Makes 6 Pancakes
Time: 30 minutes
These fluffy vegan pancakes are the puffiest you will ever make — thick, golden, and pillowy, with a simple batter that comes together in minutes. This recipe has been on PPK since 2011, and this is the story that goes along with it. If you just want to make the pancakes, hit the jump to recipe button.
The Fluffy Vegan Pancakes Backstory
One Christmas, I was missing NYC the way I always do during the holidays. If you’re not familiar with Jewish Xmas, it involves Chinese food and a movie. I always celebrate with my mom, but your family member mileage may vary.
I’m not sure Jewish Xmas can really exist anywhere outside of NYC. It’s always a busy busy day in New York — restaurants doing some of their best business, movie theaters packed. You truly can’t experience it anywhere else.
So what’s that got to do with vegan pancakes?
That Christmas, I started ruminating on the ghosts of Jewish Xmas past. In particular, I was trying to recall all the movies I’d seen on December 25th throughout my entire life. My memory is painfully shabby, but I thought of one year where it was just my mom and me, and we saw Dan In Real Life starring Steve Carrel and Juliette Binoche. I don’t remember much about that movie except for one thing: the pivotal pancake scene.
Juliette Binoche was flipping these magnificent golden brown creatures on a griddle. I think she was pissed off about something, but all I could concentrate on were those puffy pillows of pancakes, perfectly golden brown, lined up like jewel cushions on display.
Ever since, I’d been obsessing on a pancake like that. I’d gotten the size and shape right, but often at the expense of the texture. Too doughy, or undercooked. I think my main failing was that I wanted to see air bubbles as the pancake cooked, but when a pancake is that thick, it’s just not going to happen, and now I know that is okay.
That morning, I set about finally getting these totally right: golden, almost crumpet-like in appearance, billowy and substantial but not inelegant. I used the recipe I’d been tweaking, but I got the brilliant and innovative idea to google “thick puffy pancake” and realized I hadn’t been using enough baking powder. A little adjustment and voila — perfect puffs of pancakeness. The stuff of dreams. It was a true Jewish Xmas miracle.
Tips for the Fluffiest Vegan Pancakes
These fluffy vegan pancakes are simple so don’t let the tips intimidate you, but I do want to share some lessons I’ve learned the hard way.
Skip the electric mixer. Overmixed batter leads to dense pancakes. Use a dinner fork and stop as soon as everything is incorporated.
Let the batter rest. Ten minutes minimum. The vinegar and baking powder need to react with each other, and the gluten needs to settle.
Don’t crowd the pan. Even in a big cast iron, two pancakes at a time is the max.
Go easy on the oil. Too much oil results in a tough exterior. A very thin layer is what you want — a spray can of organic canola oil works perfectly.
Preheat the pan for a good ten minutes. Cast iron or non-stick over medium-low heat. You’ll probably need to adjust as you go — even turning the dial a quarter inch can make a difference.
Use a measuring cup to scoop the batter. A rounded bottom helps. Spray or rinse the cup between pancakes to prevent sticking.
Cover the pan after flipping. Placing a lid or a piece of foil over the pan for the last few minutes of cooking helps the pancakes cook all the way through without burning the outside. A game changer for that thick, fluffy center.
Don’t futz. Once the pancake is in the pan, leave it alone. You can nudge the batter gently with your fingers to get a more circular shape, but the batter should spread and puff up all on its own.
Vegan Brunch: Make It A Whole Thing
These pancakes deserve a full spread. Try them alongside Tempeh Bacon, Tofu Scramble, or Tofu Omelets for the classic brunch plate. Walnut Chorizo scrambled into tofu is always a good call. Shrooms & Grits if you want to go full Southern. And Blueberry Maple Bran Muffins on the side because why not.
FLUFFY VEGAN PANCAKES FAQ:
Can I add blueberries or other fruit to this fluffy vegan pancake recipe? Fresh blueberries added one by one after you drop the batter in the pan work great — a few people in the comments have done it with great results. Adding them to the batter itself might deflate things, so go carefully.
Can I substitute the flax in this fluffy vegan pancake recipe? Not really, no. The flax is doing structural work here and the recipe is a little temperamental. Follow it as written, at least the first time. If flax is a dealbreaker, Quinoa Pancakes are pretty fluffy and you can skip the quinoa with good results.
Can I use whole wheat flour? Yup yup yup. Several people have used white whole wheat or a mix of whole wheat pastry and all-purpose with great results. All whole wheat will make them denser, so a blend is the better call.
What milk works best in this fluffy vegan pancake recipe? Almond milk is the original call, but soy milk works just as well. Several people in the comments have used coconut milk and oat milk with great results too. Use whatever you have — just make sure it’s unsweetened.
Can I make this fluffy vegan pancake recipe gluten-free? For sure. Comments suggest they work well with gluten-free flour blends. Your results may vary depending on the blend, but people have had success.
Can I make these fluffy vegan pancakes ahead of time? Yes. Rest cooled pancakes on a rack covered with foil, then reheat on a baking sheet covered with foil in a 300 F oven for about 5 minutes.
How did I end up here? Probably searching for fluffy vegan pancakes, thick vegan pancakes, or eggless pancakes that actually puff up. These are the ones. They’ve been the most popular recipe on PPK since 2011 and they are not going anywhere.
Since You Love Vegan Pancakes Try These
Puffy Pillow Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsweetened vegan milk (soy, almond or oat all work)
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (canola, avocado or olive oil all work)
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center.
- Measure the milk into a measuring cup. Add vinegar and ground flax seeds, and use a fork to vigorously mix the ingredients until foamy. This will take a minute or so.
- Pour the milk mixture into the center of the dry ingredients. Add the water, oil and vanilla and use a fork to mix until a thick, lumpy batter forms. That should take about a minute. It doesn’t need to be smooth, just make sure you get all the ingredients incorporated.
- Preheat the pan over medium-low heat and let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
- Lightly coat the pan in oil. Add 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake, and cook for about 4 minutes, until puffy. Flip the pancakes, adding a new coat of oil to the pan, and cook for another 3 minutes or so. Pancake should be about an inch thick, and golden brown.
- Rest pancakes on a cooling rack covered with tin foil until ready to serve. To reheat, place pancakes on a baking sheet covered with tin foil in a 300 F degree oven for 5 minutes or so.
Wow! Look at those Bad Boys!
Yumm
These look awesome! I love the story you included in this post! 🙂
woah, YUM. I’ll be making these ASAP! Thank you so much for sharing this.
I can’t wait to make these!
Oh mama !
Amazing! Can’t wait to make them.
Also, Ruthie Pigface Draper is my fave song.
wow i made american pancakes this morning wish id seen these before jealous and probabley having pancakes with my dinner now 🙂
Jewish Xmas happens in Philly, too! Getting Chinese food and seeing a movie on Xmas is one of my favorite things about the holidays! Have you seen this? http://www.metalsucks.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ATT00001.jpeg It’s hilarious.
These pancakes look amazing, and totally worthy of that scene from Dan in Real Life (great movie). Can’t wait to try them!
Would adding blueberries take away from the wonderful fluffiness of these pancakes?
I’m not positive, but I think if they burst it would deflate the pancake. I could be wrong! Let me know if you try it.
We love our Jewish Xmas in Boston! Chinatown is right next to the big Cinema, so it’s an easy one-stop shop for all that is right in the world. Can’t wait to try these pancakes, they are tremendous!
Yeah, I guess I should have said that it can’t happen outside of the East Coast. Me and my NYcentric ways!
I want to make these! but I don’t have flax. could I leave it out or substitute something else?…
It’s necessary for the structure. I tried a lot of things and this recipe was pretty temperamental, so I would follow it to a T.
Puffy vegan pancakes? Is it april fools already? I’m a doubter. A skeptic. whatever the word is for a person who has to see to beleive! Guess I know what’s on the menu for tomorrow.
Jewish Xmas definitely happens in Boston. The pancakes look amazing and I think are my daughter’s favorite food – I will make these this week while she’s home on break and can’t wait to see her smile. Thanks!
These look epic! Thank you <3
Ok…so I totally wish I lived in NYC and next door to you! I live in the smallest of towns and EVERYTHING shuts down the day before xmas, xmas and the day after!!
These look great! Omaha’s loss in restaurants is our gain! Btw, this Jewish Xmas we went to BAM to see The Descendants & then to Park Slope for Chinese where it was SRO with hungry Jews, but they had a whole page of vegan faux meat dishes! Vegan sesame chicken. Ahh. Will try your pillow-cake recipe soon.
This is probably a stupid question, but I don’t want to mess up a whole batch. Does it affect the fluffiness if you add fruit like berries and bananas to the batter?
Gorgeous! I remember that scene in “Dan in Real Life”, too. Pancakes would steal any scene.
I can’t wait to try these this Sunday! I’ve been missing fluffy pancakes. My pancakes always turn out thin and tough.
I JUST tried these… apart from my having no skills in flipping, they turned out great! They rose perfectly and had the right amount of gooeyness/crunchiness. Thanks for sharing!
My partner is thrilled for me to try these. He has always been skeptical about vegan pancakes, cause they don’t puff enough- these will certainly do the trick!
Oh, and Jewish Christmas is a civil holiday in Thornhill, Ontario. I think I was the only non-Jew in my public school. I have a long standing tradition of having the other kids over for Christmas evening dessert and drinks before the movies. Mind you, I also was the post-school bacon and grilled cheese sandwich destination for the same reason… oh how things have changed!
These look amazing! Need to make them ASAP. (It’s a good thing I always have the necessary ingredients.)
My hubby and I celebrated Jewish Xmas here in Colorado.. and we’re not even Jewish 🙂
Those pancakes look delicious!
Hee, yes, Jewish Xmas is definitely catching on with everyone!
I love Barb’s comment! LOL!
Jewish Xmas happens in Miami, too! (Our family brought it with us from NYC!) Ours included the infamous Hanukkah bush. My dad always made sure we had a new 12″ artificial table-top job every year. By the time I was 8, our coffee table was covered with them, and we had one for each crazy night of gifts!
I’ve never seen such fluffy pancakes! I will be trying my hand at these on New Year’s morning, for sure!
Mmm .. I have been making pancakes for probably a week straight now for my brother, and I couldn’t eat any since they weren’t vegan. I just made these, but I used half whole wheat and half spelt flour because that is all I had, and I added some chocolate chips and they turned out amazing! It’s really funny because every time I feel like making something, I go to your site and you have just posted a new recipe of what I wanted to eat!
I can’t wait to make these. All of the recipes on this website turn out to be the best of whatever I’m making that I’ve ever had. I finally bought Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and I’m itching to try every recipe. 🙂
This year was the first year I didn’t get to have a partial Jewish Xmas. It’s been a long-standing tradition with me and my mom to see a movie on Dec. 25th, but for some reason we didn’t this year! Columbus, OH is iffy when it comes to the restaurant selections on the 25th. In the “cowtown proper” (I refuse to call Columbus a city), a lot of the bars open up around 7pm or so. Almost all of the Chinese or Thai restaurants are of course open as usual. But outside of the “downtown” area, very very VERY few such locations are even open. It was a stretch to find anything at all!
I’ll be in Columbus this weekend!
The trick I use to get fluffy pancakes is I replace some or all of the wet ingredients with club soda. Works like a charm!
I made these, followed all the tips, patiently set my timer for each step, and they came out fluffier & more evenly cooked than pretty much any pancakes I’ve ever made. Absolute success! http://instagr.am/p/cbLY4/
These looks amaziiiiing!!! I can’t wait to try them!!! 😀
My three-year-old and I just made these. We tripled the recipe (I have 4 kids) and they are so big and fluffy!
Ooops I forgot to add that we used white whole wheat flour for added nutrition and they still turned out great.
Just checking back in to say I’ve made this twice now. They were great! I imagined they were going to be as fluffy as the banana-pecan pancakes from VWAV, because they’re quite fluffy and thick. But these bad boys were wayyyyyy thicker and fluffier.
Mmmm! I’m hungry again, I wonder if making pancakes at 4;48 in the afternoon is a bad thing. Where’s my pancake pan?
How cool!
I made these this morning for my family and we all LOVED them! Light and fluffy and flavor was amazing… but I have a question – mine didn’t puff up like yours (more like regular pancakes) and I’m wondering what I did wrong? I did notice that despite my crazy lady whipping of the almond milk and apple cider vinegar, the mixture never got “foamy” as you describe. All ingredients were fresh. Any thoughts? Thanks for this and for all your great recipes 🙂
p.s. Hope you had a wonderful Jewish Christmas – we had a great one here in San Francisco!
Did the batter spread when you put it in the pan? Maybe it was too liquidy for some reason?
Crazy lady whipping 😀 :,-D Yeah, me too!! And after I sweated the hell out of my whip and my arm, I gave up. Maybe it depends on the milk and vinegar brand, as it happens with soy milk: there are some that make a perfect mayonnese in a few secs, and others that remain liquid forever… Do you think that might be the problem? Is it a feasible alternative to let soak the grounded seeds in a little milk before whipping?
These are hands down the best pancakes I’ve ever made. I added a healthy dose of cinnamon and they are amazing!
[…] Read the recipe and vital tips, see the photo. and read the intro. in full at http://www.theppk.com/2011/12/puffy-pillow-pancakes/ […]
Yum! I made these for my 15 year old son and myself yesterday. Well, he asked for them again for breakfast. You have a winner here!
Just to let you know, Isa, Jewish Xmas happens in lil’ ol’ Vermont as well. My hubby and I went for Chinese and the movie theater was soooo slammin’ we couldn’t believe it. Movies were sold out 45 minutes BEFORE showtime!! Those pancakes are magnificent…although I would expect nothing less than magnificance from you…….
Isa, I can’t wait to try this recipe! We are Eastern Orthodox, so we celebrate Xmas on January 7th. Our “western Xmas” is much like your “Jewish Xmas”–Chinese food and movies–with wine thrown in for good measure. Thanks for all of the wonderful recipes. In our religious tradition, we are vegan for 1/2 the year, so your books come in super handy.
These were fantastic. Every other vegan pancake recipe I’ve tried resulted in heavy, dense pancakes, so when I cut into these and saw actual air pockets I almost died. Totally delicious, perfect texture, and the husband likes them too. Success!
Absolutely fantasmigorical! Made them this morning double batch and my whole family wanted more– I did use heart shaped pancacke rings for the kiddies which just makes it more fun, but these are positively the most fluffy pancakes I’ve had in my entire life. The best part is–no eggs. Thanks Isa!
These look amazing– the perfect combination of fluffy and crispy! Pass the maple syrup, please…
So excited to learn all your pancake secrets! Definitely my favorite breakfast food.
My husband celebrated Jewish Xmas every year here in Chicago until we started dating and I took him home with me for Christmas that first time. I remember in the days before our relationship seeing previews for movies that open on Christmas Day and wondering naively “Who goes to the movies on Christmas?” only to find out that they’re packed to the point where you’re hard pressed to find a seat, according to him. 🙂
I heart puffy pancakes too! I have been using your vegan brunch recipe for years with all my notes and modifications in the margins. I use a tablespoon of baking powder and use sugar instead of maple syrup (for crunch) and sub melted earth balance for the oil and added apple cider vinegar to the almond milk. It looks like we’re on the same wavelength because that’s pretty much what you did too! I’m going to have to try it with your proportions and with the flax addition. I’ll bet that’ll make it a million times better than mine.
Thanks for always sharing such great stuff, Isa! You’re a goddess!!!! 🙂
Made these twice in two days! Big hit with adults and of course kids. First batch I made as written. Second batch I doubled and used 2 cups of white wheat and one cup all purpose. I also forgot to add the sugar!!!!!! No one noticed but me! I also used half oil and half applesauce. Next time I will use all white wheat and all applesauce and reduce sugar by half and I think they will still be delicious! Thanks for such a versatile recipe!
Excellent pancakes – made this morning for my daughter as promised. Fluffy and delicious. Your tips about heating the griddle, letting batter rest, etc. were great, too. I was all set to have some salad or something for lunch (she’s a late-riser) but these smelled so good I had pancakes instead. Love the tip about adding some cinnamon – will try that next time. I did find them a tad salty, so will probably cut down on that ingredient next time. My only regret is that we’re now out of maple syrup, so I can’t have them again tonight – they’d make a great little supper or midnight snack.
Just made these, amazing!!!
My perpetual new year’s resolution is to learn to make pancakes – my cooking Achilles Heel. Finally, on NYE, I have fulfilled it!! Thank you Isa!
So so so so yummy!!! Used vanilla coconut milk as my milk substitute. they turned out perfect!