These fluffy vegan oat flour pancakes are all you need to make your mornings a whole lot more delicious! With one bowl, 6 ingredients, and 15 minutes of your time, you're just moments away from a breakfast the whole family will love.
Similar to these vegan buttermilk pancakes, these oat flour pancakes are light, fluffy and so easy to make. The only difference is they are completely gluten-free thanks to the oat flour! Oat flour is one of my favorite flours because it's so affordable and you can easily make it yourself.
So keep your pancake mix in the pantry and lets make these vegan oatmeal pancakes instead! They are a delicious, nourishing breakfast that will keep you full for hours. Top them with the classic butter and maple syrup combo, or whatever you like!
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Why you'll love this recipe
- Quick & Easy: You only need 1 bowl, 7 simple ingredients, and 15 minutes to make these fluffy oat flour pancakes, aka everyone's new favorite Sunday breakfast!
- A nourishing boost: Oat flour is a nutritious, healthy alternative to all-purpose flour! Oats are rich in plant-based protein, cholesterol-lowering fiber, gut supportive resistant starch, and important minerals like iron, zinc, and selenium.
- Accessible: Rolled oats are fairly inexpensive and you can easily make your own oat flour at home by just blending the oats until fine! You will save money making it from scratch.
- Customizable: You can easily customize these pancakes with any add-ins and toppings you like!
- Freezer-friendly and great for meal prep.
- Allergen-Friendly: these pancakes are gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and refined sugar free. They can also easily be made soy-free, if needed.
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Pancake Griddle or large nonstick pan
- Spatula
Ingredients
- Oat Flour: you can find oat flour at your local grocery store, health food stores, and online (whether it's a brands website or amazon). However, it's also incredibly easy to make yourself at home! To keep this recipe gluten-free, make sure to get certified gluten-free oats. All you have to do is a blend the oats in a blender or food processor until you have a fine flour.
- Plant-based milk: you can use any non-dairy milk you like as long as it's plain and unsweetened. I recommend soy milk, coconut milk, oat milk, or almond milk because they're naturally a bit thicker.
- Apple cider vinegar: in order to make homemade vegan buttermilk, we'll need an acid to curdle the milk! I usually use apple cider vinegar but lemon juice, lime juice or distilled white vinegar will work perfectly.
- Baking powder: to help our pancakes rise. This reacts with the buttermilk and creates a light and fluffy texture!
- Maple syrup: it's optional but it adds flavor, sweetness and moisture to the pancake batter. You can also use agave nectar or any other liquid sweetener.
- Vanilla extract: optional, but adds an amazing flavor!
- Salt: sea salt, kosher salt, or iodized salt will all work.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions & variations
- Change the flavor by adding different spices! Instead of plain pancakes, feel free to add a teaspoon of cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, cardamom and more.
- Use a different milk! Any milk will work for this recipe. If you're not going to use soy milk, just make sure you're choosing a plant-based milk that is unsweetened and unflavored.
- White vinegar or lemon juice can be used in place of apple cider vinegar.
- Get a boost of protein by add a scoop of peanut butter to the batter! If you add protein powder, just add 1-2 tablespoons more of milk.
This recipe has not been tested with any other substitutions or variations than the ones listed above. If you replace or add any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!
Instructions
- Add the oat flour, baking powder and salt to a large bowl and whisk until combined.
- Pour in the vegan buttermilk, vanilla extract and maple syrup. Whisk until combined. There should be no streaks of flour remaining, but it should be a thick, pourable batter with some lumps remaining.
- Let the batter sit for 5 minutes while you heat your pan or griddle. Set your griddle to 350°F, or your stove to medium low heat or medium heat. Grease lightly with cold vegan butter, cooking spray, avocado oil or coconut oil, if needed. I prefer to use an ungreased non-stick griddle or pan.
- Using a ⅓ cup, scoop batter and pour onto the preheated griddle or pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until bubbles form, then flip and cook for another minute or so, until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter.
Toppings & Add-ins
What's better than customizing your fluffy pancakes with some yummy add ins or your favorite pancake toppings? Here are some of my favorite ways to take these easy oat flour pancakes to the next level:
- Chocolate chips
- Fresh berries or fresh fruit like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or bananas
- Peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, nutella
- Crushed peanuts
- Coconut shreds
- Berry compote, jams or preserves
- Vegan mascarpone
- Vegan whipped cream or coconut cream
- Vegan butter & maple syrup, duh
TIP: Have your toppings ready to go! This ensures your pancakes don't get cold while you're prepping the toppings.
Serving Suggestions
Enjoy these classic pancakes for the ultimate Sunday brunch, breakfast for dinner, a breakfast themed charcuterie board, or as weekday treat!
If you want to make a full breakfast spread, feel free to serve these pancakes alongside some vegan bacon, vegan sausages, tofu scramble and air fryer smashed potatoes!
Expert Tips
- Use a non-stick frying pan or non-stick griddle and don't grease it. I find when you grease the pan, there's always one or two sad pancakes that absorb all of the melted vegan butter and end up being a bit flat and greasy.
- The batter thickens quickly after combining the dry and liquid ingredients. The oat flour batter should look thick and fluffy but still pourable. If it looks too thick, whisk in some extra plant-based milk in between batches.
- Don't make the batter ahead of time. The baking powder reacts with everything as soon as it's added, so if you wait too long (I'm talking the next day) to make the pancakes, they won't rise or be fluffy.
- Do not over mix the batter! The batter should not be completely smooth. Over mixing your batter results in dense and tough pancakes.
- Use a pancake griddle. Not only does it reduce cooking time because there's so more space but it creates an evenly-heated surface for best results.
- Make sure your pan isn't too hot! It's better cook over medium-low heat for a few extra minutes to ensure your pancakes are golden brown and cooked through rather than burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.
- Only flip once after the bubbles in the exposed batter start to pop and the edges look set. Flipping the pancakes too many times pushes the air out of them, resulting in dense pancakes.
- Wipe down your skillet between pancakes. This will ensure you don't get any burnt bits of pancake batter or burnt butter in your pancakes.
- If you're using a pan or making extra batter where all of the pancakes won't be done at the same time, keep them in the oven or a convection oven on low heat to keep warm until they're ready to serve.
- Use room temperature wet ingredients for the fluffiest pancakes!
- Use a kitchen scale! Weighing the ingredients will give you the most accurate measurements and best results.
Storage & Reheating
Refrigerator: Store leftover pancakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freezer: Always allow the pancakes to cool completely, then place a piece of parchment paper between each of the cakes before placing them into a freezer bag. Or, spread the cooked and cooled buttermilk pancakes across a baking sheet then transfer to the freezer and flash freeze for 2-3 hours then transfer to a freezer safe bag or container. Either option will keep the pancakes from sticking together.
Reheating: There are so many different ways that you can reheat these pancakes. Reheat in the microwave, in the toaster oven, in non-stick pan, in the oven, or in an air fryer. If you're reheating in the oven, do so at 350 degrees F for 5-7 minutes, or until warmed through. For the air fryer, air fry at 350 degrees F for 3-5 minutes, or until warmed through. If reheating from frozen, add 1-2 minutes to all of the methods.
FAQ
I do not recommend swapping the oat flour for any other kind of flour, as it's not a simple 1:1 swap. If you're looking to use a different flour, I recommend trying these vegan buttermilk pancakes instead.
Your batter is either too thin or you're flipping them too early! Only add extra milk to the recipe if the batter is too thick/not pourable. Also, be sure to only flip the pancake once and do so when bubbles are formed and a few start to pop.
Your griddle or stove is too hot! This will cause the outside to burn while the inside is raw. Be sure to cook on medium-low heat. Low and slow is the key here!
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📖 Recipe
Fluffy Vegan Oat Flour Pancakes
Equipment
- Pancake Griddle or large nonstick pan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (150 g) oat flour sifted
- 1 ½ teaspoons (7 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) salt
- 1 cup (227 g) vegan buttermilk 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk + 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine dairy-free milk and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl and let it sit for 2-5 minutes to create the buttermilk mixture. Whisk in vanilla extract and maple syrup.1 cup vegan buttermilk, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the oat flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and whisk until just combined. There should be no streaks of flour remaining but some lumps remaining. Allow the batter to sit and thicken for 5 minutes while you heat your pan.1 ½ cups oat flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- Set your griddle to 350°F, or your stove to medium low heat or medium heat, not any higher! If needed, lightly grease pan or griddle with cold vegan butter, cooking spray, avocado oil or coconut oil.
- Using a ¼ cup, scoop batter and pour onto the preheated griddle or non-stick pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until bubbles form and start to pop on the exposed batter, then flip and cook for another minute or two, or until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Serve immediately with butter, maple syrup, powdered sugar, or any preferred toppings!
Melissa says
These came out perfectly! Letting the batter sit for a few minutes definitely made them thicker and fluffier, glad I was patient lol
Lauren Casolaro says
Hi Melissa - I'm so glad you loved these! Totally agree, don't skip letting the batter the rest for 5 minutes!