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:
Made these a little bigger and had trouble turning, so I cooked them in the frying pan on one side and when time to turn, popped them under the broiler til browned, got an excellent, fluffy, full sized pancake, added frozen blueberries to the mixture and used coconut milk, no salt. Excellent recipe, thanks for sharing
OMG! These look fantastic! A friend of mine makes them often for her kids and they love them. I can’t wait to try the recipe! If they come out great I will blog about them too. Thanks for posting this.
Rachel
Perfect coconut flour pancake recipe, thank you!!! The others I tried were dry and didn’t make too many. I added some cinnamon. Thank you š
Thanks for the recipe. It was my first time using coconut flour in a pancake. I also had a hard time turning the pancake so I ended up adding 3 tbsp of AP flour to the rest of the batter and voila they turned and tasted great! I was concerned that the coconut flavor wasn’t going to come through since the recipe called for 4 eggs, but it surprisingly did. Thanks again for sharing.
The broiler tip was very helpful! Worked great!
Made these this morning and tripled the recipe for my large family. Used raw milk, pastured eggs and fresh baking soda. Results:No fluff, VERY eggy, and watery batter even after sitting for a while.No one liked them. I may try them again ” as is” without tripling batter. I find whenever I cook with coconut flour as the solo flour eggs are the predominant flavor.
Melanie – I have never tripled the recipe so I can’t say how it would turn out. I do need to update this recipe with a few tricks I have learned along the way.
Ummm…..YUM. I’m new to eating gluten free and these were delish and easy to make. I used low fat coconut milk by mistake and they still came out lovely. Topped them with coconut oil, shredded coconut, slivered almonds and sliced strawberries. Really hit the spot!
Hey, made these last night (minus salt) and cooked half the batch and they worked wonderfully! They were light, fluffy and the kids loved them. I left the remaining batter in the fridge overnight and cooked the rest of the pancakes for afternoon tea the next day – still light and fluffy! Yay! Thankyou so much for this lovely recipe that works so well. By the way, little pancakes like this are called pikelets in NZ are are usually served with butter and jam š Thanks again!
WOndering what the consistency of the batter should be…mine was pretty runny. No need to spread them out in pan- they were watery. they tasted pretty good, but definately not fluffy. I am a baker and followed the recipe.
ANy suggestions? what brand coconut flour do you use?
thanks!!
Molly – It’s supposed to be rather thick, which is what creates the fluffy factor. I used Tropical Traditions brand.
Tried these just about an hour ago. Light and fluffy but just tasted like light and fluffy eggs. I will try less eggs or more coconut flour. Thx for the recipe, it’s a wonderful start!
Sumner – I find that most coconut flour products take some adjusting to after grain flour baking. There is a certain ratio of eggs to coconut flour that seems necessary as a binder and to counteract the high fiber of the flour. This was the best ratio I could come up with, but if you find something better please let us know!
Did you mean baking POWDER (rather than soda)? Maybe that could be the cause of the runny pancakes people are talking about. I haven’t tried this myself (YET) but thought that might be the problem.
Gabriella – Nope :). I think the runny pancakes are caused by the choice of liquid. Coconut milk makes them thicker while cow’s milk seems to make them thinner. Yogurt or cream are also good options.
i made these exactly how you said and they were perfect! i used cow’s milk and the batter was plenty thick. used a bit of real sugar and agave syrup instead of honey. coconut flour brand i used is called “Coconut Secret.” it turned out absolutely amazingly!
Shannon – thank you for sharing! I’ve been looking for some grain free pancake recipes for my almost 10 month old. Many opinions are to wait on egg whites – she’s only had the yolk. Any thoughts on that? Also, she hasn’t tolerated dairy as is, or yogurt – just tummy troubles for the most part. I wonder how she would do w/ it ‘cooked’ in a recipe. I could always start w/ 1/2 raw milk and 1/2 coconut and hope for the best….:)
Shannon – we just had these for this morning’s breakfast. Delicious! I would love to give them to my 9 1/2 month old. She usually has avocado or egg yolk for breakfast. What are your thoughts on including the egg white in this recipe as I hear babes are only suppose to have the yolk before age one?
Oh my – how funny! I didn’t realize I had already asked this question! Sleep deprivation from a teething wee one. Anyway…take your time in replying. I made them w/ just the yolk this morning to be sure…just curious to hear your thoughts. Geesh – sorry about the double reply!!
When my chiropractor/Naturopathic Medical Doctor told me that I wasn’t losing weight because my body could not break down the sugars and grains, I was at a loss! I had no idea what to do. As I was talking to a friend whom I was visiting for my vacation, she looked at me and smiled. She said, “Well, you’ve come to the right place! I only cook with coconut and almond flour, all our veges/fruits come from the coop, including our milk and eggs, and I make my yogurt, mayo and ketchup.” I ate the most delicious foods that week, and these pancakes were one of the foods she fixed for me! I can’t wait to try making them on my own! I didn’t know there was any other way to cook, much less that there were so many people out there who could not eat grains/sugars, etc. All I have to say is thank you, thank you, thank you! š
Pretty good. I used yogurt and my batter was plenty thick. Mine were a little on the coconutty/salty side – I’ll adjust next time. Thanks for the recipe!
I just found your blog, and I’m recently gluten free, so thank you soooo much for this recipe!! I’ve been trying to find something I can make for breaky that’s a bit more special than rice cereal that my husband can enjoy too – I’ve just ordered some coconut flour and can’t wait to give them a try!
I would love to try these using a flax/water mixture to replace the eggs. Do you think they would turn out alright? I use this replacement in many pancake and baked good recipes, and they have always turned out well. This will be my first venture with coconut flour, and I can’t wait to make them!
Colleen – I can’t say for sure as I haven’t tried it. I have found, though, that when a recipe works with eggs it doesn’t always work with a flax egg.
Mine came out a bit runny as well, but tasted good. I added blueberries but the batter did not really have enough body to hold them. Ended up adding about another half cup of coconut flour, which helped a bit.
I might also try just embracing the runniness and making crepes out of this recipe instead!
thanks SO much for posting this shannon! i’ve had a serious pancake craving for months now and today it was satisfied! š i made mine with coconut milk {so delicious brand} and left out the vanilla & sweetener since the coconut milk has sweetener already added. they were yummy, but a little too salty for me {which was masked quite nicely once i added my maple syrup}. do you think that if i cut the salt in half that it would mess up the recipe? also, i used bob’s red mill brand coconut flour ’cause i didn’t see the brand you mentioned at my local whole foods. i imagine that made a difference as well ’cause my batter was kinda runny.
i topped these with fresh banana, walnuts, & shredded unsweetened coconut….seriously delish! i barely noticed that the texture of the pancakes were a little different than their gluten counterparts. š thanks so much again!
Made these about ten minutes ago. Excellent. Mine were thick. I made them exactly as the recipe defines and I used the honey not the stevia. After I put half the batter on the griddle I added about four tablespoons of water to the second half of the batter, and that half went on and came off a bit smoother. Have you tried adding liquid coconut oil into the batter?
I’ve tried a couple of other coconut flour pancake recipes but this one is the absolute winner. I used lite coconut milk and even forgot to put in the honey although I might use xylitol the next time even though they really didn’t need it. I’m wondering if those who end up with runny batter are beating their eggs until frothy. I used a stick mixer for about 1 minute after adding the coconut milk to the eggs. The batter was excellent. They will also be difficult to turn if they haven’t cooked long enough. I’m just thrilled with this recipe and have enough left for breakfast in the A.M. I even sent the link to my daughter!
I just made a batch a few minutes ago and I think we have a winner here. Using less flour and takes less time to cook, yet easily the best paleo pancakes I’ve ever had. Thanks so much for posting this!
John – So glad you liked them!
These pancakes are great with coconut milk. I also made them with milk and yoghurt, but they do not work so well. I also cut down in 1/2 the baking powder and salt, because they came up to salty. Still experimenting….
Wow!! just thrilled to find this. My friends and I are Paleo people. Was just looking for recipes with other nut flour besides almond. This sounds very tasty!!
Will let you know when we try them:)
I tried simply adapting a traditional pancake recipe to account for coconut flour and they didn’t turn out well. I found your recipe and, voila!, success! Thanks so much for sharing this delicious recipe!
Thanks so much for posting. These pancakes are absolutely delicious!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I have a very big sweet tooth, so I substituted 4 Splenda packets for the honey and added 6 Ghiradelli baking chips to each pancake while on the griddle – enough to get the sweet flavor without too many carbs. With the chips, it didn’t really need any topping! With these substitutions, 3 pancakes (my recipe made 15 pancakes) had the following info: 209 calories, 15g fat, 6g net carbs (11g + 5g fiber), and 6.5g protein. And they tasted great!!!
I found a way to flip bigger pancakes using this recipe! I discovered it quite on accident and I’m not sure that I could recreate it. My daughter and I are really cutting out the carbs, so we used xylitol for the sweetener and diluted whipping cream (half whipping cream, half water) for the milk. I, not being a chef, always look for the easiest way to do something. I decided that I was going to put all of my wet ingredients in the blender (faster and frothier). When I mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients I noticed that it was considerably thicker than the last time I made this recipe. Then I realized that it was because I had whipped the diluted whipping cream. I thought to myself, “Hmm. I wonder if this would work for flipping large pancakes?”
It did. I had to shape the pancakes because the batter was thicker and it worked better to make the pancakes thinner because they really started to puff up. I hope some of you find this useful. I’m going to go have more pancakes! š
I thought these pancakes were pretty good! I definitely tasted the egg more than anything else, but I didn’t really mind that and I was pleased with their fluffiness. I used coconut milk for my batter and it actually was so thick that I added some water so that the pancakes would spread more easily when I put them in the pan. I did have a difficult time flipping them, but I just used two spatulas and that worked okay. I added blueberries to some and put a cinnamon honey topping on the plain ones. YUM! Thanks for the recipe!
Wow!!!!!!!! I just discovered “paleo” pancakes a few days ago… Then I learned about coconut flour… And searched for coconut flour pancakes…. These are GREAT! Better, I think, than traditional pancakes, even!!!!! Thank you!
The PERFECT pancake recipe. I’ve made these pancakes at least thirty times- adding a little mesquite flour makes them extra delicious. Thank you very much!
Great recipe! Thanks. I did this the way Alana did, by putting the wet ingredients in the blender, except I used coconut milk. They turned out light and fluffy. I even made bigger ones. Topped them with some coconut sprinkles, maple syrup and a few fresh blackberries. The kids and I loved them. The brand name of coconut flour I used was ‘Let’s do…Organic’.
These are definitely the best coconut flour pancakes I’ve tried. Even my decidedly non-WAPF, non-Primal/Paleo boyfriend enjoyed them. I had leftovers, which I ended up spreading with peanut butter and almond butter and devouring the next day. Delicious!
This recipe is fabulous!! I just made it for two of my kids who are home sick and added a few Trader Joe’s chocolate chips as a treat. They each ate five pancakes and my five year old said after she finished, “All that food is making me feel MUCH better!” And then she did a cartwheel. š
I made these with 3 eggs and 3 flaxseed eggs and they came out great! It helps to have a good spatula that can slide under the pancakes easily. š
My thoughts– first, if I’d have used all the liquid called for, they would have been a watery disaster. I only used 1/3 cup (dairy kefir) and the batter still turned out quite thin. So the pancakes were certainly not “fluffy.”
But they tasted amazing! My husband loved them. They did not taste or feel eggy, just tender and rich. The vanilla added a wonderful note of flavor.
Conclusion? I will absolutely use this recipe again, but I’ll fiddle with it until it works for me. I may try whipping the egg whites and folding them in as some commenters have suggested. Thanks so much.
p.s. I noticed that quite a few commenters complained about the salt, so I cut it in half. That was plenty for me, and I like salt!
Yummy!! I pureed peaches and blueberries to top mine off…..with a little butter of course!!! DELIIISHH!!
Hey all!
I am going bananas with coconut flour…. I have tried making bread and pancakes but for some reason the bread did not rise and my pancakes look nothing like yours! The consistency is different… they are not puffy at all. Does the brand of flour have anything to do with the way it holds the composition?!
š
Oh wow so good! I haven’t had a bread-like thing in ages! This was amazing! I used almond milk and halved the recipe for a snack.