Add Hot Chocolate Mix To Pancakes For A Richer Breakfast Experience

You've probably seen chocolate chip pancakes plenty of times before, but what about chocolate pancakes? The classic American breakfast infused with cocoa powder is a chocolate lover's dream, but there's a secret ingredient you can add to pancakes to make this flavor twist even better. Adding hot chocolate mix to the batter will give you velvety chocolate pancakes with the warm beverage's nostalgic flavors.

Hot chocolate made from a mix is undeniably comforting, so why not put the memories of winter and childhood that hot chocolate invokes inside a pancake? This seemingly simple hack is quite the culinary delight and is worth trying out the next time you want your fluffy chocolate chip pancake recipe to taste extra chocolatey.

Before adding hot chocolate mix to pancake batter, however, study your pancake recipe. When you're baking (and pancake-making), you can't just add whatever ingredients you please — baking, unfortunately, is a science. Thankfully, a little culinary knowledge goes a long way.

For baked goods to rise and pancakes to become fluffy, a recipe needs an acid and a base. While baking powder is both of these, baking soda is only a base, meaning it needs an acid. Simple, right? Pancakes might call for either of these, but a typical ingredient in pancake recipes that use baking soda is buttermilk, which is more acidic than regular cow's milk. If you don't have any buttermilk, don't worry — the cocoa powder in hot chocolate is acidic, too, and it can help create the reaction you need for fluffy pancakes. Regardless of whether you're using baking powder or baking soda, though, you may want to subtract a bit of flour to make room for your hot chocolate mix.

This mix is made from more than just cocoa powder. Often, it also includes sugar and instant milk. Keep in mind how sweet you want your pancakes to be, and adjust the amount of sugar in the pancake recipe accordingly. If your hot chocolate mix does contain instant milk, this can benefit the pancakes' taste by imparting a rich flavor without affecting the batter's liquid levels. With hot cocoa mix, your breakfast will be an all-around richer experience.