Vegan Peanut Butter Pancakes that are gluten-free and filled with dairy-free chocolate chips. These are oil-free, fluffy, light and gluten-free. They will remind you of a chocolate chip cookie!
VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER PANCAKES
These Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes are to die for, like totally legit. They are SO good, they are definitely reserved for a special treat, because they are borderline a vegan dessert.
These are definitely an impressive, crowd-pleasing vegan breakfast recipe to wow your friends and family with! Many readers have given me the title “pancake queen” and while it sounds really funny, it is because I create delicious vegan pancake recipes. Vegan pancakes are usually quite dense and gummy and undercooked in the middle, due to the lack of eggs. Since I was a pancake-making queen back in the day before I was vegan (just ask my family!), my standards to create just as delicious vegan versions is quite high. They have to be fluffy and delicious and in no way, detectable they are vegan. That can be tricky and requires the right ratio of ingredients. This is even more important when you are dealing with vegan and gluten-free pancakes.
But I have created many delicious vegan pancake recipes that will amaze you. These Fluffy Vegan Whole Wheat Pancakes are my family’s favorite for years. And these Best Ever Vegan Pancakes are so good, you’ll be in pancake heaven!
I wanted to use this vegan 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Caramel in another recipe, so these vegan gluten-free pancakes were the perfect breakfast to top with the amazing caramel.
I’ve shared how I created this magical gluten-free flour combo I came up with. Not only does it give an amazing texture, it is ONLY 2 ingredients. What?! Oat flour and starch, yup, that’s where it’s at. That’s all you need!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
(Full amounts on recipe card below.)
- Superfine oat flour
- Potato starch: Making pancakes with all oat flour will result in quite dense and gummy pancakes. I know a lot of vegan recipes rely solely on oat flour, but if you don’t mind gummy pancakes, then go for it. I personally am very picky with textures and they are just way better when combing oat flour with starch. It makes them much softer and fluffier. Since oat flour can give dense results, the best starch to offset that is potato starch. It makes such fabulous fluffy results.
- Baking powder
- Natural peanut butter: You want a peanut butter that does not have any added sugar or oil. Salt is okay.
- Maple syrup: Using pure maple syrup instead of refined sugar here.
- Unsweetened applesauce: This replaces oil and helps to make these pancakes moist, so they can be oil-free.
- Vanilla extract
- Dairy-free mini chocolate chips: I used the Enjoy Life brand.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER PANCAKES
Step 1: To a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk well.
Step 2: To a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Step 3: Combine the wet with the dry and stir just until mixed, but do not overmix.
Step 4: Heat up a pan over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, minimum. It’s important at this time to let the batter sit fully while the pan heats up. This allows the batter to absorb and react with the baking powder, which will result in better cooked-through and fluffy pancakes. Do not skip this!
Step 5: Add either a 1/4 cup or 1/3 measuring cup (depending on how big you want them) to the preheated pan and cook 3-4 minutes or until the top is looking dry all over. Flip and cook another 1-2 minutes. Repeat with all the batter. I use and love my pancake griddle. It never sticks and requires no oil!
Cook the caramel and drizzle on top of the vegan peanut butter pancakes for the ultimate breakfast!
TIPS FOR FLUFFY PANCAKES
- Use store-bought or superfine oat flour. Gritty oat flour will result in dense pancakes and they will be a lot less fluffy.
- Use a scale following my gram weights. Doing this will ensure the right ratios so the pancakes turn out as the recipe is written.
- Don’t sub the ingredients.
- Don’t over mix the batter. With oat-based pancakes, overmixing oat flour batters can make them turn gummy, so mix just until moistened and blended.
- Let the batter rest. Make sure to let the pan heat up while the batter sits. Doing so will result in fluffy pancakes that are cooked through and not underdone or gummy in the middle.
- Don’t flip them too soon. Low and slow is best for vegan, especially gluten-free pancakes. Rushing this will result in pancakes overcooking on the outside before the inside cooks. Follow my directions below and they will help you out!
MORE VEGAN PANCAKE RECIPES TO TRY
- Best Vegan Fluffy Pancakes
- Vegan Gingerbread Pancakes
- Fluffy Vegan Blueberry Pancakes
- Vegan Sweet Potato Pancakes
- Vegan Gluten-free Pumpkin Pancakes
- Vegan Gluten-free Buttermilk Pancakes
Vegan Peanut Butter Pancakes (Gluten-free!)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (192g) superfine oat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
- 1/4 cup (40g) potato starch
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (96g) peanut butter (or use almond butter, but it will make them slightly more tender)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (120g) pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2-3/4 cup water (if using almond butter it is only 1/2 cup, but with peanut butter or the all-purpose flour version, you may need up to 3/4 cup)
- 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (50g) mini dairy-free chocolate chips
PEANUT BUTTER CARAMEL
- 1/2 cup (120g) pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup (64g) creamy peanut butter-mine has added salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt if your peanut butter doesn't have any
- I use this scale.
- I use this pancake griddle.
Instructions
- Add the oat flour (or all purpose flour-see note below), potato starch (or cornstarch-see note below), baking powder and salt to a large bowl and whisk really well to make sure there are no lumps.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, syrup, applesauce, water and vanilla and whisk until completely smooth. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients while whisking. Add the chocolate chips.
- The batter should be thick and smooth, but still slightly pour-able, not runny, but similar to muffin batter. If you add too much liquid, your pancakes will be flat. Important to now let the batter sit 10-15 minutes (while you heat up the pan) to let the baking powder react and absorb the other ingredients, this will make a difference in how your pancakes cook and fluff up, trust me. While the batter is sitting, begin heating up your pan over medium-low, closer to low.
- For extra fluffy pancakes, I use a 4.5 inch round cookie cutter. You will get 8 large pancakes this way (using 1/3 measuring cup). It truly makes a perfect, fluffy round and evenly-cooked pancake. You don't have to do this, but please know that your pancakes will not look quite as fluffy as in the photos without a cookie cutter. If you make more traditional medium size pancakes, you should get 12-14 pancakes, using a 1/4 measuring cup. Pour the batter in and immediately smooth out the top with the back of a spoon (if using the cookie cutter). Let it cook for 3-4 minutes or until the sides have started to dry up, you don't want to flip it too soon or they won't cook all the way through.
- For the caramel: Add all of the ingredients to a small sauce pan and turn the heat to medium. Whisk until smooth and combined. Once the mixture starts to bubble, let it cook for about a minute just until it starts to thicken, that's it! Don't cook it too long or it will get overly thick. This caramel will thicken even more as it sits, so just gently reheat it or add some plant milk to thin it out some, if desired.
Notes
- Nut-free: sub with sunbutter. I have also made these with almond butter and they are just as delicious, just slightly more fragile since it's less sticky than peanut butter.
- To make with regular all-purpose flour: Omit the potato starch completely and use the same weight amount as the oat flour for all-purpose flour (192g).
- Cornstarch: Potato starch will yield the best fluffiest pancakes, but if you cannot find this (I linked above to the one I order), sub with cornstarch. But since cornstarch weighs less per tablespoon than potato starch, you can either follow the same weight amount of 40 grams, or if you don't have a scale, you will need 5 tablespoons.
- Nutrition: Nutrition stats do not include the caramel since some may or may not make it and it will vary how much a person uses greatly.
Nutrition
The Vegan 8 is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see my full disclosure policy here.
These were incredible. Many idea if I can turn these into a muffin and how?
Hi Val! That is wonderful to hear! I have never tested these as muffins, but I would suggest baking them at 350°F in nonstick parchment paper liners for 15-20 minutes OR until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I don’t know how many muffins the batter would make, but fill them about 2/3 full.
These are amazing! I skipped the sauce, delicious without. I added 1-2 TB of chia seeds and ground flax to add in some extra nutrients. I skipped the choc chips because I was craving just plain PB pancakes. They came out BEAUTIFULLY and beyond yum. Thank you! 🙂
So happy you loved them, thank you Caroline!