These healthy Chocolate Orange Pancakes are gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and still taste like a treat for breakfast!
Chocolate for breakfast is happening right here! I repeat, chocolate for breakfast! And there is no guilt involved either! These Chocolate Orange Pancakes are healthy. Yup, you are reading that right! And super delicious too!
These Chocolate Orange Pancakes are gluten-free, refined-sugar free, and can be made vegan as well! I am no stranger to making healthy pancakes on weekends! You can check out the recipe links at the end of this post for more options. We love to make special breakfasts on the weekend when life slows down and we have more time to enjoy a leisurely brekkie together.
These particular pancakes feel extra special. They make a great breakfast idea for birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. This year, I am serving them on Valentine’s day because what better way to show someone you love them then with chocolate for breakfast? My husband absolutely loves these!
Making the pancakes is really easy. I mix my dry ingredients together first. The base of the dry ingredients consist of oats and oat flour. You can make oat flour by processing oats in a food processor until it they are powdery. You can also buy oat flour from grocery or bulk stores and save yourself a step. To the dry ingredients I also add cocoa powder (that’s what makes these chocolate after all!), baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Once all the dry ingredients are mixed, I add my liquid. You can play around with the wet ingredients a bit to adjust for dietary restrictions. I have made these pancakes with vegan substitutions before and they taste just as delicious!
Whether vegan or otherwise, to the dry ingredients I add orange juice. I prefer freshly squeezed juice but you can use bottled if you like. You really can’t beat the freshly squeezed juice when it comes to flavour though so that is my preference. I also add maple syrup and vanilla extract as well as the cocoa can be a bitter and you need to offset that with some sweetness. While you can add regular sugar instead, we try to avoid refined sugar as much as possible and this is a pretty simple substitution to make so why not?
If you are not vegan, you also add melted butter, milk and eggs at this stage. If you are vegan or just looking to make healthy substitutions you can replace these with melted coconut oil, non-dairy milk (like coconut or almond milk) and flax eggs. Flax eggs are pretty easy to make. Check out the note section in the recipe below.
Mix everything up and let it sit for a few minutes before making your pancakes. The batter thickens a bit while it sits as the oats begin to soften and absorb the liquid. If you find it has thickened too much, add some more liquid in the form of orange juice or milk. Then onto the griddle (or pan) to cook up and enjoy!
The orange flavour from the orange juice is subtle in these pancakes. The real orange flavour comes from slicing fresh oranges and eating them alongside the pancakes. So much yumminess!
Bon appetit!
For other healthy pancake ideas, check out my other recipes:
Healthy Pumpkin Pancakes
Healthy Blueberry Oat Pancakes
Zucchini Oat Pancakes
Chocolate Orange Pancakes
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 3/4 cups oats
- 1 1/2 cups oat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Wet ingredients
- 2 large eggs (or 2 flax eggs* for a vegan option)
- 3/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/3 cup butter or coconut oil + more to coat griddle, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To serve
- 1 orange peeled and sliced
- maple syrup
Instructions
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Heat a griddle or pan at medium heat and add a bit of coconut oil or butter to coat it and prevent sticking. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook for a couple of minutes until bubbles begin to form. Flip the pancakes and cook for another couple minutes.
- To serve, add sliced oranges on top of pancake stacks and drizzle with maple syrup.
Notes
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
