Vegan Gluten-free Corn Flour Pancakes! These are incredibly soft and tender and taste like a super soft cornbread. They are made without any eggs, are oil-free and dairy-free and just 6 ingredients!
Sometimes miracles do happen. Pancake miracles. Okay, a bit dramatic, but seriously I didn’t think it was possible to make low-fat pancakes be delicious and also be vegan, gluten-free, nut-free and oil-free. And only require 6 ingredients! All of the above! I’m also sharing 3 flavor combos today with you. And get this, my husband loves these above all my other pancake recipes??! He really liked the flavor and amazing soft texture that these have.
These are so delicious and a wonderful change from my Best Vegan Fluffy Pancakes? I mean, instead of 15 g fat per pancake, these are just about 3 g fat! That’s a huge difference. And while they are not as rich, they are still so close and delicious.
With these low-fat pancakes, you will have plenty of room to stuff your face with my recipe post from earlier this week, did you catch the Smoky Jalapeno Black Bean Dip?
Knowing that a large amount of my readers are following a low-fat diet or need nut-free recipes, I knew they, and I, would love some low-fat pancakes to enjoy on the weekends.
HOW DO YOU MAKE FLUFFY VEGAN PANCAKES?
The “miraculous” flour? So, I used a flour not what you’d expect to see in a pancake recipe, corn flour. Not to be confused with cornmeal or cornstarch. I had some leftover corn flour sitting in my pantry from when I made my Hushpuppies and after a muffin recipe didn’t work out, I decided to see what would happen with them as pancakes. I was utterly shocked. The corn flour gave a naturally mild, sweet flavor to them and made them SO SOFT.
This is not the same taste/texture as you’d get from coarse cornmeal pancakes/waffles. These are super soft and tender. I switched up my starches too. I normally use my go-to potato starch, as in my other vegan pancake recipes, but since these corn flour pancakes have such little fat in them, the potato starch made them too dry. Potato starch works better in recipes that have a lot of moisture/fat in them. Of course I had to try these in different flavors, cinnamon was my favorite. Or, maybe tied with the chocolate chip ones. The cinnamon pancakes were quite delicious with some chai tea. You can make regular, cinnamon, chocolate chip or blueberry or extra vanilla. Really, it’s the perfect basic pancake recipe to add anything you want or just enjoy them as is with some maple syrup.
I love that these are fluffy too. I cannot stand paper thin pancakes. That is what crepes are for.
VEGAN PANCAKES MADE WITH CORN FLOUR
Would you look how soft and fluffy the insides are too?
So, these pancakes are easy to make and should basically fit the majority of allergies out there. They are vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, nut-free and low-fat and definitely kid-friendly.
MORE VEGAN PANCAKE RECIPES
- Vegan Gluten-free Buttermilk Pancakes
- Fluffy Vegan Blueberry Pancakes
- Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- Vegan Gluten-free Sweet Potato Pancakes
- Vegan Gluten-free Pumpkin Pancakes
Vegan Gluten-Free Corn Flour Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons Bob's Red Mill corn FLOUR (not the same as cornmeal or cornstarch. I highly recommend to use Bob's Red Mill here)
- 3 tablespoons (22g) arrowroot (I tested these with 3 different starches, arrowroot yielded the best result)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3/4-1 cup lite canned coconut milk (I recommend the Thai Kitchen or Sprouts brand)
- 3 tablespoons (60g) pure maple syrup
- 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
OPTIONAL FLAVORS
- Chocolate chip: add 1/4 cup chocolate chips
- Blueberry: add 1/4-1/2 cup fresh blueberries
- Cinnamon: add 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
NOTE
- These pancakes have a very mild cornmeal type of flavor to them, which I LOVE, so expect that. The wet batter tastes stronger than the cooked pancake, so don't be alarmed. Corn flour is very finely ground like all-purpose flour, it's not cornmeal and not the same as cornstarch. Corn flour is what cornstarch is called in England, so please click the link above to see exactly the product I used. Also, Bob's Red Mill corn flour is gluten-free naturally, but is processed in a wheat facility, so if you need a certified gluten-free corn flour, search for that online. Different corn flour brands vary in the batter thickness, so note the milk measurement.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- These are delicious with maple syrup on top. Since these are really low-fat, they are super soft and light, but not as rich as the fat-filled ones (obviously), so they are just perfect with maple syrup and some fruit. Enjoy!
- Combine the corn flour, arrowroot, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk really well to make sure there are no lumps remaining from the starch.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the milk, syrup and vanilla and stir. Start out with 3/4 cup milk and add more as needed. You want a fairly thick, but smooth batter. This is what will produce thick, fluffy pancakes like in the pics. If your batter is too runny, it will produce thin pancakes. Slowly pour over the dry ingredients, whisking it in slowly until the batter is completely smooth.
- Let the batter sit for 15 minutes while you heat up the pan. This will give time for the baking powder to react with the liquid and also soak up the starch. This is what yields fluffy pancakes.
- Add a nonstick pan over medium-low heat.
- Spray the pan with nonstick spray and pour a 1/4 cup of batter on the pan, it should naturally form a round shape. You should hear a sizzle, that's how you know it's hot enough. Let the pancakes cook about 3 minutes or more, looking for the top to have a dry look and the edges look dry and small bubbles forming. Flip over and cook the other side for just about a minute. If you find they are cooking too fast, just slightly turn down the heat.
- These are very tender upon just coming off the pan, so give them a few minutes before eating so they firm up. They firm up a lot more after they've sat several minutes.
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These were really good! Nice and fluffy too. I only had cornmeal so I used that. Will make again in the future with corn flour to see the difference (perhaps less grainy, which I don’t mind). Thanks for sharing recipe
Awesome! Yes, corn flour makes things soft and fluffy, cornmeal is very grainy.
I am eager to try out this recipe. Can I substitute cornstarch for arrowroot powder?
I tested these with cornstarch and did not love the texture, the arrowroot by far gave the fluffiest texture. You can certainly try, but they did turn out more dense.
Can I use oat milk instead of coconut milk?
I haven’t tried it so I don’t know if they will turn out as fluffy since coconut milk is creamier and higher fat. Let me know if you try it!
Could these be made into waffles?
I’ve not tried it, but I think so!