Supremely moist and loaded with a double hit of chocolate, nobody will ever guess that there’s zucchini hiding inside these chocolate zucchini pancakes!
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Vegetables for breakfast, let’s goooooo! Pancakes and zucchini are officially a thing and your breakfast game is better for it.
Can we be honest here? These pancakes are pretty much just winning at the whole put-zucchini-in-all-the-things-and-nobody’s-any-the-wiser game. I’d go so far as to put it alongside these muffins, this bread, and heck, even these brownies.
The texture of these pancakes is kinda like a cross between a rich chocolate cake and a moist slice of zucchini bread and lemme tell, it is one for the breakfast record books.
Preferably with tons of maple syrup dumped on top.
These Pancakes Feature…
- A soft and moist interior from shredded zucchini
- Gooey chocolate chips and cocoa powder
- An easy recipe that comes together in minutes
Making the Pancakes
(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)
Ingredients You Will Need
- Zucchini
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Buttermilk
- All-purpose flour
- Cocoa powder
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Kosher salt
- Chocolate chips
How to Prepare Zucchini
You will need about 1 small zucchini for this recipe. Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater and firmly pack into 1 cup to measure.
After the zucchini is measured, place it in the center of a kitchen towel, tightly wrap, and squeeze the water out of the zucchini. I find that this step is crucial for getting a moist and fluffy pancake texture.
Tips for Perfect Pancakes
- Spoon and level flour – I use the spoon-and-level technique for measuring flour as this will prevent over-measuring. Use a spoon to scoop flour into the measuring cup, then level with the back of a knife.
- Allow melted butter to cool – wait for the butter to cool before mixing with the other ingredients to prevent curdling.
- Gently fold batter – use a light hand when mixing batter to prevent overmixing.
- Use real buttermilk – this gives the pancakes a rich and tangy flavor.
Recipe Variations
Try these ideas for a different twist on these pancakes.
- Choose a different chocolate – dark, milk, or white chocolate will all work great here. You can also use a chocolate bar cut up into chunks.
- Add nuts – fold 1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans into batter.
- Add a fruit – try folding 1/2 cup diced strawberries or raspberries into the batter.
If this isn’t weekend breakfast done right, I really don’t know what is! Every bite of these pancakes is packed with gooey chocolate and the soft and fluffy texture, I mean MY GOSH.
Good luck not demolishing a mile-high stack of these is all I have to say.
More summery pancakes to make next!
Save this recipe for later using the ‘save to recipe box’ button. If you make it, please let me know by leaving a comment + star rating below the recipe card. This only takes moments and helps support my website so much!
Chocolate Zucchini Pancakes
This recipe may included paid links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (150g) firmly-packed shredded zucchini
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons (45g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-1/4 cups buttermilk
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1/2 cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons (10g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (4g) baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon (1g) kosher salt
- 1/2 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips
- Melted butter for cooking
- Additional chocolate chips and maple syrup for serving
Instructions
- Place shredded zucchini in the center of a kitchen towel, wrap tightly, and squeeze excess moisture out.
- In a large bowl, whisk melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla, egg, and buttermilk until smooth. In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Fold flour mixture, zucchini, and chocolate chips into liquid until batter is just combined.
- Preheat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat and lightly brush with butter. Working in batches, drop pancake batter by heaping 1/4 cupfuls onto hot skillet and allow to cook 2-3 minutes on each side until pancakes are golden brown. Repeat cooking method with remaining batter, adding more butter to skillet as needed.
- Serve pancakes warm with chocolate chips and maple syrup on top. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This post was updated with new recipe adjustments on 8/13/26.
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says
You totally had me at double the chocolate! These pancakes sound AMAZING, Sarah! I’m in awe of how gorgeous these are! Such a great idea to add zucchini into pancakes, love it! And you definitely can’t go wrong with chocolate, either. Pinned!
Sarah says
Aww thanks for the super-sweet words, girlie and for pinning! xoxo
Joanne says
You are the master at sneaking green stuff into breakfast foods! And, consequently, my hero. Fact.
Sarah says
Haha. You’re totally the best, Joanne! xoxo
Dani @ Dani California Cooks says
I LOVE sneaky zucchini recipes!! This looks great. And I mean, of course you can have double the chocolate when you had a side of veggies to start the day!
Sarah says
Yes! It’s just a win-win kinda way to start the day, right?? Thanks Dani. 🙂
Chelsea@TableForOne says
I can’t pass up chocolate pancakes loaded with veggies! I have so much zucchini too and am looking for new ways to use it up. These look like the perfect way!
Sarah says
Thanks Chelsea! These pancakes are definitely my favorite way to use up all the green stuff! 😉
Kelley @ Chef Savvy says
These pancakes look heavenly Sarah! I’ll take a big stack of these!
Sarah says
Thanks girlie! xoxo
Katalina @ Peas and Peonies says
what a perfect breakfast, chocolate, syrup, veggies 🙂 I still have to master to make my pancakes the same size, what’s your secret?
Sarah says
I always measure the pancake batter by 1/4 cups for each pancake! Works so well for uniform pancakes! 😉
Leslie says
Hi, Sarah. These look amazing. I don’t have whole wheat flour handy, and would like to make these tomorrow. Would I have to change the flour amount if using regular flour? Thank you!
Sarah says
Hey there, Leslie! You might want to reduce the flour to 1-1/2 cups if you’re using all-purpose flour in place of the whole wheat. Just make sure the batter is fairly thick.—Let me know how they turn out!
Leslie says
Thank you! I can’t wait for breakfast!
Shannon says
These were crazy delicious for breakfast this morning. Im in love with these. I squeezed out extra moisture in the zucchini so maybe that’s why the batter seemed too thick. I added another half cup or so of buttermilk and that worked fine. So filling too. I ate two and was stuffed. My kids are always fighting me on trying something new. My son ate three bites and said he didnt kike it. Even though i caught him licking his fork clean…typical 3 year old. Froze the rest between wax paper sheets and will be eating these for breakfast again.
Sarah says
Thanks for letting me know how these pancakes turned out, Shannon! I’m thrilled to hear that they satisfied even the 3-year old! 😀
Disappointed. says
I really wish people who comment would actually leave constructive comments. Commenting about something you should or would make seems is ridiculous. I see this on so many blog sites. A bunch of people from multiple blogs all comment on each others recipes, while never offering anything constructive, just telling each other they should make this or that sounds good.
The recipe for these turned out very runny and when cooked the pancakes were overly mushy. I squeezed the zucchini out pre mixing to avoid this and adding more flour to help thicken it did not help. Milk ratio might be off maybe. Would also try with white sugar next time as brown can add more moisture as well and that could have been part of the issue. Might try again, with tweaking.
Sarah says
Hi there – I’m so sorry to hear that these pancakes didn’t turn out for you! We will return to the test kitchen to make the adjustments you mentioned for this recipe. So sorry again!