Recipe

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These pancake muffins have a soft and fluffy texture with melted chocolate chips in every bite! It's an easy, kid-favorite breakfast you can make ahead.

If you love pancakes, you’re going to love these pancake muffins.

Fresh out of the oven, they have a soft and fluffy texture with bits of melted chocolate in every bite. It’s everyone’s favorite breakfast food – made portable!

Easy Pancake Muffins

These pancake muffins offer the light texture and flavor of a pancake in a portable muffin. And just like pancakes, you can add any of your favorite mix-ins to the batter. In this case, it’s chocolate chips.

Breakfast is a big deal around my house, it’s the types of foods everyone in my family agrees on, and the recipes can often be prepped ahead. Pancake muffins are a delicious variation of my family’s favorites: pancakes, but in a muffin.

Pancake Muffin Ingredients

To make this easy and delicious breakfast, you’ll need:

butter: makes the muffins moist.
sugar: just enough to make the pancake muffin slightly sweet and adds structure.
milk: regular or a non-dairy alternative will work.
eggs: binds the ingredients and helps the muffin batter rise.
vanilla extract: for that cake-like flavor.
all-purpose flour: makes these super soft, but you can swap it for a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose option if needed.
baking powder: a leavening agent that helps the batter rise and makes these muffins fluffy.
salt: enhances the other flavors.
chocolate chips: adds bits of melted chocolate in every bite. You can use milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips.

For a less indulgent option, omit the chocolate chips and use diced strawberries or blueberries like I do to make these Mini Blueberry Pancake Muffins.

How to Make Pancake Muffins

Grab those ingredients and let’s make these pancake muffins!

Prep
Preheat the oven to 375F and line a 12-count muffin pan with paper liners.
Sift the dry ingredients
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Add the egg, vanilla, and milk, and mix until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to form a thick but smooth batter. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Bake
Divide the muffin batter between the muffin cups and bake for 18 minutes, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Time to eat
Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool down slightly before serving.

Watch this recipe video to make pancake muffins with me!

Making Mini-Size Pancake Muffins

If you have a mini muffin pan, you can also make these muffins bite-size! Lightly grease the pan with cooking spray, distribute the batter between the cups, and bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Pancake Muffin Mix-Ins

Think of this recipe as a base for all sorts of delicious pancake muffin variations. This recipe uses chocolate chips, but you can swap those out for one of the mix-ins below:

1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup diced strawberries
½ dried cranberries + 1 teaspoon orange zest
¾ cup caramel chips
2 teaspoons lemon zest + 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice + 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

How to Serve Pancake Muffins

Enjoy these pancake muffins plain or like pancakes and serve them with homemade pancake syrup for dipping. However, I like to serve these muffins plain, since the chocolate chips add plenty of sweetness. Sometimes with a smear of peanut butter over the top because chocolate chips + peanut butter + muffin = heaven.

Make Ahead & Storage Tips

If you want to make the muffins ahead of time for an easy grab-and-go breakfast- good thinking! Simply allow the baked muffins to cool down to room temperature before placing them in an airtight container and covering the muffin tops with a paper towel. Store at room temperature for 2 to 4 days.

You can refrigerate them, but it does alter the flavor and texture of the muffins.

Instead, you can further extend their shelf-life, by freezing the muffins. Place the cooled muffins in a large zip bag and freeze for up to 2 months. To reheat, allow them to defrost on the counter or reheat in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Easy Pancake Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Servings: 12 muffins

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 18

Total Time: 28

These pancake muffins have a soft and fluffy texture with melted chocolate chips in every bite! It’s an easy, kid-favorite breakfast you can make ahead.

5 from 17 votes

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Watch how it’s made:

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
⅔ cup milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour*
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375F and line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add the eggs, vanilla, and milk, mix until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Divide the batter into the muffin pan, filling each cup ¾th of the way.
Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs, and the tops are golden brown.
Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool slightly before removing them from the pan and serving.

Notes

I successfully made this recipe with an all-purpose gluten free flour (already includes xantham gum in ingredients). You can also make this with white whole-wheat (also known as whole-wheat baking flour).
To save time, I often make the batter in my blender. I place the wet ingredients at the bottom and dry on top (except chocolate chips. I fold those in a the end). Blend until just combined, scraping the sides a couple of times.
Use the right baking powder: Since pancake batter naturally has a mild, neutral flavor, it’s important to use aluminum-free baking powder. The metallic flavor will ruin the taste, especially in fluffy pancake recipes that call for 2 or more teaspoons. Trust me on this one.