In the debate between pancakes and waffles, I choose pancakes. Especially if it’s coffee and chocolate flavored… aka mocha pancakes.

If you love coffee and chocolate, you need to make these mocha pancakes.

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While I wouldn’t consider this an every day breakfast like my coffee chia pudding or coffee smoothie bowls, it’s a delicious special morning or weekend treat.

(these mocha pancakes are best served with lots of chocolate sauce and whipped cream!)

Just like a mocha coffee drink, these pancakes have chocolate (from cocoa powder and chocolate syrup), coffee (I used Nescafe instant coffee) and if you choose to, a dollop of whipped cream like you’d typically find on the drink.

These are so easy to make and I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.

Click here to skip to the recipe.

Mocha Pancakes Ingredients

1 ½ tbsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp water
1 egg
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup cocoa powder
Optional: whipped cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips

Tips for Making Mocha Pancakes

Best Instant Coffee

I used Nescafe Clasico instant coffee. I dissolve this in water before putting it in the batter to avoid any clumps.

Not sure which type of instant coffee to use? If you don’t usually purchase instant coffee, or you’re on the lookout for a new favorite, check out our list of favorite instant coffee.

Here’s the list if you just want to pick one (links to purchase on Amazon):

I tend to use Nescafe Clasico for most of my recipes that require instant coffee. It’s a dark roast that I think goes really well to add a coffee flavor when I make any coffee flavored treats like coffee brownies and coffee mousse.

There’s also a decaf version, if you prefer your mocha pancakes without caffeine.

Buttermilk

I used buttermilk, which is the key to making fluffy pancakes.

If you don’t have buttermilk, I’ve made these pancakes with regular milk and even oatmilk. It’ll still taste good in my opinion, but the pancakes just won’t be fluffy.

Butter

I melt the butter in the microwave. But make sure to let it cool before pouring it into the egg and buttermilk mixture. Otherwise, I find it putting in hot butter may clump.

Dry Ingredients

If you ever want to make these mocha pancakes fast, you can mix the dry ingredients together ahead of time and store it in a container.

Just mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together. Then when you’re ready to make the pancakes on another day, you can mix the wet ingredients together and add this dry mixture into it.

Toppings

I topped my mocha pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate chips and drizzled Torani chocolate sauce. (You can also add some chocolate chips into the batter for chocolate chip mocha pancakes.)

I used the same Torani chocolate sauce to add a chocolate flavor to my coffee, like in my Peppermint Mocha Starbucks Copycat Recipe and Super Simple Iced Mocha Recipe.

So it’s convenient to have on hand since it doubles as a flavoring for coffee drinks and also desserts.

How to Make Mocha Pancakes

Dissolve instant coffee in water.
Beat the egg. Mix in buttermilk, melted butter and instant coffee.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
Mix buttermilk mixture with dry ingredients. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes.
Place a pan on the stovetop on medium heat. When heated, add 1 tbsp butter to the pan.
Scoop approximately ¼ cup of batter for each pancake onto the heated pan. Flip when the batter starts to bubble.
Top with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and or chocolate chips.

In pictures…