These Vegan Gluten-free Pumpkin Pancakes are the best! They have coffee in them, so they actually taste like a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, but in pancake form. They are gluten-free, oil-free and grain-free and just 8 ingredients! So soft and fluffy!
VEGAN GLUTEN FREE PUMPKIN PANCAKES
The only thing that is equally as delicious as Vegan Pumpkin Cake and Vegan Pumpkin Bread and of course, these Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, are these Vegan Pumpkin Spice Pancakes. These pancakes are soft, fluffy, tender and full of rich pumpkin spices.
These are basically the pumpkin coffee version of my Vegan Sweet Potato Pancakes. I used the same grain-free pancake flour combo and these are every bit as delicious. You only need 8 ingredients.
These pancakes are not only oil-free and gluten-free, but they are also coconut-free and grain-free! That’s right, no coconut milk was used to make these. Since the fat source comes from the almond flour, I didn’t need to use coconut milk.
If you don’t like the taste of coffee, no worries, my hubby doesn’t like coffee and didn’t even realize their was coffee in them. In fact, the coffee just makes the spices and flavor richer and more robust, without tasting like a cup of coffee. We all loved them so much. You can totally sub in milk for the coffee though, if you prefer.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
(Only 8 main ingredients needed. Full details and measurements on the recipe card below.)
- strong brewed and cooled coffee
- pumpkin puree
- pure maple syrup
- vanilla extract
- blanched almond flour
- potato starch
- baking powder
- pumpkin pie spice
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PUMPKIN PANCAKES
Step 1: Prepare your coffee and cool to room temperature.
Step 2: To a medium bowl, add the pumpkin, syrup and vanilla. Stir well until smooth.
Step 4: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well until smooth. Add the chocolate chips if using. The batter should be fairly thick, similar to a muffin batter.
Important: You must let the batter sit for 10-15 minutes before cooking the pancakes. This gives time for the baking powder and starch to soak up the liquid, which in turn produces a fluffy, well cooked pancake.
Step 5: While the batter is sitting, heat up a nonstick pan over medium-low heat, closest to low. Let the pan heat up for 10 minutes. Add about a 1/4 cup of batter to the pan and quickly smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the top is looking dry and the edges are dry and firm. Flip over and cook another 2 minutes. Repeat.
CAN YOU FREEZE THESE VEGAN PANCAKES?
Since these contain a high amount of potato starch, they do not freeze well. High starch recipes like desserts or pancakes will dry out really badly and crumble a lot when freezing. It is best to eat these fresh when just made.
MORE VEGAN PANCAKE RECIPES
- Best Vegan Fluffy Pancakes (made with pastry flour and coconut milk)
- Best Vegan Pancakes Recipe (my favorite of all-time, NO coconut milk)
- Vegan Gluten-free Buttermilk Pancakes
- Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- Fluffy Vegan Blueberry Pancakes
- Gluten-free Corn Flour Pancakes
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Vegan Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (180g) strong cooled coffee (see Notes)
- 1/4 cup (60g) canned pumpkin puree
- 4 tablespoons (80g) pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (168g) superfine blanched almond flour (see NOTES)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (100g) potato starch
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 tablespoons mini dairy-free chocolate chips (optional)
NOTE
- Always use a scale for accuracy following MY gram weights listed. You never need cups, just the scale and bowl and make sure to zero out in between each ingredient.
- I use this scale.
- I use this pancake griddle. It NEVER sticks.
Instructions
- First, prepare your coffee and let it cool to room temperature. Add to a medium bowl with the pumpkin, syrup and vanilla. Stir well until smooth and no more lumps.
- In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, potato starch, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and whisk really well making sure there are no lumps remaining. When measuring the almond flour and potato starch, make sure to scoop out the ingredients with your measuring cup, pat down and then level off. Or use a kitchen scale for best results.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well until smooth. Add the chocolate chips if using. The batter should be fairly thick, similar to a muffin batter.
- Let the batter sit about 10-15 minutes, as this will yield more fluffy and better cooked through pancakes. The batter will thicken more. This gives time for the baking powder and starch to soak up the liquid, which in turn produces a fluffy, well cooked pancake.
- Heat up the pancake griddle or a nonstick pan while the batter sits. I use a high-quality pancake griddle (linked above) that requires no spray, but your pan may need some.
- Use an ice cream scoop or heaping 1/4 cup of batter and cook each pancake 3-4 minutes over medium-low (closer to low) heat until the top forms bubbles and the edges are dry. Flip and cook another 1-2 minutes. Lower the heat if they are cooking too fast.
- The key to these cooking through is to cook them over the low heat to allow the centers to fully cook through. These can be very finicky and not cook through if you cook them too fast or high of a heat. Leave the pancakes to sit 5 minutes or so before eating, as they will fluff up more as they cool a bit. These pancakes are even better the next day, as potato starch based recipes get even fluffier as they sit!
Notes
- Coffee sub: To make this without coffee, sub the 3/4 cup coffee with 3/4-1 cup "lite" coconut milk or another preferred creamy milk instead and decrease the syrup to 3 tablespoons.
- Almond flour: As noted above, a superfine flour is really important here. I've tried brands that aren't very fine and the pancakes are much more dense. I recommend the King Arthur Flour, Honeyville, Wellbees, Nuts.com brands the most.
- I originally wrote this recipe in 2014 and made them with a 4.5 inch cookie cutter, which makes perfectly round and super tall/fluffy pancakes. I don't do that anymore, to save time, but it is a great way to get amazingly extra fluffy "cakes" if you want to give it a try. Just make sure to spray nonstick spray on the inside of the cookie cutter before adding the batter, otherwise, it will stick badly. Wait until the tops are looking dry before flipping, and use tongs to lift up the cookie cutter.
These are incredible!!! What a creative recipe Brandi! The depth of flavor from the coffee really brings out the spices and the pumpkin…and the texture is so light just like your other pancake recipes….
Make these now people!
Yay! So glad you loved these Emily, thank you so much for the awesome review!
Whipped these together without preplanning and they came out so good! I actually ran out of baking powder and used 2 tsp of cream of tartar and 1 tsp of baking soda. No coffee here, so replaced with milk. They came out super fluffy and tasty. My fussy kiddos ate so many. Love recipes with scale measurements. I dislike measuring and this makes everything so exact. Thank you! Vegan8 is so reliable. I haven’t made a failed recipe yet. 🤞🏼
Looks yummy! I’ve been on a pancake spree and this will have to be next on the list 🙂 I love that now you can adjust the amount of servings when you print out the recipe. One thing I noticed though is that it doesn’t change the weight when you increase the amount of servings. 🙁 Thanks for all your amazing recipes. My fam loves everything you put out!
Made these over the weekend. Really fluffy and so tasty. No one will guess these are oil and gluten free. Everyone loved them!
So wonderful to hear you loved these Shruthi!!