By combining oat flour, a common flour substitute, with all the traditional pancake ingredients like eggs and baking soda, you can easily make your own oat flour pancakes right at home. Choosing to replace the traditional, starchy and carb-filled all-purpose flour in favor of oat flour may be a wise choice for you. This tasty pancake recipe is simple and quick to make, and you can add a lot of extra ingredients to make it taste even better.
I highly recommend blending rolled oats to make your own oat flour instead of buying the oat flour from a grocery store. This is because grounding your own oats can help you save money and you don’t have to deal with additives such as sugar and MSG.
Health benefits of oat flour pancakes
Oat flour pancakes combine the fluffy and delicious taste of pancakes with the fiber and health benefits of oats. Oats are one of the best grains you can eat, as they have a high amount of vitamins and minerals. Some vitamins and minerals that are naturally fortified into oats include vitamins E and B1, manganese, phosphorus, iron, copper, magnesium, zinc, and selenium. All of these nutrients are difficult to find naturally and help make your pancakes healthier to eat.
Oats also break the mold in their protein and antioxidant content. Their protein content is similar to that of legumes like lentils, and even a small amount of oat flour can give you a good chunk of essential amino acids. Oats contain three antioxidants (avenanthramides, ferulic acid, and phytic acid), all of which help to reduce inflammation, balance cholesterol levels, and speed up absorption rate of minerals.
People frequently eat oats in the form of instant oatmeal or overnight oats. However, when you incorporate oats into the batter of pancakes as oat flour, you will be hard pressed to find a breakfast meal that both tastes amazing and satisfies your hunger like no other breakfast can.
List of necessary ingredients for oat flour pancakes
- Oat flour. As stated earlier, grinding a bunch of oats in a blender is a good idea to make your pancakes better overall.
- Eggs. The consistency of your pancake batter will be too wet and loose if you don’t have eggs. Eggs also enhance the nutritional value of pancakes.
- Baking soda. This is VERY important; it works hard to make your pancakes rise during baking. It also plays an important role in texture, as it makes your pancakes light and fluffy.
- Milk, water, or yogurt. Your choice out of these three will largely depend on what kind of flavor you want out of your pancakes. They also play a key role in maintaining batter consistency.
Milk adds richness and flavor to your batter, giving you fluffier, moister pancakes. I prefer milk over the others for this reason. You can use any milk you wish-dairy or non-dairy.
You can also decide to go with just plain water. Water is helpful for saturating your pancakes and making them much less dry. Dry pancakes are prone to crumbling apart more easily, and more water may be the best solution to prevent that. It doesn’t have any taste though, so try adding ingredients like vanilla extract to spice the taste up a bit.
Finally, yogurt or skyr is great for adding probiotics and protein to your pancakes. It has a thick texture and might make your pancakes chewier. Use unflavored Greek yogurt or unflavored skyr for best results.
- Butter or cooking spray. Use one of the two to lubricate your pan/skillet. It also makes the pancake taste better if you don’t plan on using maple syrup. The healthiest cooking oils for spraying are olive oil and coconut oil.
Oat Flour Pancakes
Equipment
- 2 medium bowls
- 1 large non-stick skillet
- 1 spatula
- 1 whisk
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats or 1¾ cup of premade oat flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk/water/yogurt you can use any milk type
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract optional
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon optional
- unsalted butter/spray oil for the skillet
- maple syrup for topping
Instructions
- Place a large nonstick skillet and spatula near your stove. Using a food processor or strong blender, blend the oats into a smooth, fine powder. You should have about 1 ¾ cup of ground oat flour made if you put in 2 cups of rolled oats.
- Whisk together all dry ingredients (oat flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon) in a medium bowl. Whisk together all wet ingredients (eggs, milk, vanilla) in a separate medium bowl.
- Make a hole in the center of your dry bowl mixture and pour the wet bowl mixture inside. Whisk and mix everything together until you have a smooth, slightly thick batter with little to no clumps.
- Wait about 5-10 minutes before cooking the batter. This will help the batter rise from the effects of the baking soda, making your pancakes fluffier.
- Heat your skillet over medium-low heat. Lubricate the skillet with butter/spray oil and pour some batter on it. Wait until the bottom of the pancake is solid and golden-brown before flipping.
- After flipping, wait until the pancake turns golden-brown on the next side. At that point, remove your pancake and serve it on a dish.
- Repeat steps 5-6 until the batter is finished. Wait until the pancakes cool before eating and enjoy them with maple syrup.
Additional filling ideas
Pancakes are versatile and you can add many additional ingredients into your recipe if you choose to do so.
- Chocolate chips. This is my favorite go-to and the chocolatey taste really goes well with maple syrup. To get maximum value out of your chocolate chips, do not put them in with the batter. Instead, sprinkle them on top while the pancake is cooking on your skillet. That way, you can control where the chips go on your pancake and how much you want on it.
- Banana slices. It is the most reliable fruit mix-in since it has a mushy texture that complements the fluffiness of pancakes well.
- Blueberries. Sweet and juicy, they act as a natural sweetener for your pancakes, especially if you use blueberry puree. Individual blueberries can be added in the pancake during cooking or sprinkled on top after serving.
- Nut butters. Nut butters like peanut butter and hazelnut butter (Nutella) are excellent mix-ins that change the flavor and texture of your oat flour pancakes. You can mix the nut butter in with the batter to fuse with the other ingredients, or you can even cut open a finished pancake, slab some Nutella inside, and close it. That way, you can get a burst of chocolate with every bite, much like a bagel.
- Powdered sugar. This is a great alternative to maple syrup if you want to top your pancakes off with some sugar. It is a classic staple of pancake recipes. Cherries and strawberries are able to complement powdered sugar nicely.
How to store your oat flour pancakes
You can store leftover oat flour pancakes in the fridge by covering them with plastic wrap. You can store them in the fridge for no more than 2 weeks.
To freeze them, remove the pancakes from the dish and place them in a freezer-safe container. They can last as long as half a year.
Do NOT microwave your pancakes to reheat them. Instead, warm them up on a stove over medium-low heat. If the pancakes were frozen, you must allow them to thaw out first, otherwise they may get soggy.
