Quick and Easy Chocolate Protein Pancakes

If you’re reading this, I guess I know where you stand on the full chocolate protein pancakes issue. Some people may say pancakes shouldn’t be 100% chocolate, and those people can’t sit with us.

Now that you’ve got your official chocolate pancakes membership card, I’ve got a treat for you. This easy protein pancakes recipe has ridiculously favorable macros with 230 calories and 31 grams of protein in the entire pancakes recipe. Include the chocolate syrup and you’re looking at 55 grams of protein and still only 390 calories. Cray cray, right?

How to Make Chocolate Protein Pancakes

It’s really as simple as mixing a few things in a bowl and pouring batter into a pan. That’s part of the beauty of pancakes, in my opinion. They’re just easy to make.

I’ll include a few ingredient notes and tips for making modifications below. You’ll obviously need protein powder but beyond that, ya got options.

How to Use Pumpkin and Apple Sauce to Replace Butter and Eggs

These chocolate protein pancakes use both pumpkin and unsweetened apple sauce as fat replacements. Both lend the creaminess that a fat source like butter or eggs provide with a fraction of the calories. Where one tablespoon of butter has 100 calories and one egg has 70 calories, the combined (almost) 1/2 cup of apple sauce and pumpkin in these protein pancakes contain just 45 calories.

That’s a ton of volume added to the recipe without much cost to texture!

In the past, I’ve used pumpkin exclusively in recipes like my pumpkin spice protein pancakes and original double chocolate protein pancakes. While pumpkin has a very mild flavor, most people can still tell it’s there. Apple sauce is similar, providing a hint of apple to even strong chocolate flavored recipes. But when you combine both in smaller amounts, I find their flavors all but drown each other out and allow the chocolate to really shine.

If you’d like to use pumpkin only, swap gram for gram for the additional apple sauce (105g total pumpkin). And if you’d like to go apple sauce only, simply double the apple sauce (90g total).

The Best Protein Powder for Protein Pancakes

You can use any protein powder you’d like, though I recommend using a whey concentrate. The macros for these chocolate protein pancakes are with one scoop of vanilla cupcake Dymatize 100% Whey, which has become my favorite protein to cook with. It tastes amazing but more importantly, it cooks really well. If you’re using a leaner protein like a whey isolate or a plant-based protein, you may have to modify ingredients like the apple sauce or pumpkin to account avoid dry or tough protein pancakes.

And if you’re wondering about the vanilla protein powder in a chocolate recipe, it’s for a few reasons:

• Since I cook a lot with protein powder, I buy vanilla because it’s so flexible. I can easily add cocoa powder or any other flavor profile to vanilla, but I can’t take chocolate protein powder in many other directions.
• The flavor of vanilla protein powder plus dark cocoa powder blows most chocolate protein powders out of the water. Seriously, try it.
• The vanilla cupcake flavor from Dymatize is that good. (I’m not sponsored by them or anything, it’s just a great product. P.S. Hit me up, Dymatize. *wink wink*)

High Protein Chocolate Syrup

The chocolate syrup is admittedly more like a frosting. I kind of like that it stays in place, though, so I’m rolling with it. If you’d like a true syrup, simply add a bit of almond milk to hydrate things a bit further.

And if you’d like to go the other way with a legit chocolate icing, check out the filling from my chocolate peanut butter protein pop tarts. I bet that would be, as the kids would say, lit.

All right, that’s all ya need to know in terms of ingredients or modifications. I hope you enjoy your chocolate protein pancakes! If you do, I’d love to see your re-creation. Snap a pic and tag me on Instagram. I’ll be sure to share it with the world. And speaking of Instagram, here’s a quick video walkthrough of these chocolate protein pancakes I posted on the ‘gram.

 

A post shared by Macro Friendly Recipes (@mason_woodruff) on Aug 4, 2018 at 12:05pm PDT

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Chocolate Protein Pancakes and Chocolate Syrup

Yield: 2 Protein Pancakes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Flourless, low carb chocolate protein pancakes with a high protein chocolate syrup to drown them in. 

Print

Ingredients

Chocolate Protein Pancakes

• 1 scoop (34g) Protein Powder, vanilla
• 2 Tbsp (10g) Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder
• 1 Tbsp Stevia or 0-Cal Sweetener, to taste
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 C (60g) Canned Pumpkin
• 3 Tbsp (45g) Unsweetened Apple Sauce
• 3 Tbsp (46g) Liquid Egg Whites, or 1 whole egg white

High Protein Chocolate Syrup (optional)

• 1/2 C (113g) Fat Free Greek Yogurt, vanilla or plain
• 1/2 scoop (17g) Protein Powder, vanilla
• 2 Tbsp (10g) Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder

Instructions

1. Mix the dry protein pancake ingredients together in a large bowl. 
2. Gradually stir in the pumpkin, apple sauce, and egg whites. Stir until smooth.
3. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat with nonstick cooking spray.
4. When the skillet is hot, use a 1/2 C measuring cup to pour two pancakes on the pan. (The recipe makes about 1 C of batter. You can split that up to make however many pancakes you'd like. You can also double the recipe to make more pancakes at once.) 
5. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until you start to see bubbles on the top side before flipping. Be careful not to burn the bottoms.
6. Remove to cool while you mix the chocolate syrup ingredients together in a bowl. Top and serve. Enjoy! 

Notes

• Each pancake has 3 Smart Points.
• Macros for chocolate protein pancakes only (entire recipe - divide by however many pancakes you make): 230 calories, 31 grams of protein, 19 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fat
• Macros for chocolate protein pancakes and chocolate syrup (entire recipe): 390 calories, 55 grams of protein, 31 grams of carbs, 5 grams of fat
• If you'd like to use pumpkin only, swap gram for gram for the additional apple sauce (105g total pumpkin). And if you'd like to go apple sauce only, simply double the apple sauce (90g total). 
• You can use chocolate protein powder, but you may want to still add a bit of cocoa powder or extra protein for structure/flavor. Gram for gram should work fine.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 2 Pancakes Serving Size: 1 Protein Pancake (pancake only)
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 115Total Fat: 1.5gCarbohydrates: 9.5gProtein: 15.5g

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