Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes
Edited to Add: You must check out the latest update on this recipe including tips and tricks.
When it comes to an easy breakfast I love pancakes. As you can probably tell from my soaked buckwheat pancakes and soaked, flour-free oatmeal pancakes. They are just so simple to cook – mix, ladle, flip, eat. No wonder our pioneer foremothers served them frequently on their trek out west.
But for those of us who don’t eat grains or are restricting our carbohydrates the smell of pancakes can feel a bit isolating. I’ve tried probably a half dozen coconut flour pancake recipes over the past year and have the same complaint with all of them – they are thin and eggy.
So I tweaked, tested, and tweaked again and finally came up with a pancake that is fluffy, not overly eggy, and pretty darn tasty.
My husband said these taste like donuts as he slathered them in coconut oil and honey. That’s coming from someone who does eat grains, is skeptical of coconut flour, and knows his way around a pancake. So when he said that I knew my recipe testing was over.
Finally, a coconut flour pancake worth eating.
Fluffly Coconut Flour Pancakes
Recipe Notes: Both cow and coconut milk work well in this recipe. You can also add cinnamon or fruit as desired. Just keep the pancakes small and watch them so they don’t burn.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup milk (raw cow’s or coconut both work)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon honey or a pinch of stevia
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- coconut oil or butter for frying
Directions
- Preheat griddle over medium-low heat. In a small bowl beat eggs until frothy, about two minutes. Mix in milk, vanilla, and honey or stevia.
- In a medium-sized bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk together. Stir wet mixture into dry until coconut flour is incorporated.
- Grease pan with butter or coconut oil. Ladle a few tablespoons of batter into pan for each pancake. Spread out slightly with the back of a spoon. The pancakes should be 2-3 inches in diameter and fairly thick. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until the tops dry out slightly and the bottoms start to brown. Flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Serve hot with butter, coconut oil, honey, syrup, or fruit.
You can get coconut flour and coconut oil here:
For bulk orders of coconut oil we highly recommend:
Love the recipe. Changed the baking soda to baking powder and got a much better texture.
I’m 10. My mom and I are standing in the kitchen eating each batch as it comes out of the pan! So delicious in coconut oil! My mom has been sick and I found this recipe myself by googling and checking for ingredients we had. I can’t believe we found this, it is amaycray!!!!
I made these and they turned out disgusting! Super dissapointed. #imhungry
Made a batch last night for breakfast for the week. I loved them, followed the recipe except subbed baking powder for baking soda, because that’s what I had on hand. Same with the milk, just used regular whole milk. They are a little hard to flip but once you get the hang of it, it’s not too bad I messed up about 3 before I was able to get the technique down right. Thank you so much, I had regular pancakes the other day and they made me so sick, I’m happy to have found an awesome alternative. Mine were a bit grainy, used a new bag of coconut flour but it was also the first time I had anything made with coconut flour. Thanks again!
Waffles???
These pancakes are wonderful! I add blueberries to them and my teens all love them. 1 batch made 8 medium size pancakes and that is enough for 4 of us as they are filling and satisfied us. They don’t make your blood sugar rise and crave more!
Loved them, thanks for the recipe.
Utter pancake pandemonium. These did not turn out as expected, because the batter did not hold well in the frying pan even when making small pancakes. However, considering it’s a gluten free “healthier” alternative and there is a larger consensus of people who rave about these pancakes, I shall give it one more go.
They cooked up fantastic. I used Tropical Traditions coconut flour and my own homemade coconut milk. I added .5 TBS xylitol instead of honey. My family loved them. I’m trying to stay away from sugars right now so I didn’t have anything on them but butter. They tasted a bit … tinny? Like it had too much baking soda. If I lessen the baking soda will they still fluff up? Going to experiment. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I am an experienced baker and love new, healthy recipes, but this one failed pretty miserably. I followed the directions to the letter and made no substitutes. The batter was thick and dry and would not spread in the pan. It also would not solidify enough to flip. I had to get out an EXTRA wide spatula that would fit under the whole thing. Even then it oozed apart. After cooking on both sides, I finally got them to stick together, barely.
The taste was good…the texture TERRIBLE. Too dry to even swallow. Hm.
@AJ Stevens, I added about 1 tsp of coconut oil and did only a 1/4 of flour and 3 egg whites and the texture was great. I had tried to do them before and yes they were terrible, I think the coconut only did the trick this time.
I’m not sure what’s wrong with my taste buds but I can’t believe the rave reviews these are getting, I think you need to have the taste for coconut flour and I’m missing it. These do not remotely taste like pancakes with flour, or doughnuts etc.
Nothing against the recipe but my kids wouldn’t eat them.
I didn’t mind the flavour myself (if you aren’t expecting it to be like normal pancakes you won’t mind it), but wouldn’t eat these by choice again. Not having the kids want to eat them is a deal breaker and a good guide!
Instead of using the eggs am I able to use egg whites? Or even just add half eggs half egg whites?
Made these this morning. I didn’t use the sweetener or the vanilla extract, and they were still delicious! I just topped mine with some butter and strawberries. My husband loved these as well!
Thanks for a delicious recipe. My husband and I LOVED them!!! Definite keeper to my grain-free repertoire!
It has been near impossible to find a good grain-free pancake recipe, using coconut flour, that tastes and cooks well. I used coconut milk for this recipe and otherwise followed everything exactly. The taste was great – some recipes i’ve tried have too many eggs for the ‘thirsty’ coconut flour. However these did not flip well whatsoever. To the point where I decided to write this review. Normally I cook pancakes on my stoves ‘5’ setting however my last pancake was at a ‘3’. To anyone reading comments before making try cooking on VERY low heat.
@Brittany, Thank you so much for the low heat tip- these worked perfectly for us! We are sugar-free and dairy-free and try to be grain-free and working towards completely grain-free. I used almond milk and just a sprinkle of stevia powder and himalayan salt. Did very slow whisking of the wet into the dry ingredients to get out every last clump. Used the spatula to spread the batter out a bit on the pan. Also used grape seed oil as it has a very high smoking point. My daughter and son LOVED them. I am on an anti-candida diet right now and being very strict with myself (only low carb proteins (no beans) and low carb veggies until one month in) but I did try a tiny tiny piece of these the size of the tip of my pinky. It was enough to say they are delicious, fluffy and do have the consistency and taste of an old-fashioned doughnut. Looking forward to next month when I can indulge in a whole one!
I just wanted to say these pancakes are awesome!!! My family absolutely LOVES them! They are sweet enough to not need any syrup and for my super picky 13 year old to ask for them in the morning is proof to how good they are. I have never had a problem with making these, even when I forgot to leave the eggs out so they could reach room temperature and used whole fat coconut milk from a can! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
P.s. I love the way you handled everyone’s comments in your revised recipe. Good way to add a little humor to what I can imagine is sheer frustration.
I followed this recipe to the letter, the consistency was ok (not really fluffy), the flavor was not pleasant. The pancakes tasted like egg and I dumped the remainder of the batter after the first pancake. This recipe just didn’t work for me.
These look so delicious! I make oat pancakes now but am looking for a different consistency and have just bought some coconut flour. One question: How many pancakes does this make? I would want to make them for one person, so I’m wondering if I should halve or more the recipe. Thanks so much!
I love these. They remind me of a crepe. So delicious with fresh berries and real maple syrup. I freeze the leftovers to use as sandwich wraps. Works wonderfully. Thank you for the recipe!
This recipe works great..for those having trouble flipping….u have to cook them a lot longer than regular pancakes…at a lower heat..they flip fine if u cook them long enough..I also made some changes…..add one tsp of baking powder in addition to the baking soda and I also added about half a cup of vanilla greek yogurt for moisture. They worked better in a waffle iron as waffles..I added some cinnamon and finely diced apples…they were awesome!!
These worked out great! thank you thank you.
I have never worked with coconut flour before. My pancakes looked like pancakes and tasted great.
Ha Ha I am looking at the time posted. No not an insomniac just an Aussie having breakfast 🙂
PERFECT! This is the first coconut flour pancake recipe I tried and I doubt I will look for another one. My kids love them, I love them, and hubby loves them. Since I have a pretty picky family to cook for this recipe is a WIN!!!!
I made these this morning and they were exactly as you said. One thing is that my eggs were cold (last minute decision to make these) -but they turned out just fine. The key for me was to keep them small and give myself plenty of room in the skillet to maneuver the flip! What a great recipe – thank you so much for sharing.
These are absolutely delicious! I did substitute almond milk for coconut milk and also used baking powder instead of baking soda. I drizzled a little maple syrup and they taste like the real thing! If you are having trouble with not flipping well make sure you have enough coconut oil in the pan even with non stick pans. Also, let the batter sit for 5 minutes. I don’t understand some of the comments that they were dry or tasted like egg. Mine absolutely did not. The recipe makes 8 big pancakes.
I wish I would have read through all the comments before attempting these…not worth the time!!!
Hmm, followed your recipe to the letter only mine aren’t fluffy at all. Pretty flat actually. They are tasty although didn’t remind me of a donut in the least. They were hard to flip without tearing them up too. Not sorry I made them though, they did satisfy my craving for a pancake. ; )
I double the recipe and added two mashed bananas in place of the honey/stevia. Took awhile to cook, but delicious! Ate them plain with nothing on them!
This recipe wasn’t for me, the pancakes weren’t fluffy, they were thin/ hard to flip and they were too salty.
@G, My opinion of this recipe also.
These are very good. Thanks for the recipe. I think some poeple may be having trouble flipping these. They should be aware that they take longer to cook than normal pancakes, so if you’re trying to flip one, and it’s falling apart, it’s not ready to be flipped yet. Even then, you have to be very careful. On the other hand, I don’t think they need almost any cooking at all once they’ve been flipped. I take them off after about 30 seconds. They stay very moist that way. I drench with ghee and sprinkle with a bit of spoonable stevia. I’ll try blueberries next time. Yummy 😛
How much does this recipe yield?
Mixture looked nasty, but cooked well. Pancakes were a bit dry.
Gorgeous – thanks for the recipe. They turned out great. I made mine small so got 14 or so pancakes that rose well and tasted lovely. I cut down the salt and honey quantities as I’m finding my taste buds are finding the flavours pretty well these days.
These cooked up nice and are super fluffy, but they tasted very eggy… Here’s hoping using chia instead of eggs will work! *fingers crossed*
Made these today, followed the recipe as is and they turned out really well. Better in the waffle iron than pan, easier to get them cooked top and bottom, however small, cooked long and on low heat in the pan they worked well too! Thanks for the recipe, will make again 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! We love it! I tried with boxed coconut milk the first time and that was not very good. Second time I did not add the baking soda, neither the vanilla but used the canned light coconut milk and turned out delicious. Thank you!
So, yes coconut flour is not an easy taste-bud adjustment but this recipe was Delicious. I substituted Almond extract and added in some blueberries and a little dash of cinnamon for extra flavor for my 5 year old.
Horrible, so disappointed. By far the worst recipe I’ve followed. Way too many eggs and very flat. I might as well have made scramebled eggs because they tasted just like them. They also cooked wierd and wouldn’t flip or hold right. I had to fix it by adding more coconut flour, banana, etc. Do not use this one, there are much better recipes that don’t waste as many eggs too.
The batter as sooooo watery! We let it sit for 15 kin and it barely firmed up. They were much more crepe like than the ones in the pictures. I thought they were good, but kids and hubby cut and stirred, had a few bites, and tossed the rest.
Made these this morning. Added some lemon zest and juice along with fresh blueberries. Absolutely devine!!no problems with batter or flipping. To those having problems flipping you have to be patient these take longer to cook than reg pancakes. Also, remember that coconut flour is VERY absorbant!! So…you may need to add a little more milk to batter if it looks too thick!
In any event my three year old and I lived them! Thank you very much!!
I am very surprised that people are raving about these “delicious” pancakes. I followed the recipe and they turned out absolutely inedible. Extremely unimpressed with the flavor and texture. Don’t waste your time or coconut flour. This recipe is a total flop.
I love these pancakes! I’ve been using this recipe for about a year now, and today I tweaked the recipe a bit to make peanut butter pancakes! Yum! I never use separate vessels for mixing wet and dry ingredients; putting everything in one bowl works for me. It took some getting used to cuz they don’t exactly cook like wheat pancakes, but it works out with practice.
Really a WASTE of coconut milk and flour. Recipe makes an extremely watery batter — I let it rest for half an hour to firm up (and for kicks threw the rest in the fridge overnight to REALLY firm up). In both cases they fried OK, took about 15 minutes just to crisp enough to flip, but the texture and taste was so far off I just tossed it.