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These oat milk pancakes are soft, thick, fluffy, and so easy to make! Made using just 8 ingredients and no mixer required. Your weekend brunch just got an upgrade with dairy free pancakes!
Along with buttermilk biscuits, pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast foods to make on slow weekend mornings, and sometimes I even meal prep a whole batch for weekday breakfasts.
These oat milk pancakes can be enjoyed as is, or you can add mix-ins like blueberries or chocolate chips!
This recipe is easy to make! These pancakes are dairy free, nut free, and soy free and you can top them with dairy free yogurt, coconut whipped cream, maple syrup, nut butter, bananas, or berries for a perfect weekend breakfast or brunch.
Why These Are The Best Oat Milk Pancakes
- These dairy free pancakes are ready in just 20 minutes and can be made using an electric griddle or just a pan on the stove.
- These pancakes come out extra thick and fluffy, not flat - while still maintaining their soft texture.
- Oat milk pancakes are freezer friendly, so they’re actually perfect for meal prep - because who says you can only enjoy pancakes on weekends?
- This is a great base pancake recipe to add berries, chocolate, chips, coconut flakes, or other mix-ins into!
Ingredients Needed
- Flour: For best results, I recommend all-purpose flour, but white whole wheat flour, whole wheat flour, or gluten free 1-1 baking flour can be used as well. Oat flour works as well - you’ll need an extra 2 tablespoons.
- Butter: You can use any dairy free butter in this recipe, or you can swap the butter for oil or applesauce at a 1:1 ratio
- Oat Milk: I like to use unsweetened oat milk, but you can also use vanilla oat milk.
- Vanilla Extract: I recommend using real vanilla extract in this recipe, since vanilla is the main flavor.
- Sugar: I make these oat milk pancakes using granulated sugar, but coconut sugar works great too.
Step By Step Instructions
Note: Full ingredient measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
Step One: Add oat milk, vanilla extract, melted butter, and egg to a large measuring cup and whisk until combined, then set aside.
Step Two: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour in the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined (don’t overmix the batter or your oat milk pancakes will be tough). If there are still some small lumps of flour that’s okay!
Step Three: Heat a large skillet or griddle to medium low heat. If using a pan, add a little bit of butter to grease the pan or lightly spray the pan with cooking oil.
Step Four: Once the pan or griddle is hot (a drop of water dropped on the pan should sizzle), scoop ¼ cup of pancake batter and pour it onto the griddle/pan.
Step Five: When bubbles start to form on top of the pancakes, use a spatula to flip them over and cook on the other side for another 1-2 minutes, until the pancakes are golden brown.
FAQs and Expert Tips
If your pancakes aren’t fluffy, it is likely that you over-mixed your batter. Over-mixing the batter will lead to tough, chewy, and rubbery pancakes! You should be mixing the batter until the last bits of flour disappear and it’s okay if the batter looks a bit lumpy!
To me, this is the trickiest part about cooking pancakes - getting the pan to the right temperature! If your heat is too low, the pancakes won’t puff up as much, but if it’s too high, they’ll burn and won’t have a chance to bubble up. Always cook the pancakes on medium low, and if you aren’t sure, it’s better to start at a lower temperature and cook just one pancake, then increase (a little bit) if needed.
What variations of these dairy free pancakes can I make?
So many! For blueberry pancakes, add around 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries to the batter, or other berries like strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries. You can also add 1 cup of semisweet vegan chocolate chips or vegan white chocolate chips (or both!) for chocolate chip pancakes. I also like to add some shredded coconut to mix it up sometimes too.
Having fun with toppings is the best part! Peanut butter, almond butter, or any other nut butter is one of my favorite toppings, with some banana slices and maple syrup on top. You can also add biscoff cookie butter, vegan nutella, fruit jam, coconut whipped cream (store-bought or homemade, or dairy free yogurt are other delicious options.
Expert Tips
- Properly measure your flour: It’s really easy to over-measure your flour if you don’t know how to measure it properly! This can lead to tough pancakes. I strongly recommend weighing it with a $10 kitchen scale or using the scoop and level method.
- Don't over-mix: Again - this will lead to tough, rubbery pancakes! When the last streaks of flour are gone, stop mixing the batter. It’s fine if there are lumps in the batter.
- Watch the heat: Keep a close eye on the pancakes, and make sure you’re not cooking them on a high heat! This will cause them to burn.
- Don’t flip the pancakes too early: If you flip the pancakes too early, you’ll end up with raw batter in the middle. Wait until the pancakes start bubbling, then they are ready to flip. If your pancakes are burning before the batter has started to bubble, your heat is too high! I recommend doing a test pancake to make sure the temperature is right.
Storage and Freezing Instructions
Oat milk pancakes can be stored in a ziploc bag or airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
They also freeze really well! Freeze them in a ziploc freezer bag then either let them thaw in the fridge or microwave and enjoy right away!
More Breakfast Recipes You'll Love
If you make this recipe, let me know how it went in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Oat Milk Pancakes (Thick & Fluffy!)
Equipment
- 1 Whisk
Ingredients
- 1½ cup oat milk
- 3 Tablespoons melted vegan butter, oil, or applesauce
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1¾ cup + 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour SEE NOTES
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 Tablespoons baking powder
Instructions
- Add oat milk, vanilla extract, melted butter, and egg to a large measuring cup and whisk until combined, then set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour in the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined. Don’t over-mix the batter, if there are still some small lumps of flour that’s okay!
- Heat a large skillet or nonstick griddle to medium low heat. If using a pan, add a little bit of butter to grease the pan or lightly spray the pan with cooking oil.
- Once the pan or griddle is hot (a drop of water dropped on the pan should sizzle), scoop ¼ cup of pancake batter and pour it onto the pan/griddle.
- When bubbles start to form on top of the pancakes, use a spatula to flip them over and cook on the other side for another 1-2 minutes, until the pancakes are golden brown. Remove from heat and add toppings of choice!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
The calorie information provided for this recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.
Linda
Delicious and yes so fluffy!
Gabby
So happy to hear that you loved the pancakes Linda!! 🙂 Thanks for the review!
Linda
Delicious and yes, so fluffy!
sadie
omg i can never get my pancakes to be fluffy until i tried these! so good ty
Gabby
Hi Sadie! So glad you loved them and finally got thick pancakes! Thanks for the review 🙂
Danielle
Can you use almond milk instead of oat milk
Gabby
Absolutely you can!
Chelsea
delicous!
Gabby
So glad you loved them Chelsea! 🙂
Skyler
I had some leftover oat flour and wanted to use it to make breakfast, and stumbled upon this recipe. It was amazing! They came out super thick and fluffy, just the way my family loves them. Thanks for the recipe!
Gabby
Hi Skyler! I'm so glad you all enjoyed the pancakes! Thanks so much for the review 🙂
Cat
I’ve made this recipe countless times and it always comes out perfect! If using a griddle, I suggest a temp of 375.
Gabby
Hi Cat! Yay! I'm so happy to hear that you love the pancakes! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review 😀
Maria
Thank you for this yummy recipe! One small suggestion: add the flour weight when listing ingredients! (Though I now know how much 1c flour weighs through research!)
Gabby
Hi Maria! I am so happy to hear that you loved the pancakes! Thanks for the review! All the weight measurements are listen under the Metric Tab in the Ingredient list 🙂
Kirstin
My son has food allergies so I used oat flour instead of flour applesauce instead of butter and coconut sugar. They were fantastic and my other kids couldn't even tell they were dairy and gluten free. Will be making these regularly
Gabby
Hi Kirstin! Yay! I'm so happy to hear that these were a hit with your kids! Thanks so much for the review 🙂