Whole Wheat Buttermilk Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Fresh Strawberry Sauce Recipe

Treat your loved ones to these Whole Wheat Buttermilk Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes topped with Fresh Strawberry Sauce. Perfect for Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion! Sponsored by Peapod.

Valentine’s Day is this coming weekend, so when the online grocery service, Peapod, asked me to develop a special Valentine’s Day breakfast recipe for their recipe site, I spent a few days dreaming about all the different kinds of pancakes I could make.

I finally came up with these gorgeous Whole Wheat Buttermilk Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Fresh Strawberry Sauce. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love pancakes. In fact, I have a few friends who are absolutely obsessed with pancakes.

In developing this pancake recipe, I wanted to achieve several goals.

• First, I wanted to make a healthy pancake, so these pancakes are made with white whole wheat flour (which is not as strong tasting as regular whole wheat flour), low-fat Greek yogurt and low-fat buttermilk (both of these lighter ingredients add tang and some acidity which gives these pancakes more flavor and makes them fluffier when they react with baking soda/baking powder), and fruit (I love sneaking in some extra fruit at breakfast time).
• Second, I wanted to include several flavor combinations that naturally work together, like strawberries and chocolate, bananas and chocolate, oranges and chocolate. Chocolate compliments lots of fruits :).
• Third, I wanted to give these pancakes an extra loving touch for Valentine’s Day, so I made a fresh strawberry sauce to go on top of the pancakes, and cut out cute little heart shaped bananas and fresh strawberries for fun decorations.

These pancakes are made with healthy, whole ingredients. If you’ve never tried white whole wheat flour, this is a great recipe to try it out on. White whole wheat flour is a whole grain flour, but it has a milder taste than regular whole wheat flour.

The consistency you’re looking for in this pancake batter is not too thick, and not too thin.

To make heart shaped pancakes, the easiest way I found is to make pancakes slightly bigger than a heart shaped cookie cutter. I tried using a heart shaped pancake mold, but it was a lot more work and the pancakes didn’t turn out as nicely.

The fresh strawberry sauce is super easy to make, and maple syrup and orange zest compliment the strawberries nicely.

A pretty presentation will show your loved ones how much you care this Valentine’s Day. To cut out heart shaped strawberries, choose strawberries that are naturally pointy at the ends and heart shaped; then slice into 1/4″ slices, and cut out the white core in a “v” shape to make the heart shape more pronounced. For the bananas, I used a mini heart shaped cookie cutter. Aren’t they cute?

These pancakes are so pretty, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. My family had the biggest smiles on their faces when they sat down to this plate of Whole Wheat Buttermilk Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Fresh Strawberry Sauce.

5 from 2 votes

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Whole Wheat Buttermilk Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups low fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil or olive oil
• 1 ripe banana mashed
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Strawberry Sauce

• 2 cups chopped strawberries
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• zest from one clementine ~ 1 teaspoon

Garnishes

• sliced strawberries
• sliced bananas

Instructions

Pancakes

1. Place flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl; whisk together.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, Greek yogurt, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla and oil.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in mashed bananas and chocolate chips. Let sit 10 minutes.
4. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium low heat. Drizzle a teaspoon of oil in pan and use a spatula to spread it around. Form pancakes by pouring 1/4 cup batter into skillet, spreading batter out to make a circle. Cook until bubbles form on surface and bottoms of pancakes are brown, about 2-3 minutes; flip pancakes and cook other side, about another minute or two. Repeat with rest of batter, oiling pan as necessary in between batches.

Strawberry Sauce

1. Place strawberries, maple syrup, vanilla and orange zest in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer 5-7 minutes, until strawberries break down.

Recipe Notes

This recipe makes 14 pancakes when using 1/4 cup batter for each pancake or 7 large pancakes when using 1/2 cup for each pancake. To make heart shape pancakes, you will need a heart shape cookie cutter. Make round pancakes slightly larger than the heart shape cookie cutter (I used a 4 1/2" heart shape cookie cutter which required 1/2 cup batter for each pancake). Once pancakes are cooked, transfer them to a cutting board and use cookie cutter to cut out heart shaped pancakes.

If you’re looking for more breakfast ideas for Valentine’s Day, check out these recipes on From The Pod:

Whole Wheat Chocolate Pistachio Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Icing
Cranberry Almond Meringue Tart
Spinach Ricotta Potato Omelet
Potato Hash with Fried Eggs
Ham, Spinach & Mushroom Quiche

Big thanks to Peapod for sponsoring this post which helps support Jeanette’s Healthy Living.

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