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These lemon poppy seed pancakes are a breakfast winner! They’re gluten free oatmeal pancakes using oat flour, which makes them hearty and filling.
Alex and I are simple breakfast people. For me, my everyday is a whole grain English muffin and peanut butter. Alex is more of a wait-until-I-get-hungry-then-eat-massive-amounts-of-yogurt-and-granola type person. But if it’s a weekend morning, sometimes we’ll spring for pancakes. One of my complaints about pancakes has always been that they are not filling enough. When I do eat them, I go into a sugar-induced coma, then crash, hungry just a few hours later. Our goal with this gluten free oatmeal pancakes recipe was to create a hearty pancake: filling, yet still light and fluffy. We also wanted it to be gluten-free, since it is the most versatile way to cover a variety of dietary needs. So, Alex and I came up with this lemon poppy seed pancake recipe: which happens to be all those things–and delicious!
Related: Gluten Free Breakfast Ideas for Everyone
How to make gluten free oatmeal pancakes
The trick to gluten free oatmeal pancakes is using oat flour. The cool thing is that you can make your own oat flour if you have a food processor! To make oat flour, just food process normal old fashioned oats for a few minutes until they have a fine, flour-like texture. The measurements are 1 for 1, so 1 cup of oats makes 1 cup oat flour. Simple as that! You can also buy ground oat flour at the store. (Here are lots of oat flour recipes if you have some left over!)
For this gluten free oatmeal pancakes recipe, the oat flour is combined with just a bit of gluten-free flour to keep the pancakes light and fluffy. You can also use whole wheat flour if your diet is not 100% gluten free. The other secret is cornstarch! This also keeps the pancakes light, since oat flour is very dense.
Looking for more gluten free brunch ideas?
Outside of these gluten free oatmeal pancakes, we have dozens of vegan breakfast ideas and gluten free brunch recipes on our website. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes
- Vegetarian Spinach Quiche
- Banana Oatmeal Pancakes
- The Best Cup of Coffee
- Healthy Banana Bread
- Healthy Banana Bread Muffins
- Apple Cinnamon Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats
- Cinnamon Pecan Muesli
- DIY Instant Oatmeal
- Gingerbread Oatmeal Pancakes
- Chocolate Muesli Recipe
- White Bean Shakshuka with Feta
- Apple Gluten Free Oatmeal Muffins
- Tofu Scramble Recipe with Black Beans
- Healthy Granola Recipe
- Sweet Potato Hash Browns
This recipe is…
This gluten free oatmeal pancakes recipe is vegetarian and gluten free.
Lemon Poppy Seed Oatmeal Pancakes (Gluten Free)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
These lemon poppy seed pancakes are a breakfast winner! They’re gluten free oatmeal pancakes using oat flour, which makes them hearty and filling.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats or oat flour
- ½ cup gluten-free flour (or whole wheat flour)
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (or 2 ½ tablespoons maple syrup)
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 large lemon (zest + 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or butter)
- 1 cup milk
Instructions
- If using oats, make oat flour by placing 1 ½ cup oats in a food processor and processing until finely ground.
- In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: 1 ½ cups oat flour, ½ cup gluten-free or whole-wheat flour, ¼ cup cornstarch, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 tablespoons poppy seeds, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and 2 tablespoons sugar (if using maple syrup, omit sugar and add 2 ½ tablespoons maple syrup with the eggs in the next step).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and the zest of one lemon. Pour into the dry ingredients, then add 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil. Pour in 1 cup milk (¾ cup if using maple syrup instead of sugar), and stir everything to combine. The batter should be thick but just pourable. If not pourable, add a small bit of milk to lighten the batter and stir to combine.
- Lightly grease a skillet and wipe off extra grease with a paper towel. Heat the skillet to medium heat. Pour the batter into small circles and fry the pancakes until the bubbles pop on the top. Then flip them and cook until done.
- Serve the pancakes warm with maple syrup.
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Will rice milk work well as a substitute for milk
That should work!
Hi. Can I use Arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch in this recipe?
That should work!
Hi. I’m so looking forward to try this one. Is it possible to either refrigerate the dough or freeze the cooked pancakes? Thank you.
You can definitely freeze the pancakes! Place them in a freezer safe container and they should work for a few months. Reheat on a griddle!
So I tried making this today for the hubbys bday, as he loves all things pancakes and lemon poppyseed, and unfortunately I didn’t get the same overwhelmingly good results as others have posted. The first few I made did not taste lemony at all, even after following the recipe to a tee. I added more zest and juice for the next few pancakes, but still wasn’t loving the flavor. They got a bit better with syrup, but I’m sad to say I won’t be making these again. They may benefit from a lemon/powdered sugar glaze/syrup of some sort. But I did love the idea of making oatmeal flour, so will definitely be trying that out on some other pancake recipes.
Just made these, with a few changes, and we’re delicious, my new favorite GF pancakes!
Changes to the base mix:. I used tapioca starch instead of cornstarch as I didn’t have any, and subbed quinoa flour for half of the “regular” GF flour, for a bit of added protein. I don’t like to use too much of it bc it does have a stronger taste.
It’s really hard to get GF right, particularly when you’re trying to be thoughtful about flour composition for health reasons (is not just using a basic GF mix from rice flours), and this one is delish and filling and fluffy!
Oh we’re so glad to hear this! Thank you for providing these changes so others can learn about what works for subs too. Excited to hear that they were a hit!
These are delicious! The lemon flavor really shone. We loved them :D
Oh we’re so glad to hear it! Makes us want to make them now! :)
I know this is about 4 years old
But my partner and I just discovered this recipe and can’t get Enough if it!’
These are delicious! I made a couple of changes for our not-gluten free family (used regular flour), and because I was too lazy to make oat flour. I just used quick oats and reduced the milk a bit, then let them soak to thicken up for 5-10 minutes before cooking.
I’m not the biggest pancake person, but lemon poppyseed pancakes?! I can get down with that.
Hello! I just wanted to let you know that these are our absolute FAVORITE gluten-free pancakes!! I’ve made them several times and they are always so good – next day they’re still so delicious … though, to be honest, there usually isn’t a next day! ;)
Just thought I should ask though … in case I’ve been making them incorrectly all along!? … does GF Flour mean an All-Purpose GF Flour Blend or just any GF Flour – like Brown Rice, Almond, Teff, Sorghum, etc?
Thanks again for the wonderful recipe – much appreciated!!