Get ready to whip up a delicious batch of easy, fluffy oat milk pancakes! They're ready in under 30 minutes and are customizable to gluten-free, dairy-free, any milk or no milk preferences! Even better, they're the perfect base pancake stack for all your favorite toppings from bananas to berries to maple syrup and beyond!
And if you're looking for more delicious brunch recipes, check out my Overnight Cinnamon Blueberry Casserole, Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls, Sugar and Spice Donut Muffins, and Easy Drop Maple Blueberry Scones!
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Why You'll Love These Pancakes
- Fluffy at it's finest: whether you're talking lemon pancakes, cinnamon pancakes, or classic buttermilk pancakes, I'm always a fan of fluffy pancakes. Even with some swaps for dietary accommodations here, a stack of these pancakes will stand just as tall, soft, and fluffy as the rest!
- Quick and easy: this is a one bowl recipe ready in under 30 minutes.
- Customizable: whether you're looking for a dairy-free and/or gluten-free variation, or just a delicious base recipe for your favorite pancake add-ins, you can truly make this recipe your own (check out the FAQ section for variation suggestions!).
- Great from the freezer: this is a great recipe for meal prepping so you can just grab a few pancakes out of the freezer whenever that craving hits.
Ingredient Tips + Substitutions
- Flour: this recipe is written for regular all-purpose flour, but if you'd like to make these pancakes gluten-free, just follow the tip in the recipe card's note section for how to substitute oat flour in it's place.
- Baking powder + baking soda: we're using both baking powder and baking soda in these pancakes for different purposes. The baking soda helps to thicken the batter in the bowl (so it doesn't puddle out in the pan). The baking powder is what's going to help our pancakes spring and puff up when they hit the hot griddle (for a taller, thicker pancake!).
- Oat Milk: although these pancakes are written for oat milk, feel free to use any dairy or alternative milk you like - oat, almond, soy, coconut, skim, whole, buttermilk...any milk goes!
- Oil: you can use your preferred oil here (vegetable, canola, coconut, etc.) or even melted butter if you're not concerned with these pancakes being dairy-free.
- Vanilla extract: while the vanilla is optional of course, it adds a nice little extra sweetness and complexity to these pancakes that's quite yummy and I highly recommend giving it a try.
For a full detailed list of all ingredients and measurements, just head down to the recipe card below!
Please note, that any additional substitutions haven't been tested so I can not guarantee the results. However, if you do experiment and find a variation you love, please let me know in the comments below!
How to Make Fluffy Dairy-Free Pancakes
Step 1: Blend together the dry ingredients.
Step 2: Add in the wet ingredients and melted butter, and whisk until well combined.
Step 3: Briefly rest the batter while you pre-heat your pan or griddle. Grease your cooking surface and portion you batter onto the pan/griddle.
Step 4: Flip and cook until golden-brown on both sides.
Step 5: Repeat until you have a tall and fluffy stack. Serve warm with all the toppings, share and enjoy!
For a more detailed list of all these steps, just head down to the recipe card below!
Storage + Freezing
- Making ahead of time: feel free to make these a little ahead of time and just rest on the counter for an hour or two before reheating, or way ahead of time and just reheat in the microwave straight from the freezer when ready to enjoy!
- Storage: these pancakes will keep in the fridge, stored airtight, for up to 5 days. You can simply reheat them in the microwave and enjoy!
- Freezing: these pancakes are great even out of the freezer. For freezer storage, if you plan on only reheating a few at a time, I recommend either storing in portioned zip-top bags, or separating with parchment square so they don't get stuck together when freezing.
Pro Baker Tips
- Don't over-thin the batter: I often see people wanting a really runny pancake batter. But having a slightly thicker batter, that you may need to gently spread right when you drop it on the griddle, will help you get those thick and tall pancakes.
- Flip only once: for the prettiest finish, only flip your pancakes once by checking that the bottom is golden-brown before you go to flip them over. The clues I always look for to know they're ready to flip is bubbles popping on the top, and a "matte" look to the surface that's lost its shine.
- Keep your pan at a good heat: for the best texture of pancakes, we want each side to cook for 1-2 minutes - not much faster and not much slower. So adjust your heat as needed to match that timeline. I typically pre-heat my pan on medium-high (8/10) just so it doesn't take too long, then turn down to just above medium (6/10) once I'm actually cooking.
- Use an ice cream scoop for portioning: one of my favorite tricks when cooking pancakes is to use an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter from the bowl to the pan. This will not only help all of your pancakes be the same size, but also makes it much easier for you to not get drips everywhere. My personal favorite scoop is this one which I slightly under-fill for about a quarter cup of batter per pancake, which makes a 4" pancake.
Recipe FAQs
You can add your favorite fresh fruit, like blueberries, or chocolate chips, or even chopped nuts to the batter if you like!
When adding any of these ingredients, blend the full batter base together first. Then start with a ½ cup of mix-ins, and you can always add more once you see how the distribution looks after mixing.
You can also feel free to dial the vanilla up or add some cinnamon to the batter to your liking!
These pancakes are a great neutral base that works well with pretty much any topping you can imagine.
Some of my favorite variations are:
-Classic options: add blueberries, or chocolate chips, or top with fresh berries, maple syrup, and/or powdered sugar!
-Banana pancakes: add chocolate chips, chopped nuts and some sliced bananas on top of your fluffy buttermilk stack for a chunky monkey variation.
-Spice it up: add some cinnamon and grated apples to the batter for a great fall-ready spin on this recipe.
-Funfetti: add another teaspoon vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons rainbow stick sprinkles for a true breakfast celebration.
-Pancakes for a crowd: feel free to double or triple this recipe if you have a lot of hungry mouths to feed!
Absolutely! You can make these pancakes in any size from silver dollar to full-dinner plate size. You'll still look for the same visual cues to flip them over, it might just take a little more or less time to cook each side depending on how big you make them.
There are a few possibilities here. Firstly, make sure you have the right ratio of liquids to dries, and the best way to do this is to scale ingredients by weight. You need a reasonably thick batter for a nice fluffy pancake, so resist the tendency to add extra milk and thin it out, even if it seems thicker than you're used to.
You also could be over-mixing which can toughen the batter and prevent it from being able to rise as well. The rise can also be compromised if the batter sits for too long on the counter and loses its "gassing" power.
Lastly, making sure you have a nice hot skillet to crust that bottom surface right away is also important to make sure the batter stays a little mounded as opposed to really puddling out on a luke-warm pan.
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⭐ If you gave this recipe a try please give it a ⭐ rating and tag me on Instagram @mint.and.mallow.kitchen so I can see what you're baking up! ⭐
📖 Full Recipe
Fluffy Oat Milk Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup oat milk, other milk alternative or dairy milk
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, melted coconut oil or melted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
- Blend dry ingredients: using a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients until well blended.
- Combine with wet ingredients: add in remaining ingredients (oat milk, egg, melted butter or oil, and vanilla if using) and stir everything together using a fork or whisk just until combined with no big lumps of flour remaining (a few small lumps are okay).
- Rest batter and preheat pan: allow the batter to sit and thicken slightly for 10 minutes while you preheat your pan or griddle over medium heat.
- Grease and portion: lightly grease your pan/griddle, and turn the heat down to medium once your pan is fully heated. Pour a scant ¼ cup of batter onto the surface for each pancake, spreading the batter out as needed into a round (this will make about a 4” pancake).
- Flip and cook until golden: cook each pancake for about 1-2 minutes on each side until golden-brown, flipping over only once the edges look set and matte, and the tops start to bubble and lose their shine.
- Repeat until you have a stack: repeat this process with all remaining batter.
- Serve warm with all the toppings, share and enjoy! Serve warm topped with the fresh whipped cream, butter and maple syrup, or your favorite fresh berries, and watch that stack disappear in no time!
Test Kitchen Tips
- Gluten-Free Option: to makes these pancakes gluten-free, you can use whole grain oat flour in place of the all purpose flour. For this variation, increase the oat flour amount to 1 ½ cups, use 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon baking soda.
- Keep em' warm: If you’re making a bigger batch, you can preheat your oven for 5-10 minutes to 200°F. Then turn the oven off when you start mixing your batter, and as you finish cooking your pancakes, you can put them on a wire rack on a baking sheet in the oven to keep them warm for service. But make sure you’re oven isn’t too hot or it’ll dry them out!
- Cooking for a crowd? You can feel free to double or triple this recipe to keep your pancake stack growing sky-high and feed as many people as you like.
Erin says
Yummy - so light and fluffy!