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.
PrintLemon 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 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats or oat flour
- 1/2 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 1/2 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 1/2 cup oats in a food processor and processing until finely ground.
- In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: 1 1/2 cups oat flour, 1/2 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
Keywords: Oatmeal pancakes, Gluten free oatmeal pancakes, Lemon poppyseed pancakes, Gluten free brunch
31 Comments
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness
April 30, 2014 at 6:54 am4 years and no pancake recipe?! WHOA! Well, you totally made up for it with these amazing one…Pancakes are totally mt breakfast life, so I am loving all up on these! Plus, I love that you used Fair Trade ingredients – I LOVE Nutiva Coconut Oil! Pinned!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
April 30, 2014 at 7:41 amI want these all day, every day!! YUM!
Dixya @ Food, Pleasure, and Health
April 30, 2014 at 9:49 ami havent made pancakes in agesssss..love lemon and poppy seed together.
molly yeh
April 30, 2014 at 10:51 amjust a few days ago, my man was like, “why don’t you ever make pancakes?” and i was like, “because you’re gluten free, sillyhead” but now i have no excuse. and i must admit, i’ve been craving a pancake.
Allie
April 30, 2014 at 11:40 amI had poppy seed pancakes at brunch this past weekend and have been craving them ever since. This recipe came at the perfect time, I’m trying it out tonight!
Katie @ Whole Nourishment
April 30, 2014 at 11:47 amWhat a great combo for pancakes! Ironically enough I was also recently scheming/pondering a more “whole” take on pancakes. My fav pancakes from childhood were made with buttermilk which made them tangy, so I know I’ll love the lemon in these. I laughed at your description of Alex’s approach to breakfast. ;-)
Kathryn
April 30, 2014 at 11:51 amThese are proper fluffy pancakes. Love them.
tigalilee
April 30, 2014 at 12:18 pmQuestion – what purpose does the cornstarch serve in this recipe? Thanks. I use it only as a sauce thickener and homemade fries crisp-en-er. Yeah that’s a word.
Alex
April 30, 2014 at 12:40 pmHi! It’s used as a binder to keep the dough from being too runny :)
Nazia @ This Baker Girl Blogs
April 30, 2014 at 12:57 pmThey look just heavenly!
Rosie
April 30, 2014 at 4:08 pmLove the idea of lemon pancakes, I love it as a topping so I’ll bet I love these too!
Amy @ Parsley In My Teeth
April 30, 2014 at 4:23 pmLemon poppy seed muffins are my favorite, so I can’t wait to give this a try! Looks delicious!
Lanette
April 30, 2014 at 5:33 pmI can’t wait to try these. Of course I love pancakes (I think it’s on the list of questions one answers to even be allowed to immigrate to the US) but also don’t love the after effect of sugar-hard-crash-there-goes-the-rest-of-the-day feeling.
Also, I think you guys are just wonderful for trying and trying again, thank you for doing that!!
Christine
April 30, 2014 at 8:32 pmI saw the drizzle, then the pancakes, then the lemons, oh my! My family devours pancakes, which I try to make delicious with whole wheat, oatmeal and fruit. But these look even better! Hello, Saturday? Pancakes calling!
Tieghan Gerard
April 30, 2014 at 11:51 pmSo pretty!! I love a good wholesome pancake. Looks so good and worth a whole 4 years wait!
Lily (A Rhubarb Rhapsody)
May 2, 2014 at 2:07 amThat is one very impressive tower of pancakes! I love lemon and poppyseed anything, these would be ideal for a leisurely weekend breakfast. Yum!
Krista @ Joyful Healthy Eats
May 2, 2014 at 4:17 pmSo is it frowned upon if you eat the whole stack in one sitting? Because I’m pretty sure I could down those.. just saying. :)
Look delicious.. pinned them and love that they are gluten free!
Eileen
May 5, 2014 at 12:55 amI love lemon cake, lemon bread, but lemon pancakes?!! Wow, never would have thought of that! I would devour these! This is why I love coming to your site. There’s so much creativity!
Rachel @LittleChefBigAppetite
May 7, 2014 at 2:28 pmOh yum, these look delish! And so healthy – I can’t wait to try them!
Sabrina - A Spoonful of Photography
May 8, 2014 at 9:15 amWhat a lovely combo! They look so super fluffy and absolutely delicious! And I’m absolutely in love with your photography and use of light – just a short glance at the yellow lemons on tastespotting was enough to leave me craving these pancakes ;-)
Alex
May 8, 2014 at 9:26 amThank you!
Kyla L.G
May 8, 2014 at 9:26 amOh my, how delicious! I’m going to have to make them… I absolutely LOVE lemon and poppyseed… and pancakes, of course! They look amazing, great job, guys!
Susan
October 11, 2014 at 11:59 amHello! 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!!
Ali
January 5, 2015 at 10:30 pmI’m not the biggest pancake person, but lemon poppyseed pancakes?! I can get down with that.
Michele
July 7, 2015 at 1:38 pmThese 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.
Lauren
August 18, 2018 at 2:20 pmI know this is about 4 years old
But my partner and I just discovered this recipe and can’t get Enough if it!’
Jessica Flory
January 30, 2019 at 12:18 pmThese are delicious! The lemon flavor really shone. We loved them :D
Sonja
January 31, 2019 at 10:24 amOh we’re so glad to hear it! Makes us want to make them now! :)
Lindsey
February 12, 2019 at 2:14 pmJust 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!
Sonja
March 23, 2019 at 10:51 pmOh 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!
Adrienne
May 30, 2019 at 8:53 amSo 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.