Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

If none of those holidays are nearby, then don’t fret! You can just make these stunning red velvet pancakes when you’ve got a craving for the cake but don’t want to eat a cake for breakfast! I mean, if you eat the real cake for breakfast, I won’t judge. I’ve done it once before… Or maybe more. hehe.

Check out the video recipe to follow along with preparing our perfect Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Pancakes! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and be sure to hit the bell button to receive the notifications when all my video recipes are live! I love sharing the videos to go hand in hand with the written recipes so you’ve got all the tools you need for success! Let’s get cooking!

Why You’ll Love These Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

• Made from scratch: I’d also like to point out that I’m not using a box mix for these pancakes. They’re 100% made from scratch! I am adding some red food colouring to my traditional pancake batter that uses oat flour.
• Cakey: We’ve also got some cocoa powder in the batter! I find that cocoa powder really adds that cakiness that makes the pancakes so fluffy. This is really going to give you the feeling that your pancakes are truly like the red velvet cake itself!
• Perfectly sweet: We’ve got some sweetness in our pancake batter to ensure that our cocoa powder isn’t too bitter. This can come from powdered sugar or honey. Furthermore, the white chocolate chips we’ll add in as our pancakes cook add some more chocolate goodness so you get a full on cake experience!
• Easy process: These pancakes won’t involve too many steps to make, so they’re perfect for a last-minute special brunch!
• Eye-catching stack: Additionally, I not only top my pancakes with my classic rich cream cheese glaze, but I love sandwiching these pancakes with the glaze! A garnish of some shaved chocolate really brings these pancakes all together so that they not only taste incredible, but they look almost too pretty to eat!

Equipment for Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes

• Non-stick pan
• Fish spatula
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cup
• Ladle
• Whisk
• Mixing bowl
• Cake cutter
• Peeler
• Ramekins

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes Ingredients

Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD or press the “Jump to Recipe” button for all ingredient quantities and to save the recipe for later. The recipe card also allows you to scale the recipe based on how many pancakes you want to have, and all ingredient quantities get automatically adjusted for you!

• Flour: My go-to option for a perfect pancake batter is simply all-purpose flour. However, if you have a gluten intolerance, you can replace this with 1 to 1 gluten-free baking flour. I recommend you use this flour instead of other gluten-free varieties because this will allow you to maintain the flour to milk ratio I’ve outlined in this recipe. I’ve made these pancakes with both regular flour and the 1 to 1 flour and had the same results! On the other hand, in my Ultimate Chocolatey S’mores Pancakes, I have used gluten-free all-purpose flour with garbanzo beans and required more milk. Check out that recipe if that’s the flour that you already have on hand and want to make these pancakes.
• Milk: If you’re making these pancakes for someone who is lactose intolerant, lactose-free milk will work just fine. I’m using whole milk here, and I’ve found it makes for a thicker batter. You can use any milk of your choice, but keep in mind that if you’re using a non-dairy milk, the texture and taste will differ.
• Egg: One whole egg cracked into our batter.
• Butter: Molten butter will go directly into our pancakes. We actually won’t put butter on the pan
• Vanilla extract: Ensure that you’re using pure vanilla extract and not artificial vanilla extract for the best flavor. Yes, it’s more expensive, but it’s really worth investing in it because
• Red food colouring: A few drops is all you’ll need to get a vibrant red colour! People who don’t want to use food colouring tend to use beet juice for a natural option. You can, but the colour won’t be as bright red as with the food colouring. A little bit every now and then won’t harm you!
• Powdered sugar: This is going to be the sweetener for our pancake batter. I typically like to add honey to my pancake batter, but I kept these pancakes low FODMAP so I opted for powdered sugar today. If you’re not going to use honey, I recommend powdered sugar over granulated white sugar because this will make your pancakes grainy. Powdered sugar allows the texture to be smooth.
• Cocoa powder: You may be worried that the cocoa powder will ruin the colour of your pancakes. No, it won’t! We’re only using a tablespoon, and that’ll not only help give a cakey texture to our pancakes, but add some body and transform the flavour. A typical red velvet cake is made with cocoa powder, so you can’t skip this crucial ingredient in our red velvet pancakes!
• Salt: Brings out the flavour of the cocoa powder and vanilla here. We only need a little pinch.
• Baking powder: Helps the pancakes get super fluffy!
• White chocolate chips: These really make the red velvet pancakes special. They add some nice sweetness to the pancakes and when you cut into your pancakes, you’ll see the awesome molten chocolate chips! This really takes our red velvet pancakes to the next level!
• Classic Cream Cheese Glaze: Made with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk. This will be used for layering and topping our pancakes.
• Shaved chocolate of choice: I recommend baker’s semi-sweet or dark chocolate.

How to Make Red Velvet Pancakes

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make these excellent cakey red velvet pancakes with cream cheese glaze!

Preheat your oven to 200 F. This step is optional. We don’t want our cooked pancakes to get cold as we cook all of the batter, so we’ll keep them warm by adding them to a baking tray in the oven.

Prepare your cream cheese glaze. You can see how to make my Classic Cream Cheese Glaze recipe here.

Prepare the batter. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients together - flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients - milk, egg, powdered sugar and the vanilla extract. Then add in the red food colouring and mix again.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and begin whisking using either a whisk or a stand mixer until you get a thick but runny pancake batter. You don’t need to work out all the lumps. After mixing, adjust the red food colour to add more red as necessary to get the desired colour and then mix in the molten butter.

Heat a non-stick skillet or griddle on medium heat and using a 1/3 cup measuring cup or a ladle, pour the batter onto the centre of the hot pan. Then add the chocolate chips on the wet side and then cover the chocolate chips with more batter.

Cook until bubbles start to appear. Then, carefully flip onto the other side. Lower the heat and cook until the pancake is entirely cooked through, for about another minute or two. Turn the heat back up to medium and continue cooking the rest of the pancakes.

If making ahead, transfer the cooked pancake to a baking tray. Put the tray in the oven and repeat the previous step for the remaining batter.

Assemble the pancakes. When all the pancakes have cooked start layering the pancakes with the glaze. Place one pancake on your plate and spoon on 2-3 Tbsp of glaze. Spread it in a circular motion onto the pancake, going close to the edge - leave a slight rim.

Stack on another pancake and repeat until you've coated the top pancake with a final layer of cream cheese glaze.

Sprinkle the top with shaved dark chocolate and serve warm. Enjoy!