Vegan Chocolate Protein Pancakes
on Oct 23, 2018, Updated Jul 18, 2024
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These extra thick, vegan chocolate protein pancakes are amazing. You’ll need just a few basic ingredients to make them and they’re oil-free, sugar-free and gluten-free.
Ingredient Notes
- Vegan protein powder. You’ll need some vegan chocolate or vanilla protein powder to make these. I used North Coast Naturals Vege Pro-7. I also like SunWarrior, Iron Vegan and Vega. Note the amount used is 30 grams so adjust as needed based on the suggested serving size of the brand you’re using. (Purchase an inexpensive kitchen scale here for the best results with my recipes).
- Chickpea flour. Chickpea flour, besan or gram flour is my go-for for gluten-free vegan pancakes. It’s inexpensive, fairly easy to find and high in protein and fibre. If you can’t find it in your area, you can buy it on Amazon here.
- Baking powder. You’ll need baking powder to create the epic fluffy thickness of these pancakes.
- Cocoa powder. To make these chocolate protein pancakes, I used 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Raw cacao powder would also work if you want the extra nutrition. I would have used cacao powder but I didn’t have an on hand, so it was regular cocoa powder for this one.
- Optional stevia. I added an extra 1 tsp of unprocessed stevia to sweeten these up a bit more. The protein powder does add some sweetness so this is optional but I prefer the extra sweetness with the bitter cocoa powder.
WHAT IS CHICKPEA FLOUR?
Chickpea flour, also know as gram, besan or garbanzo bean flour, is made from ground dried, raw chickpeas. Chickpea flour is a staple in many different cuisines around the world but has been gaining popularity in North America with the rise of gluten-free cooking and baking. From traditional Italian and French socca to Indian sweets and crepes, chickpea flour dishes can be found in South Asian, Middle Eastern and Southern European cultures, among others.
Chickpea flour can be used as a binder in baking, in pancakes and crepes, vegan frittatas and omelettes, as well as in savoury dishes like stews and soups.
Best Chickpea Flour
I’ve noticed some differences in brands so you may need to shop around for one you like. The flavour tends to vary. I use a generic brand from my local natural food store but I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill before with success.
I haven’t tried any other brands but I’d suggest looking for something very light yellow in colour, very fine consistency and a faint beany smell…lol, sounds so good, doesn’t it?
Tips
There’s not much to this recipe but here are some tips on protein pancake success:
- Make sure you pre-heat the pan over medium-high heat.
- Use a good non-stick pan and/or some non-stick cooking spray.
- Mix the dry ingredients well before adding the water.
- Don’t add too much water. 3/4 cup is the exact right amount for best results, so measure accurately.
- Don’t over-mix the batter. Fold it together gently until everything is wetted but don’t overdo it. If there are a few bits of flour left over, that’s ok.
- Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes before cooking.
Toppings
Here are my favourite toppings for these pancakes:
- Heated up frozen berries. To make these, just add sliced or whole frozen strawberries, raspberries, cherries or blueberries to a small pot and cook until ooey and gooey, mash them up a bit and use them to top your pancakes. You can also do this in the microwave.
- Sliced banana or apple.
- Almond butter. I like to add a tiny bit of water to my nut butter to thin it out a bit so it’s more of a sauce. You can also blend it with dates for a special treat.
- Tahini. My favourite tahini is runny, drippy, smooth and creamy making it the perfect drizzly pancake topping.
- Coconut butter. If you haven’t had pancakes with coconut butter, you haven’t lived. Since store-bought coconut butter is so pricey, I like to make my own by blending coconut flakes until smooth and creamy. This is easily done in a Vitamix using the tamper to things moving. You can also use a food processor, it will just take a bit longer.
- Nuts. I like a few crushed walnuts or pecans but any nuts work.
- Pure maple syrup. I don’t go all out with added maple syrup very often but it is amazing for a special treat.
- Date caramel. To make date caramel, simply soak dates in hot water for 15 minutes and then blend until smooth. I think to add a bit of light coconut milk and a pinch of sea salt for more flavour.
- Easy homemade caramel.
More Vegan Pancake Recipes
I’ve grown quite the collection of vegan pancake recipes over the years so if you like these ones, you’ll have to check these out too:
- Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes
- Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes
- Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes
- Vegan Quinoa Flour Pancakes
- Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes
- 4-Ingredient Fluffy Vegan Protein Pancakes
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
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Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Protein Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chickpea flour, 63 g
- 1 scoop vegan protein powder, chocolate or vanilla (30 g)
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 15 g
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.
- Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix well.
- Add the water and gently fold together until all the dry ingredients are wetted. The batter will be very thick, this is perfect.
- Let the batter rest for 5 minutes.
- Spray the pan with a little non-stick cooking spray, then use a spoon to scoop the batter into the pan to form 5-6 small pancakes or 3-4 large ones. You’ll have to use the spoon to spread it out as the batter is so thick.
- Cook until the edges of the pancakes look dry and firm, this should take just a few minutes. Flip and cook for 1 more minute then they’re ready to enjoy.
Wanted to love these, but turned out very dry and salty tasting. I followed the recipe exactly as written. Could only eat half the pancakes before having to stop due to saltiness. The plain chickpea flour pancakes are great, these are not.
I’m not sure if the measurements are right here but this was a very watery mix that just tastes of salt and baking powder and wouldn’t form into pancakes. Had to put it in the bin.
These didn’t work at all. They were so thick that I had to spread out on the griddle. Then I just added water to the batter so it was a little thinner, but it didn’t matter. They were crumbly and fell apart when trying to eat them. I followed the recipe and even weighed the ingredients so I’m not sure what happened. Pretty disappointing.
Sorry they didn’t work out for you. I’ve made these and variations of this recipe hundreds of times and they always work perfectly. What kind of chickpea flour and protein powder did you use? I’ve made these successfully with a few different brands of chickpea flour and protein powders and they always work great. The only thing I can think of is something might have been off with your flour?? The batter should be thick, as noted in the recipe, that’s how it should be. You can make them thinner with extra water if you want, but they definitely shouldn’t be falling apart.
Could I use oat flour for this recipe to make it low fodmap?
I don’t think oat flour will work in this recipe unfortunately, without some further adjustments anyways. I haven’t tested oat flour in a recipe like this. You may be able to use a gluten-free flour blend but I don’t think oat flour will work on its own. I don’t have an oat flour pancake recipe but I’m sure you can find one online! Good luck!
This recipe was quite good. I mixed chocolate chips in mine. This is the first pancake recipe of yours I have gotten to work out as expected using the chickpea flour. I am glad I kept persevering until I got it right.
Hi Deryn,
Your pancake recipe.looks wonderful I can’t wait to try them! I do want to comment on your protein powder recommendations. I was recently tested for heavy metals and my results came back 4 times the highest level they should be! It took me a while to figure out what was causing this overload. I was spending around $35-40 on organic protein and thought I was getting a really good organic product. It winds up that most of the organic protein powders (whey and pea alike) have incredibly high levels of HM’s, Vega is one of the primary brands I was using. I have done some research and have only. found 3 organic protein powders that do not have the high heavy metal concentration. I am mentioning this because I thought I was being so healthy when in fact I was polluting my body. I hope I can save others from this detriment. I am also not using protein powder in my smoothies every day, I am using replacements like nut butters and yogurt. Please keep the recipes coming, you always have wonderful ones!
I only use North Coast Naturals which doesn’t contain pea protein but either way I don’t use a lot of protein powder. From my own research I’m not concerned with the heavy metal findings as HM’s are naturally found in plant foods and I’m going to be consuming them in some amounts anyways. Soils pretty much everywhere contain trace amounts of HM’s and plants grown in those soils absorb them, so actually many of the foods I eat contain some HM’s such as cadmium, lead etc. I just try to stick to whole foods as much as I can and reduce my toxic load wherever possible (use clean beauty and personal hygiene products, natural cleaning products, filtered water etc.) and don’t worry about the rest. From my understanding HM’s are actually reported in higher amounts in unprocessed, whole plant foods than in processed junk foods since the minerals etc. are stripped during processing and along with them, the rest of the nutrition they provide.
Thanks so much for the note on all that. I really appreciate it!
I made these once with wheat flour and they were AMAZING! Absolutely perfection! Now I’m GF so I tried them with arrowhead mills all purpose gf flour blend with xanthan gum and they did not work at all. So thick you couldn’t spread it at all, stuck to pan and spatula. They stayed raw on the inside after cooking. 🙁 I’m totally new to gf cooking so maybe I’ll figure it out one day
This recipe is for chickpea flour which is quite a bit different than wheat flour or gluten-free blends with added gums. Just add more water next time to adjust the consistency to a thinner batter. It should be thick but pourable. You could also try my fluffy vegan protein pancake recipe with a gf blend instead of wheat flour.