How to Make Heart-Shaped Pancakes

How to make heart-shaped pancakes with a metal cookie cutter - These DIY chocolate chip pancakes are as delicious as they are pretty! They are a fun way to have breakfast for Valentine's Day or any day of the year. Breakfast in bed for Mom on Mother's Day would be nice too! Perfect for kids and families. Top with peanut butter, fruit, or maple syrup.

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My kids are teenagers now, but when they were small, I made a big deal out of breakfast for every holiday. We ate green Lucky Charms pancakes for St. Patrick's Day; we ate Bunny pancakes and carrot cake pancakes for Easter, and, of course, we ate heart-shaped pancakes for Valentine's Day.

I used pancake mix so that these would go together quickly, and I made them in much the same way as we'd made the heart-shaped omelets earlier in the week.

What you'll need to make the best heart-shaped pancakes

Equipment

• 10-inch stainless steel skillet - Any large, flat bottomed skillet will do, but I do NOT recommend a nonstick or Teflon coated skillet or griddle. You will be using a metal cookie cutter to make the heart, and there's a good chance that it could scratch the nonstick coating on your pan.
• Heart-shaped cookie cutter - You need a really big heart-shaped cookie cutter for these pancakes, the bigger the better. I used a 5-inch one, and really liked the results. The biggest heart in most standard cookie cutter sets is 3-3.5 inches which will make very very small pancakes.

Ingredients

See the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page for all measurements and nutritional information.

• Cooking spray
• Pancake mix - You can use Bisquick, Pamela's Gluten-Free Baking Mix, a homemade mix, or whatever you want. If you have a preferred homemade pancake recipe, use that or head over here for my homemade pancake recipe.
• Water
• Mini chocolate chips - I prefer mini chocolate chips in pancakes over the regular sized, but you can use either one. I suggest semisweet.
• Maple syrup - For serving. You could also use peanut butter and/or jelly which is how my mom always ate her pancakes.

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How to Make Heart-Shaped Pancakes without a Mold

1. Whisk together the pancake mix and the water.
2. Set the cookie cutter in the pan, and spritz both with cooking spray. Heat the span and the cookie cutter together. I set my stove on medium to heat.
3. When the pan is hot, hold the cookie cutter down with one hand (or tongs) and pour just enough pancake batter into the cookie cutter to spread over the whole thing. Mine took about ⅓ cup of batter.
   If you don't press the cookie cutter down, the batter will run out under it. You only have to press it down for 30 seconds or so, until the bottom layer of pancake cooks enough to harden.
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4. Before the pancake is cooked through, sprinkle chocolate chips into the the batter.
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5. Now you can slow down. Let the pancake cook until the edges are beginning to set. If you don't wait long enough, pancake batter will run everywhere when you lift up the cookie cutter.
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6. Remove the cookie cutter.
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7. Flip the pancake over and let the top brown a bit.
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8. To serve, flip the pancake back over (chocolate chips facing up) and serve with a dollop of peanut butter or maple syrup.
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My pancake mix batter filled my heart-shaped cookie cutter 5 times, just enough for a test heart (that fell apart because I took the cookie cutter off too soon), my sister Amanda, Gracie, Allie, and me. Perfect.

For the secret to cooking perfect pancakes, head over to this post.

And here are a few more pancake variations that you might like:

• Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes
• Sweet Potato Pancakes
• Apple Ring Pancakes
• Bananas Foster Pancakes
• Lucky Charms Pancakes
• Fruity Pebbles Pancakes
• Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
• Baked Apple Pecan Pancakes
• How to Make Banana Pancakes with Chocolate Chips
• How to Reheat Pancakes (5 Ways!)

Recipe