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Favorite Pancakes (without eggs)

Fast, fresh pancakes made without eggs! Enjoy for breakfast, brunch or any meal. Top with your favorite fruit sauce.
Stack of golden pancakes with a side of blueberries.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Makes: 8 pancakes (4-inch)
Nutrition Facts: View label

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (see notes)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat or 1% milk
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Directions

  1. Wash hands with soap and water.
  2. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in medium bowl.
  3. Combine milk, oil and water. Add to dry ingredients.
  4. Stir just until moistened.
  5. Lightly spray a large skillet or griddle with non-stick cooking spray or lightly wipe with oil. Heat skillet or griddle over medium-high heat (350 degrees F in an electric skillet). For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot griddle.
  6. Pancakes are ready to turn when tops are bubbly all over, a few bubbles have burst, and the edges begin to appear dry. Use a quick flip with a broad spatula to turn pancakes. Turn only once. Bake until bottoms are brown and dry.
  7. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

Notes

  • To see if skillet is hot enough, sprinkle with a few drops of water. If drops skitter around, heat is just right.
  • Combine wet ingredients ahead of time. Store in refrigerator up to 2 days.
  • Mix dry ingredients ahead of time and store in a sealed container.
  • Top with applesauce, fresh fruit or yogurt.

Variations:

Whole wheat – use whole wheat pastry flour or replace about half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. Add 1 to 2 Tablespoons of water or milk if batter is too thick. 

Oatmeal – replace about half the flour with rolled oats. Soak the rolled oats in the milk for 5 minutes before mixing the batter. 

Corn Cakes - Omit the sugar, replace up to half the flour with cornmeal and add ½ to 1 cup cooked corn.

Buttermilk – replace milk with buttermilk; reduce the baking powder to 2 teaspoons and add ½ teaspoon baking soda.

Apple – Add ½ cup shredded or chopped apple to the liquid ingredients.

Berry  – Try blueberries, raspberries, blackberries or a mix.  After batter is poured on the skillet or griddle, sprinkle the tops with berries. No need to thaw frozen berries.

Pumpkin - Add ½ cup canned pumpkin.

Zucchini - Add ½ cup grated zucchini. Squeeze out some moisture before adding.

Waffles - This batter also works great in waffle makers!

Comments

Delicious!!!

Wow! I actually made an account just to post this comment!! This is the best pancake recipE for vegetarians! ! I added cinnamon and oats to it and it was awesome!! Just one problem.these are bitter because of so much of baking powder. Please help me with that. The bitter taste spoils it but the pancakes are soft and fuffy. can you please suggest a solution and some variations?also i cannot use applesauce or honey or maple syrup or anykind of syrup. Thanks for this recipe!!

First, check that you used baking powder not baking soda!  Baking powder has a balance of acid and soda so there is not a bitter tasting residue.  Using baking soda alone relies on acid in the other ingredients to neutralize.  If enough acid is not present, the effect of heat on the soda is to form a soap-like product.  The final pancakes will taste bitter or soapy and sometimes look more yellow.  If you try reducing the baking powder, the pancakes will be more dense and flat and maybe less tender.

The Food Hero Team

Can I also use buttermilk in this recipe?  I've also used plain yogurt, mixed with the melted butter and baking soda/powder, to replace eggs, I mix separately, and add to flours.  I also like adding a little flax meal.

You could use buttermilk in this recipe.  Usually when buttermilk is used, baking soda replaces part of the baking powder for the leavening.  The baking soda helps neutralize the acid of the buttermilk and as part of the reaction, carbon dioxide is released to lighten the batter as it bakes.  1 cup of butternilk plus 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda will release the same amount of levening as 2 teaspoons of baking powder.  In this recipe you coulde use 1 cup of buttermilk for the sweet milk; add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and reduce the baking powder to 1 teaspoon. 

The Food Hero Team

Was really impressed, I made these in an emergency when I'd run out of eggs & milk and they were actually some of the best pancakes I've ever made! I replaced the milk with soy milk and half of the flour with wholegrain spelt flour. Will definitely be making again!

I had made these with my younger sister three times, did everything correctly and they came out gooey and uncooked in the middle EVERY TIME. we have even slow cooked them on a low heat for 10 minutes and STILL came out gooeyand uncooked. Gross recipe.

It sounds like the problem could be the temperature of the skillet or griddle.  If you have an electric skillet, try setting the temperature between 350 and 375 degrees.  In a skillet on a burner, try a medium-high setting which might be about 7 or 8 if the dial has 10 divisions between low and high.  You can test the temperature of the skillet by shaking a drop or two of water on the surface.  The droplets should bubble and skip across the surface.  If they don’t move, the skillet is probably too cool.  If they evaporate immediately, the skillet is too hot.  The skillet should be pre-heated to the correct temperature before the batter is added.

Try a test pancake.  Using ¼ cup of batter will make a pancake about 3 to 4 inches across depending on the thickness of the batter. Larger pancakes can be more difficult to bake evenly.  By the time the underside of the pancake is turning golden brown, you should see bubbles coming up through the batter all across the surface of the pancake.  Seeing bubbles in the center is a sign that the batter there is baking.  The edges of the pancake will begin to look dull rather than shiny.   If the underside is too dark by the time you see bubbles in the center of the pancake, the temperature is too hot.  Adjust the heat until you get the amount of browning and the bubbles across the surface to happen within a few minutes.  Turn the pancakes only once.  Check for browning on the second side by gently lifting the edge of the pancake.  Pancakes are best when eaten as they are baked.  As they sit in a stack, they tend to get soft and soggy from the steam and the weight of the additional pancakes.

The Food Hero Team

Delicious!!

I chose this recipe because my kiddos were craving pancakes but we were out of eggs. I followed it very carefully because of the other comments I read about it  being too runny but my batter was actually thick and the pancakes were very fluffy and delicious. I used all organic ingredients like I do with everything I cook but I doubt that made a difference in the batter though. Thanks for the recipe! (btw I never take the time to register to leave a comment on a recipe but these were so suprisingly good that I had to lol)

These are the best vegan pancakes ever! I use all whole wheat flour, coconut milk, and add a pinch of cinnamon and they're great! Thanks for the recipe.

I love these! I have a favourite basic pancake mix with eggs but I have run out of eggs. I have finally found a mix that is basic and doesn't need an egg substitute. I think these will become my new favourite pancake mix. Thank you!

I wish this had worked for me, but it was an inedible mess. 1 1/4 cup of flour and 1 cup milk (largest ingredient amounts) basically makes soup. Are we sure the measurements are correct?

Pancake batters can vary in thickness from very thin to somewhat thick but they are generally a batter that can be poured onto the hot griddle.  The baking powder and the steam cause them to puff up slightly as they bake. The griddle or skillet should be hot enough that a drop of water will bubble immediately across the surface. Can you give us more information about how you made this recipe?  Perhaps we can make more suggestions.

The Food Hero Team

It should be pretty runny. I don't know how you could have ended up with an "inedible mess." I found it to be too thick and I added a little extra milk (could have used water) to make it flow a bit better. (I expect my pancakes to be kind of "as flat as a pancake.") My first test one was a bit more crispy that I like so I added a touch more oil also to make them softer. Mine turned out really well. I will be using this recipe again.

I experienced the same thing. 

Very confused what it was you expected from a pancake batter?! Most batters I've ever used have resembled soup in texture!

Did you use 1 and 1/4 cups of flour as it can be misread as 1 x 1/4cup in my opinion?

I had the opposite problem. This made more of dough than a batter and I needed almost another 1/4 cup of milk to get something that would spread on a griddle.

How ingredients are measured can have a big effect on the thickness or thinness of the batter.  

Did you try cooking it?

These were great!

I used 1/2 cup regular flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and the pancakes turned out great!! Very hearty meal. Also, I didn't have a griddle so I used a nonstick skillet and cooking spray on medium heat. It worked very well! No sticking and easy to flip. Next time, I am going to add blueberries to the batter!

My daughter had a sleepover and I made these in the morning with mixed berries in them, the girls LOVED them! I am now the coolest mom with great food!

Love these, tasty, quick and easy, adaptable, and family eats them up! Sometimes add finely chopped apples + cinnamon, or bananas and vanilla extract, or pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, or even some frozen berries. Easiest way to make them cook well I found is using a soup ladle to pour the batter on the griddle. Love them with yogurt + applesauce!

A classic, fluffy pancake recipe. My family devoured them!

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