Update 4/24/13: I no longer use this recipe, but I’m leaving this up on the site for those who do use it and love it. I’m in the process of updating and adding new pancake recipes. My almond flour pancake recipe is the first and my current favorite. More to come.
I’ve been playing around with my fluffy pancake recipe and have come up with a recipe to guarantee fluffiness. The amount of fluffiness is easily can be controlled, and it can work with any flour type, gluten-free or not. I prefer buckwheat flour – it has that hardy pancake taste without the weight of a full-on pancake. And I can eat a bunch of these with some real maple syrup and feel satisfied but not overly full and carb-loaded.
The more you whip the egg whites, the fluffier the batter will be. Your range can vary, from egg whites that are just starting to get white and airy while being whipped, to very stiff, white peaks. And if you find they are too fluffy, after you pour a pancake in the frying pan, spread the pancake batter out a bit with a spoon; or, after you flip the pancake, flatten it out a bit with the spatula by pressing down a bit on the cooked side.
Tips Coconut, almond, and buckwheat flour are gluten-free. Coconut and almond flour are SCD legal. I’ve tested this recipe with coconut, almond, buckwheat, and whole spelt flour and have had success with all four types of flour.
Recipe Testing: Fluffy Pancake Ratios
Ingredients (makes about 6 silver-dollar-size pancakes)
- 2 tablespoons of flour (coconut, almond, buckwheat, spelt, and other flours work well)
- 4 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon of ghee, or coconut oil (or other high-heat oil)
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup
- additional oil or butter for frying
Preparation
- Whip the egg whites until they are as stiff and fluffy as you would like them to be. I stop once they are slightly stiff with weak peaks.
- In a bowl, add all the wet ingredients, except the whipped egg whites, and whisk together until well blended.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and whisk mixture again until well blended.
- Add the egg whites to the batter and blend well.
- Add olive oil or butter to a frying pan on medium to low heat and let warm for a few minutes.
- Next, pour the batter into circles in the frying pan without letting the edges of each circle touch. Keep the heat low to medium, and let the pancakes heat up slowly and rise – about 3 minutes.
- You may not notice any bubbles forming on the top of the pancakes to signal that they are ready to flip, so after a few minutes, peak at the bottom of one of the pancakes; or, if they are easy to move and flip and browned on the bottom, they are ready for a flip. These cook rather rapidly, so keep an eye on them, and then move the cooked pancakes to another plate.
- You may want to add a bit more oil or butter to the frying pan between batches. Continue this until all the batter is gone.
- Enjoy!
You might also like...
 |
sigh… now i want to make pancakes instead of a real dinner!
nice to see you’ve been able to come up with a fluffy version, I usually just make crepe-like ones, but now I will have to give this a go!
Oh, We love fluffy pancakes!
Kitchen mom, your family is so cute! And I love the idea of cottage cheese pancakes.
Hi
shouldnt that be 2 CUPS not tablespoons?
I make awesome almond flour pancakes and the ratio is 1 cup to 2 eggs.
Lucy, funny you should mention this – I was thinking about adding a note – you can add more flour if you want to. My waffle recipe has a 1 cup of flour to 4 egg ratio, so I might not go more than half a cup (my own taste), but it’s entirely up to you. So, this recipe can take more flour (any type) if desired. Thanks for asking!
thanks!
I also re-read recipe and I think all that beating of the eggs would let it take less flour? I am going to try this method…I am stingy with my precious almond flour!!!
WOW!! Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! I used almond flour, added a bit of grated orange peel and a bit of fresh squeezed juice. Served with fresh blueberries, and my SCD eating husband loved it. Thank you again.
Thanks for this recipe – I’m looking forward to trying it – pancakes are something of a staple for me. I’ve been using another SCD recipe and experimenting with adding flavours to it. So far I’ve added (to separate batches) bananas, grated apples, and dried currants & aniseed – all have been great! What a great site you have – I have your cinnamon cookies and pie in the oven right now.
Licia, your house must smell wonderful!
I used maybe one more tablespoon of flour and it came out perfectly!
Many thanks for your work.
Maybe it’s just too early and I haven’t had coffee yet, but Can someone clarify just a couple things for me:
1. Really? Just two tablespoons of flour!?
2. The egg yolks…you set them aside and then later add them in with the other wet ingredients, or do you not use them at all in the recipe.
3. How many pancakes does the recipe make?
Thanks – sorry for the questions, but I have been wanting to make pancakes for awhile and decided to take a closer look at this today.
Thanks – love all the other recipes I have tried on this site…especially the strawberry shortcake! My husband actually said he prefers it to traditional strawberry shortcake.
I had the same question about the yolks. I’m not tired at all! Thanks for asking so I could read the answer. I can’t wait to try these.
Hi Stacy. 2 tablespoons, for real. But, you can add more if you want to for a “heavier pancake”. Use the yolks – add them to the wet mixture. And finally, it makes about 8-10 small pancakes (about 3 inches in diameter). Hope that helps!
I loved the pancake recipe. Now I can have pancakes at camp with the others instead of taking the premade bluberry muffins like I usually have. You are such a good help.
Thanks for the kind note Angie!
My God woman, you are a culinary genius! I am diabetic and thought pancakes would always be a pleasant memory from my pre-diabetic past. Thanks for making Sunday mornings yummy again!
have you ever tried an egg substitute for those of us who can’t eat eggs as well?
Syliva – I haven’t tried egg substitutes with this recipe, but this article is a good summary: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/f/eggsubstitute.htm. Bananas are a great egg-free substitute – I bet they would work well as a pancake. I think I’ve seen a few. Try searching for banana pancakes that are egg-free.
awesome recipe! I used it tonight for the kids and they loved it. We’re on a GAPS diet and haven’t been able to do pancakes for some time now, but with this recipe we can. Thanks for posting this, we’ll be using this again.
After making almond flour pancakes for two weeks I just tried your pancakes using coconut oil and coconut flour, omitted the honey/maple syrup, and I added a bit more fresh ground cinnamon. Then I topped them off with some butter and fresh blueberries and raspberries and oh my are they delicious. Thanks for the recipe! Whipping the egg whites is such a good idea, so fluffy!
Thanks for the variation Jeff!
Thanks for the recipe! I made these and thought had the taste and mouthfeel of french toast – which I love and miss so much. I love regular pancakes, but if I had to choose between a short stack at IHOP and these, I’d pick these. They’re sooooo good!
These pancakes are delicious! It’s a great recipe. My FAVORITE almond flour pancake recipe!
I just made them! Instead of four eggs I used 3 + 1 tbs of flaxeeds. They are really delicious… I ate the whole batch (I was only able to make 4 4-inch diameter pancakes).. Delicious… I agree with Christy… they kinda taste like french toast!
So I made these this morning. Halved the recipe, but used 1 1/2 tbsp almond flour because it seemed like sooo little flour. I resisted the temptation to add even more, because I thought I should try the recipe as written first. They were tasty enough, but nothing at all like pancakes. I thought they tasted more like fluffy egg discs than anything. It was nice to have something I could spread butter on though
. I will try the recipe again, but I think I’ll triple the almond flour.
Audry – yes, you can add way more flour and they will be good, but not as light.
Thanks for all of the useful tips!! Your pancakes look thick, fluffy & wonderful!
Hi. I just made these and they are terrific. This recipe definitely enters the rotation from now on. I think next time I might use melted butter instead of oil, and perhaps a pinch of salt, for flavor. I also over-beat the egg whites in my electric stand mixer, so next time I will have to watch those a little more closely. My final product was slight foamy due to the over-beat eggs. I had real doubts at this stage whether the batter would work out, but as soon as I added the bs/flour mixture the eggs white foam reduced down into a real batter. The final product has a pleasant egginess and a neutral flavor (not coconutty) that goes well with my maple syrup. Thanks for figuring this out!
These came out wonderfully. I did make a couple of adjustments. I used coconut flour and added one tbsp more. I also used a 1/2 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp brown rice syrup. Mine were about silver dollar sized. I also had gluten-free baking powder on hand and used that instead of the baking soda. These were a big hit in my house! Thanks!
Nice adjustments – I’ve been curious to give brown rice syrup a try. Thanks for letting us know.
Reading this I was a little doubtful that I would get pancake-y results. I just now made these for my sister and I on our Phase 1 antifungal diet. Booooy! These hit the spot! I’m gonna double up next time when I make the batter. Now we have something bread-y to snack on when we watch Desperate Housewives. Thank you, I’m excited to try more recipes!!
Cool – glad it worked for ya!
I am new to the world of gluten free cooking and have attempted several different coconut pancake recipes. This one is by far the best
Thank you so much for sharing!! This is my go to recipe from now on!
thanks Sara
My daughter (almost 6 year old with Celiac dx since age 3) told me this morning while eating these pancakes: “this is the yummiest food I have ever eat”
I agree with the comments that this tastes a lot like french toast which is something I have been missing so that is a very good thing (only once have I made GF french toast) and since we are trying to go mostly grain free in addition to gluten free this is a very excellent recipe indeed. I started using coconut flour a few months ago for health reasons and I am hooked!
Oh when there was just a few pancakes worth of batter left (I had doubled it for my family) I added orange zest and a bit more vanilla — YUM! I also had about doubled the flour to egg ratio (still not a lot of flour in comparison to other recipes).
Thank you so much for sharing with us!
How wonderful to find something yummie! Thanks for your additions/changes. I love to hear what modifications folks make.
Could you substitute whey protein for the almond flour?
I really don’t know.
How many pancakes does this recipe make?
Thx!
About 6 silver-dollar-size pancakes.
I tried this recipe on the weekend and it is definitely the best GF DF pancake recipe I’ve tried so far.
Mine did not turn out as fluffy as the ones in the photo. When I added the dry ingredients to the wet, it was a very thick paste — is this correct? I found that when I then added in the egg whites I was trying to fold them in so I wouldn’t lose the volume but couldn’t incorporate them properly that way into the thick paste.
I followed the recipe exactly using coconut flour and coconut oil.
One last question… do you think adding grated apple to the batter would work? I would also up the cinnamon next time.
Thanks,
Joanna
A thick paste makes me think the ratio of flour to other stuff may not be working well. If it’s coconut flour, I’d definitely use less of it next time. You can also add more eggs to coconut flour mixtures to loosen up the “paste”. Coconut oil makes the batter thicker, but it does melt again when it hits the pan. Maybe try a different oil, and reduce the amount of coconut flour you’re using. I do think grated apple would taste good in the batter – just note that it tends to stick to the pan a bit more. Hope that helps!
Thanks so much!
I have been testing different co nut flour pancake recipes over the past year and this is THE BEST! I added a squeeze of lemon juice and blueberries.
A tip to make them easier to mix – stir 1/2 cup of beaten whites to the yolk/flour mix u to lighten it, the. Fold in the rest of the whites.
Made 6 4″ pancakes, enough for 2 people if you add bacon or sausage. Once again thanks for the recipe.
I just wanted to say that I love this recipe. I’ve been living a low carb/primal/paleo lifestyle and pancakes are hard to come by when your looking to make them lower in carbs. These were great, they did remind me of french toast and they were lighter and slighty spongy, but I love french toast! As a side note, I had no Vanilla.. So I used SF Vanilla Syrup and since I didn’t want to add the extra sugar with the Maple or Honey I added the SF Mrs Butterworths Syrup, they still came out fabulous and I will of course be incorporating these into my menu. Thanks for the great pancakes!
Thanks. It’s always interesting and helpful to hear additions/changes!
My SCD son loved these. I used about 3 tbsp of coconut flour and they came out just fine. Thanks!!
Interesting! I used 3 tablespoons of coconut flour. I thought they needed a bit of salt– the flavor was a little flat. Quite “eggy.” Not quite what I had hoped for but they tasted fine with maple syrup and butter!
YES, finally! I have tried a few grain-free pancake recipes, and they have all failed… all of them using coconut flour. I thought I was doing something wrong, and debated if I should just give up, but finally decided to try these for Christmas breakfast for me and my dad.
OH MY GOSH were these yummy! :3 I couldn’t believe it only took 2 tablespoons of alternative flour! I used 1 tbsp of buckwheat flour and 1 tbsp of coconut flour, and followed the rest of your recipe to the T. AMAZING!
And hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed your photo on my own blog to entice any readers to head your way for the recipe.
Thanks so much!
Made these this morning w/o the yolks! Whoops! I wondered about that but all it said to do was to set aside. Maybe it should be mentioned in the directions to clarify for future users.
Anyway, they still turned out well with the addition of 1 T coconut flour. Also added chocolate chips for my daughter and some mashed up banana to mine. Just what I was craving so Thank You!
Thanks. I’ll clarify it, but you don’t need the yolks for the recipe.
This was AMAZING. A new staple for me. The batter looked a little thin at first even when i added an extra teaspoon of coconut flour but the way it puffed up… amazing! It was super fluffy.
These were unsuccessful for me…..I made half and they did not taste good at all and they were shrunk and flattened….I rinsed the rest of the batter down the drain…..sorry. I am a huge fan of your recipes but I guess I did something wrong.
Natlee, you have shamed me into updating my pancake recipes which is way overdue. This one especially. What flour did you use? I would suggest using the original pancake recipe for now, which works well for me. I haven’t tried this one in a while. I’ll let folks know when it’s fully updated. Best wishes, Erica