eggs, I like to sub in unsweetened applesauce.
- Buttermilk – If you don't have buttermilk on hand, you can make soured milk, which works just as well. You'll need white vinegar and milk, about a tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of milk. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup buttermilk, so you'd need to add about 3/4 tablespoon of white vinegar to the milk to sour it. Step 1: To make sure you have the right amount of liquid, add the vinegar into a liquid measuring cup first. Step 2: Then add the milk to the desired level or measurement. Step 3: Stir it and let the milk mixture sit for 5 to 10 minutes. And that’s it! Before you know it, your milk will be perfectly soured just like buttermilk.
- Canola Oil – You can sub butter 1:1, which these days I use more than I do canola oil. Butter just gives a richer flavor.
- Chocolate Chips – Use whichever kind of chocolate chips you like, semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate.
You'll also need a heart shaped pancake mold, or even simpler, a heart shaped cookie cutter to make your pancakes into the shape of a heart. A metal cookie cutter works best; plastic cookie cutters are a no go on the stove. However, you can use any size heart cookie cutters, even mini heart cutters.
How to Make Heart Shaped Pancakes
Making heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes is super easy.
How to Make Pancake Batter
- Whisk or sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
- Make a depression or well with your spoon in the center of the flour mixture.
- Add the applesauce, buttermilk, and canola oil to the well.
- Stir everything together just until moistened. The batter will be quite thick.
- Then fold in (gently mix in) the chocolate chips.
How to Shape the Pancakes
Shaping the batter into heart shapes happens as you cook the pancakes. You'll need a heart shaped pancake mold, or even simpler, a heart cookie cutter.
- Lightly spray a griddle or skillet, as well as the cookie cutter or pancake mold, with cooking spray, and heat on medium-low heat.
- Place the greased cookie cutter on the hot griddle or hot skillet, and spoon the pancake batter into the cookie cutter, spreading the batter out to the edges with your spoon. You can also use a pancake batter dispenser or squeeze bottle to squeeze the batter onto the griddle.
- Cook the pancake for about 1 to 2 minutes, and then you can just remove the cutter.
- Cook the pancake another couple minutes on its first side and flip it using a pancake turner. Allow it to cook on low to medium heat until the edges begin to turn golden brown.
- As each heart shaped pancake cooks through, place them on a covered baking sheet in a warm spot 'til ready to serve. Then repeat the above steps to cook the rest of the pancakes.
Serve heart pancakes with strawberry jam, strawberry sauce, raspberry sauce, fresh raspberries, fresh strawberries or other fresh berries, whipped cream, pure maple syrup, powdered sugar, and whatever else your heart desires. They're so yummy!
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ's
TIP #1 – Some pancake batters will start to dimple, and that’s when you know to flip the pancakes. However, this pancake batter is pretty thick, so it doesn’t usually dimple for me.
TIP #2 – As you take the pancakes off the griddle, keep them warm by putting them on a cookie sheet or pizza pan in a slightly heated oven.
Shaping pancake can be difficult, but since this pancake batter is a thicker batter, this is not an issue. As long as you leave the cookie cutter on the pancake for 1-2 minutes while it cooks, you should be able to remove the cutter without messing up the heart shape. As you remove the cutter, you can then start a new pancake and so on and so forth.
Since these pancakes do have milk in them, I'd err on the side of caution and refrigerate any leftovers in an airtight container.
More Pancake Recipes and Breakfast Ideas
- Butterbeer pancakes from scratch
- Apple cinnamon pancakes
- Valentine breakfast biscuits
- Strawberry oatmeal crepes
- Peaches and cream waffles
- Classic cinnamon French toast
If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback. You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And subscribe to my email list too!
Heart Shaped Pancakes with Chocolate Chips
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons cane sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons canola oil or butter
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Whisk or sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
- Make a depression or well with your spoon in the center of the dry ingredients.
- Add the applesauce, buttermilk, and canola oil to the well.
- Stir everything together just until moistened. The batter will be quite thick.
- Then fold in (gently mix in) the chocolate chips.
- Place the greased cookie cutter on the griddle, and spoon the pancake batter into the cookie cutter, spreading the batter out to the edges with your spoon.
- Cook the pancake for about 1 to 2 minutes, and then you can just remove the cutter.
- Cook the pancake another couple minutes and flip it.* Allow it to cook on low to medium heat until the edges begin to turn golden brown.
- As each heart shaped pancake cooks through, place them on a covered baking sheet in a warm spot 'til ready to serve.* Then repeat the above steps to cook the rest of the pancakes.
- When all your pancakes are cooked, serve them while warm.
I made these for my daughter and I. I used mini m&m’s because they were a spur of the moment decision and I didn’t want to go to the store for only one thing. They were definitely multi-colored!!, but that’s what made them fun. 😊 they were delicious too! Thank you ❤️
Jeannette, that’s a great idea! I’m really glad you enjoyed the recipe. I may have to try it with M&M’s as well.