BEST Fluffiest Vegan Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe (Gluten Free!)

These are the fluffiest vegan pancakes ever, and they’re just so easy and simple! Ready in 5 minutes and just 6 simple ingredients, these vegan buttermilk pancakes are melt in your mouth perfect! Completely gluten free too!

Why you’ll love these super fluffy vegan pancakes:

You’re going to absolutely LOVE this vegan pancake recipe. They’re perfectly fluffy, light, and delicious as a weekend vegan breakfast recipe (especially alongside this chickpea scramble for a balance of sweet and savory!).

These are quite literally the best vegan pancakes I’ve ever had for a few reason.

• This healthy pancakes recipe yields super fluffy and light cakes, tasting identical to the classic buttermilk pancakes that both kids and adults
• Ready in just 10 minutes tops, especially if you’re using a pancake griddle.
• Scale the recipe up or down to as needed
• You can easily make these vegan buttermilk pancakes entirely gluten free (even with just oat flour- no expensive gluten free flour needed!)
• Absolutely no one will be able to detect that these classic buttermilk pancakes are indeed eggless, vegan, dairy free, refined sugar free, and optional gluten free!

Trust me when I say this is the only vegan pancakes recipe that you’ll need. Just ask my crew on Instagram 🙂 I swear, it’s usually the first recipe of mine people make before expanding onwards to all the recipes!

Why? Probably because these vegan pancakes are extraordinarily kid-friendly (in fact, people write in saying that their kids loved it as much as they did!), plus it’s made with only a handful of ingredients that are far from weird or uncommon.

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Ingredients for healthy vegan pancakes:

For these vegan gluten free pancakes, you’ll need only a few simply ingredients:

• Flour: the gluten free flour that I used in this recipe is by Bob’s Red Mill– I have found that for a general gluten free flour, this is the best one! However, you can also use homemade oat flour or cassava flour here, in equal ratios to the regular flour!
• Coconut Sugar: to keep these healthy buttermilk pancakes refined sugar free, I used coconut sugar! You can find an amazing and organic coconut sugar at Trader Joe’s or do a little shopping online.
• Vegan “Buttermilk:” one of my favorite baking tricks is to combine a dairy free milk, like coconut milk for instance, with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to create a vegan “buttermilk!” You can use any dairy free milk here, and even use white vinegar as well- it’s just so easy! Just mix the two together, let it sit, and there you go- a homemade vegan “buttermilk!”
• Applesauce: this is key for the fluffiness- I swear, whenever I combine applesauce and my homemade vegan “buttermilk,” I get the fluffiest texture, no matter if it’s gluten free, Paleo, or just regular ol’ flour. There are actually so many inquiries as to how to make pancakes without eggs, and this is your simple fix. However, I also have another trick, which I’ll explain in a second 🙂
• Vanilla: most buttermilk pancake recipes don’t call for it, but I think vanilla adds a really nice sweetness to pancakes! Omit it if you like, but I will always be keeping vanilla in my pancake batter!
• Leavening agents: this is the baking soda and powder. When the baking soda reacts with the buttermilk, that’s how you’ll get that super fluffy pancake texture!

How to make vegan buttermilk pancakes from scratch (overview)

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.

Making gluten free vegan pancakes may sound intimidating, but it’s actually far from it!

Really, anyone can do this, even kids (with adult supervision ha!)! The part is, whether you’re using gluten free flour or regular flour, the process and ratios are entirely the same. I know, these healthy vegan buttermilk pancakes are that good!

How do you make vegan buttermilk?

The first step in all of this is to make sure that your vegan “buttermilk” is prepared.

To do this, simply mix together the coconut (or any dairy free) milk together with apple cider vinegar, then set it aside while you get the dry ingredients going.

After about 5 minutes, the dairy free mixture will begin to curdle, much like regular

Making healthier pancakes:

Now that we have the vegan buttermilk created, you’ll need to actually make the pancakes! Almost forgot, didn’t you?! Getting all excited over vegan buttermilk ha!

To make the batter:

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and coconut sugar.
2. Add in the vegan “buttermilk,” unsweetened applesauce (or flaxseed egg…we’ll get to that in a minute), and vanilla extract in no particular order, and mix it together really well with a spoon. You want to make sure that all clumps of flour are removed!

Then we prepare to cook the pancakes! For this part, I highly recommend getting a pancake griddle. They are the easiest of kitchen tools to use, and honestly, if you’re a pancake lover like I am, it’s a worthy investment (usually between $30-$40!).

That way, you can cook 12 pancakes on a pan, and really crank these flapjacks out.

OR you can use a regular pan, which is also easy, just won’t fit as many pancakes on there. Either way, heat your preferred tool up and melt a little cooking oil (I like avocado oil or coconut oil here) and pour about a scant 1/3 cup of batter onto the pan.

Cook for 2-3 minutes depending on how hot your surface is, then flip to cook for another 20-30 seconds.

Repeat until you have no more batter left and then serve!

Can I use a vegan flaxseed “egg” instead?

If you don’t have applesauce or want to keep the sugar count down (unsweetened applesauce doesn’t add that much to begin with though!), you can absolutely swap in a vegan flax egg.

What’s a vegan flax egg? It’s a mixture of water and ground flax that basically forms the texture and consistency of an egg. It actually works wonderfully in vegan baking and is pretty 1:1!

All you’ll need to do to swap in 1 flax egg for 1 egg is:

1. Combine 1 tbsp of ground flax with 1.5 tbsp of water.
2. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes.
3. Add more tbsp of flax for more eggs!

You can use this in place of applesauce in these vegan buttermilk pancakes, and it works wonderfully.

How to adjust the serving size for these pancakes:

Don’t need as many pancakes, or maybe serving for a larger crowd? Not a problem! The recipe below will usually serve about 6 people.

Here are the measurements to make these vegan pancakes for 3 instead:

• 200 mL dairy free milk + 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 125 grams flour, all purpose or gluten free 1:1
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 40 grams unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

To scale this recipe up: simply click the “servings” section right above to the ingredients to the right!

What to top vegan pancakes with:

My favorite part of the process is obviously the toppings! A stack of flapjacks, short or tall, basically becomes your canvas for any flavor combination.

You could go simple, like with a pat of vegan butter and a drizzle of real maple syrup, or even add chocolate chips to that combo!

Or you could go even more classic, with coconut whipped cream and blueberries. These pancakes can easily transform into vegan blueberry pancakes by just adding blueberries to the pancake batter.

You could also go for a PB & J combo, using fresh jam and a drizzle of peanut butter.

Some more pancake topping ideas:

• Strawberries and coconut cream
• Cinnamon, vegan butter, and maple syrup
• Bananas and maple syrup
• Chocolate chips and bananas

How to store leftovers

If you actually want to make the whole batch, and then freeze them to have whenever, you can absolutely do that! Simply make the pancakes as is, then allow them to fully cool.

Place the leftover vegan butter milk pancakes into an airtight container or freezer bag, and try to get as much air out as possible. Then place them in the freezer for up to 2 months. When you’d like to enjoy them, simply allow the pancakes to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Then preheat the oven to 350F, and place the desired amount of pancakes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to be heated for 5-6 minutes. Then serve!

You are just going to love making these easy vegan buttermilk pancakes! They’re so simple and quick to make on the weekend, and just taste like the classic, which is perfect for the pickiest of eaters!

If you give them a go, let me know in the comments section below, as well as giving it a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find the recipe.

As always, I love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy pancake flipping!

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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