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:
Just made these following the recipe as is. They were fabulous. Hubby loved them and kept commenting on how light they were.
Next time instead of using stevia I think I’ll try agave or honey. Will also add a bit more salt. I didn’t measure and don’t think I had enough. Tried topping with coconut oil, maple syrup and red plum jam – all perfect. But they were fine with just a bit of butter. Thanks for a healthy and filling breakfast alternative.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! My kids couldn’t even tell the difference between these and their usual grain pancakes. I added dairy, nut, and soy free chocolate chips to it, and topped it off with maple syrup. Delish!
Just made a half recipe using baking powder instead of soda, since that’s what I have on hand. Did half cream/half milk and added some blueberries. I have been grain/sugar free for a few months now and ohmygoodness, these hit the spot after a sweaty crossfit workout! Thanks!!!
Just tried these with my kiddos. They turned out well, fluffy and thick, but a little dry for my kids’ taste (which means they used lots of syrup, lots and lots). I suspect that honey instead of stevia would help that a little–add some more moisture without thinning it too much. Whenever I make pancakes I use sour milk instead of regular milk, and it seems to help with the fluffiness–batters also turn out a little thicker with the sour milk, although I’m not sure exactly why. There was just a hint of coconut flavor but that just made it yummier to me.
My mixture is really thin….I doubt if I’m going to have any success. Got the first one in the pan now..flipped it, it looks light and fluffy now….took it out of the pan and it completely deflated…it’s flat and very eggy. OK, so I added another half cup of coconut flour to the remaining mixture and I’ll cook another one…batter looks more like pancake consistensy now. Bubbles are rising to the top of the pancake like it should so I’ll flip it….and ít deflated again as soon as I took it out of the pan. I don’t know, maybe my eggs are bigger than yours or something. Disappointed…
I made a half batch for myself for breakfast. They are tasty. I used a small amount of honey instead of the stevia and almond milk for the liquid. I made small (3-4″ pancakes) but found that they were very hard to turn. Next time I plan to add a small amount of guar gum to see if that will give the flour more cohesiveness (to better mimic the texture of pancakes made with regular flour).
I tried this recipe today and my son was in heaven! I halved it, used baking powder instead of soda (all I have on hand and I have a HUGE tub from Sam’s so going to use it up so long as we have no reactions to it, although we don’t make many stuff to use it in these days… lol). I forgot to put in the baking powder before the 1st pancake and while it didn’t rise much it was still delicious and it cooked quicker so was easier to flip. My son almost ate the entire batch! This is huge, because he usually doesn’t eat much at all (he’s 28 months). My mom and sister shared one and they both thought it was a bit too coconutty but sweet and moist (I did still put a tbsp of honey although I halved everything else), but for me it was perfect (we did use coconut milk and oil). I think if you’re only planning to eat pancakes you might need to make this entire batch for two people, after my son ate pretty much everything I was still hungry… 😉
Oh, I would also recommend using the biggest griddle/pot you’ve got. They take long to cook and disappear quickly… so ideally you’d want to make a million at a time!
I’m wondering what brand of coconut flour you use? I bought some to experiment with, and so far it hasn’t gone well. On another blog, the blogger used a specific kind (and had suggested it to several others having textural issues) so I wanted to check with a few and see what to buy. 🙂
Thanks!!
I used Let’s Do Organic Coconut Flour. I just got a small bag at Whole Foods since I’m very new to it.
Could applesauce be used instead of eggs I wonder?
Another part of your style: I’ve never seen them served in bowls bofree! My family butters each layer and then cuts them straight through top to bottom, each bite. Usually stacking 3 or maybe 2 at a time…but always on a dinner plate! Of course with enough syrup pooled around to dip into! Now I think I need to make pancakes this weekend!
I made those pancakes and served with blueberries, blackberries and various jams. Love how fluffy they are! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Just wondering, is the batter supposed to be very thick? It was tasty but extremely THICK.
I decided to buy coconut flour for the first time to try something new and healthy. I don’t know if mine came out completely different of if it’s because my family is not on a gluten-free diet so we are not used to eating this, but the only one who could stomach the pancake was my 16-month old.
I used coconut milk and agave nectar. The first two I fried with Pam butter flavored cooking spray. I had never seen my husband make such an ugly face before! My three year old, who eats anything, just told me he was done after one bite (and then asked my daughter to make him Cherrios).
Then I tried frying it on lower heat with coconut oil. It smelled amazing in my kitchen, but we just couldn’t enjoy these. I put coconut oil and butter and agave nectar on mine and tried to talk myself into thinking they tasted like thin French toast, but after a few bites even I didn’t believe myself.
I was super excited about this as a guilt free alternative to pancakes. Maybe you can help me figure out if it was the pancakes or my gluten-full taste buds, because I am willing to try again.
Thanks for this! I just made these for my family. They are, indeed, very light. My comments on cooking:
1) I added only half the milk and blended well. When the coconut flour absorbed a lot of liquid, I kept adding milk until it was the proper consistency. For the record, I always did this when making regular pancakes, too, because recipes always had too much liquid. It’s easier just to add it in slowly. It was very liquids to start, but when you mix well, you see it thicken up. (by the time it was all said and done, I DID use the whole cup of milk.)
2) they were a little tricky to flip, as others have reported, and I’m sure I didn’t make it any easier by adding blueberries! I simply used two spatulas though – one to keep it from sliding all over and the other to get it under there to flip. I made small pancakes, and I’m pretty sure if I’d made them bigger than the spatula, it would have fallen apart. I’m pretty sure if I’d made these in a pan instead of my big griddle, I’d have to make them one at a time to be able to flip them without a spatula, and chances are, when they landed, I would have been spattered! 🙂
They looked gorgeous though. I made a blueberry syrup by just boiling frozen blueberries down to sauce-consistency and adding a little bit of Truvia while it cooled.
As for taste… I have to say I was a bit disappointed. They weren’t sweet enough, and they had an odd flavor that I couldn’t place until I was halfway through eating them: egg. Very eggy.
For the record, I only used a pinch of Truvia in the batter, and the syrup was just cooked blueberries. I noticed when I was eating a bit with a lot of blueberries, the “eggy” taste wasn’t there; so my conclusion is that the sweet counteracts the eggy taste. I know when I put actual syrup on my kids’ pancakes, they liked the flavor a lot better – and it didn’t take much syrup to pull it off. So perhaps adding a bit more than “just a pinch” of sweetener would help the flavor, otherwise, mine simply tasted like eggs with a bit of coconut in them. (couldn’t taste the vanilla at all…I’d increase that, too)
Overall, I’ll probably make them again, but I’ll increase the sugar (whatever substitute I decide on, might trying stevia next time) and vanilla, definitely. They had a terrific texture, and they were very beautiful to look at! (I can never get this kind of color on my regular pancakes!)
I made 2 batches because I had 10 people over for breakfast. Biggest mistake I’ve ever made! I found that it soaked up about 4 times the amount of milk recommended. They also taste very ‘eggy’ and take FOREVER to cook and they break very easily. Your best bet is to make them very small, otherwise they are too hard to turn over. I love coconut flour but i’m never making these again for more than 2 people.
Thanks for this! These are delicious. 🙂
Oven method: I LOVE LOVE LOVE these. But since I cooking for just me, found the very best way to make these. I mix up a 1/4 recipe….I use coconut milk for the liquid (adds beneficial fat)….and throw in a few chopped pecans. I also up the flavor a bit with a drop of rum extract (adds another level of flavor complexity to them….so little you can’t identify the flavor, just know that there is something else there).
The big difference is that I preheat my oven to 400 F. I preheat an 8″ skillet,wipe some butter or coconut oil all around the bottom and sides with a bit of wax paper ….dump my entire bowl of batter in it (smooth over with a spatula dipped in some water to make smoothing easier)….sort of nudge/smooth into an even pancake.
I cook 1 minute on the stove top for a nice brown bottom, then finish in the oven for 8 minutes. NO FLIPPING….NO DEFLATING.
I get a really nice huge FLUFFY pancake that way. When it come out, I simply flip onto a plate so the browned side is on top.
If your comes out with the top still a bit tacky, slide out onto your plate, an flip back into the hot skillet for 30 seconds to sear the pale top side a bit.
This would probably work just as well with a family size skillet….you would just slice into wedges….or use 2 small 8″ skillets at a time for more traditional looking pancakes…..would take 2 batches for 4 people.
Hope this helps….because they are great pancakes..,and it eliminates that pesky flipping issue. Deb W
Deflating is probably caused by your baking soda. If it’s not effective and is older it won’t keep the pancakes fluffy.
GREAT recipe !! Made a batch today and love the hot cakes. I like them better than any I’ve made. They cook differently than wheat flour cakes but the flavor is outstanding.
Tom
Texas
Just made these with fresh almond/walnut milk and topped with strawberry jam/strawberries. Turned out great, thank you for the recipe!
I have made these now a couple times now. Sometimes I add a tablespoon or two of almond flour to the mix to make the pancakes extra fluffy. So yummy with a little agave syrup.
O MY GOSH. i just made these pancakes and they are blowing my brains out right now. seriously, thank you so much for posting this recipe!!!! i used two mashed bananas in the place of the milk and the cakes were just EPIC. sigh. just know you have made my SCD night!
Yummy! I used a little yogurt in with the milk and added some blueberries. The cakes turned out really dark brown even though they weren’t overcooked or burned. Thanks for the recipe!
We have been eating and enjoying these for a long time now. Earlier this week we had a breakthrough. My son had used all the baking soda in his science experiments so I was forced to use baking powder in the recipe. GONE was all the previous bitterness that my oldest child had been complaining about (although not loudly enough that I bothered to find the source) They were AMAZING! I highly recommend changing the teaspoon of baking soda to an equal amount of baking powder. You will not be disappointed.
Wow! I have made many different gluten free pancakes, and these are by far the best I’ve ever made! I am currently gluten and grain free, so these made for a great breakfast even I could eat. I won’t be searching for my perfect recipe anymore, because I’ve found it! Thanks!!
Made these just as written…they were not as fluffy as this pic and not sure why but they looked like normal pancakes. The texture was a bit grainy as someone else mentioned and I wondered if sifting the flour first would make any difference? Also needed way more oil than usual to cook on the griddle. They took a LOT longer to cook through but I have my griddle on low-medium so that might be why, I’m worried about cooking too fast and burning. Flipping was a challenge but I found if you loosen around each pancake first before sliding all the way under to flip, that helps. Did some with choco chips and some without, added cinnamon. Will try some other variations and figure out why they are not fluffy!
I just made these and I still haven’t decided whether I like them or not. I used sweetened, vanilla coconut milk, so I didn’t add extra vanilla. Then I used a tablespoon of Grade B maple syrup for the sweetener. I used a hand mixer to beat the eggs, so they were very frothy and took on a lot of volume (I figured that was the best way to keep the pancakes fluffy.) I added the wet ingredients to the dry gradually – to make it easier to get the lumps out.
I fried on a griddle using ghee. I tried making the small pancakes described here, and then I also made slightly larger ones. I used a standard ice cream scoop (disher) to measure. The smaller pancakes were about a quarter of a scoop and the larger ones were about a half a scoop.
I cooked them on medium/low heat (gas mark 3 out of 10 on each burner), but the iron griddle holds the heat very well and probably made it hotter than it should have been. The pancakes took about 3 minutes per side and were not a problem to flip if I was careful. I used a small, off-set spatula for the smaller ones and a regular spatula for the larger ones. They got browner than I really wanted, so maybe I’ll turn the heat down to 2 next time.
They were very fluffy, but also a bit dry and grainy. Not as bad as other coconut flour recipes that I’ve tried (like cookies with almond butter and coconut flour – belch), but my grain-eating family would definitely not consider these to be just as good as “the real thing”.
I think that some additional fat and sugar would counteract the dryness. Our favorite grain pancake recipe calls for a tablespoon each of oil and sugar per cup of flour. Maybe that would help this recipe as well?
I have had problems with graininess in gluten-free cakes and cookies and found the solution in either a soaking period or longer cooking time. I started baking cakes for an hour in a bundt pan, rather than 25 minutes in cake pans and the graininess disappeared. For cookies, I let the batter sit overnight before baking. In both cases, however, I was using brown rice flour, not coconut. I don’t know if coconut would soften up if the batter was left to sit overnight, but it’s worth a try.
Another thing that might be worth a try is to separate the eggs. Mix all the ingredients together except the whites. Let everything sit overnight (to help with the graininess). Then, in the morning, whip the egg whites into soft peaks and gently fold them into the batter just before cooking. The pancakes will definitely fluff up then, and they may even hold together a little better when flipping. The oven method that someone described earlier would work well with this also – it would puff up like a German Pancake or a little soufflé.
Good luck everyone!
This was my first time making anything with anything other than wheat flour. I used: cashew cream; instead of two teaspoons of vanilla I used one… plus one teaspoon of coconut extract; one packet of almond flavoured stevia. I used coconut oil in the pan. I made them as directed; approximately two inches in diameter. Flipping them was not really any more difficult than flipping any pancake. I made fifteen two inch pancakes.
I have to say, I am impressed! No, the texture is not *exactly* like wheat flour pancakes, but it’s so close that it’s wonderful. I ate eight of them, dripping with sugar-free syrup. Would I make them again? Well, not right now cause I’m stuffed… but you bet I would!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Same problem here – very, very flat and eggy. I’m wondering if the climate you live in makes a difference – I have that issues with baking cookies, the amount of flour I have to use varies a lot depending on humidity.
tried these for the first time today. I made half the batter into pancakes and half into waffles not making any changes. My 6 yr old liked the waffles better…probably because they were fluffier. Must resist the urge to peak and let them cool longer than you would think. I think letting the batter sit longer before cooking is key because the later waffles and pancakes were much fluffier. I can’t believe my son said to save him the waffle for breakfast tomorrow. So full after just a few.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I made these this morning. (It was the first thing “pancake-like” I have had in nearly a year.) I made them because I am trying to get my children and husband on board with Paleo. Everyone LOVED them. I even had to use the flaxseed substitute for eggs since I can’t do eggs. I am having grandma over tomorrow for breakfast; so I am going to add sweet potato to the mix. (from the south, every baked good has sweet potato so we can say it was a vegetable. LOL)
Btw, during the school year, I pre-make a ton of pancake/waffles and freeze to have on hand. Kids requested these. Any idea how they would work in waffle iron?
These were very good for a Saturday morning breakfast. Thank you! I did them in my cast iron pan and noticed that I needed to increase the heat to medium so that the pancakes wouldn’t stick.
Just made these pancakes. They were fab! My hubby said they tasted like ‘cookies’…
For the sake of experiment, I used almond milk instead of coconut milk. Worked great.
Tried other recipes before. Similar ingredients, different proportions. This recipe is by far the best! Yummy!
About the salt. I’m not an Ace at the kitchen and I normally follow recipes exactly, so I did add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the mixture. They were so salty that I couldn’t eat more than 1.
Maybe it should be changed to 1 pinch o salt.