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Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes (Vegan)

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Craving some yummy buttermilk pancakes on the weekend but you have food allergies? Make our Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes! Our buttermilk pancakes are also tree nut free, dairy free, egg free, vegan, and can be made sugar free as well)

photo collage of gluten free vegan buttermilk pancakes

Hey friends, I hope you’ve had a great week so far! It’s been a little while since I made a pancake recipe, so I’m excited to share this one with you!

Pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast treats to make since they are so easy to put together and their are so many variations of them to suit many tastes. Plus, they are so easy to make allergy friendly!

Our vegan buttermilk pancake recipe is inspired by this amazing recipe from Oh Sweet Basil. I make those pancakes regularly for my kids and husband just revised a little to make them dairy free. I’m pretty sure I’ve made those pancakes over 30 times, they are a family favorite!

drizzling syrup on gluten free pancakes on a marble plate

Their recipe for pancakes is pretty awesome, but I wanted to make a gluten free version of it, so I created these really easy Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes.

Our buttermilk pancakes are not quite as fluffy as the original since they don’t have eggs (which add some lift to recipes), but they are still quite delicious and allergy friendly.

You can top these pancakes with your favorite dairy free butter (we’re loving the Country Crock Plant Butter these days!), some pure maple syrup, or some homemade apple butter.

The Country Crock plant butter sticks don’t have soybean oil in them (they may contain soy), but the Country Crock Plant Butter tubs do have soy in them. So if you have soy allergies, read the labels on those before buying. Earth Balance Soy Free is another great option as well!

overhead photo of pancakes with butter and syrup on them

How to make gluten free buttermilk pancakes

In our recipe for gluten free buttermilk pancakes, there are no eggs or dairy, so we don’t use real buttermilk. Instead, we create our own “buttermilk” using dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. Pretty easy!

Here are the steps for making this recipe:

  1. Preheat your griddle
  2. Whisk together the dry ingredients (gluten free flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt if you’re using) in a batter bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dairy free milk, oil (or melted dairy free butter), and apple cider vinegar.
  4. Whisk the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and cook on the griddle.
  5. Serve with your favorite dairy free butter and pure maple syrup!
black cooling rack with pancakes on top

You’ll want to make sure that you use a gluten free flour blend for this recipe that has xanthan gum in it or some other kind of binder. This allows you to use just the flour blend without eggs and it will still hold together well.

If you want to make pancakes without xanthan gum or a gluten free flour blend, then check out my other pancake recipes that don’t use gluten free flour blends.

Since gluten free flour blends have starches and binders in them, this recipe won’t convert well to just plain brown rice flour or sorghum flour. So you’ll want to look for a recipe specifically made with one of those flours, like our gluten free overnight pancakes or our Apple Cider pancakes.

For these gluten free pancakes , we used the gluten free flour blend from King Arthur Flour. This works great! Make sure that you don’t add too much more salt to your batter since it already has salt and baking soda in the KAF gluten free flour blend.

stack of buttermilk pancakes with slices on a fork

I ended up adding a little salt to my pancake batter and it still turned out fine, but I’d taste test your batter a little before adding salt if your 1-to-1 gluten free baking flour has salt in it already.

What kind of dairy free milk should I use in this pancake recipe?

We used rice milk in our dairy free buttermilk pancakes, but you can use just about any type of non-dairy milk that you’d prefer: hemp milk, coconut milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc.

If you want to make these pancakes sugar free, make sure to use an unsweetened dairy free milk and replace the unbleached cane sugar with some stevia or Swerve (Swerve is made with erythritol so if you have IBS, you may want to avoid it).

stack of vegan buttermilk pancakes with text overlay

Why is there vinegar in this pancake recipe?

Since I wanted to make buttermilk pancakes, one way to create a “buttermilk” (or soured milk) is by adding 1 Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk in recipes where you’d use buttermilk. Since we don’t have dairy free buttermilk, using this method works for creating your own!

Non-dairy milk and vinegar won’t be nice and thick like dairy buttermilk is (unless you use a pretty thick dairy free milk), but it will serve the same purpose of adding some tartness to the recipe and a chemical reaction with the baking soda.

The acid in the vinegar (or buttermilk) and the base in the baking soda start a chemical reaction that creates carbon dioxide gas bubbles in the batter, making the batter a bit more airy.

You can use this trick for dairy milk as well if you’re looking for a substitute for buttermilk if you don’t have it on hand. Just add 1 Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to your dairy milk and use that in place of 1 cup of buttermilk.

Check out our other delicious pancake recipes:

Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes (Vegan)

Craving some yummy buttermilk pancakes on the weekend but you have food allergies? Make our Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes! Our buttermilk pancakes are also tree nut free, dairy free, egg free, vegan, and can be made sugar free as well).
Makes 12, 4-inch pancakes
Gluten free, vegan; Free of: dairy, eggs, soy, tree nuts, peanuts based on our ingredients
4.78 from 9 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Breakfast & Brunch
Cuisine: American
Keyword: buttermilk pancakes, gluten free pancakes, vegan pancakes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 12 pancakes
Calories: 129kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat your non-stick griddle (if using an electric griddle, set it to 325 or 350). If using a pan, preheat the pan over medium-low heat as you prepare your batter.
  • Whisk together the gluten free flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt (if you're using) in a batter bowl.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the rice milk (or other dairy free milk), oil, and apple cider vinegar.
  • Whisk the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and pour the batter by 1/4 or 1/3 cupfuls onto the griddle and cook on each side until golden in color. Remove to a cooling rack until all the pancakes are cooked.
  • Serve warm with your favorite dairy free butter and pure maple syrup or apple butter!

Notes

* The vinegar and dairy free milk together create a dairy free version of buttermilk for these pancakes.
For sugar free pancakes, use unsweetened dairy free milk and replace the sugar with Stevia or Swerve.

Nutrition

Calories: 129kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 376mg | Potassium: 67mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1mg
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8 thoughts on “Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes (Vegan)”

  1. 5 stars
    This is the BEST allergy friendly pancake recipe I have found in years! They come out so fluffy and the most similar to “regular” pancakes of the many recipes I’ve tried
    Thank you!!

    Reply
  2. 5 stars
    Wow! We loved this recipe! I used the King Arthur baking mix and FINALLY found a pancake recipe everyone loved! Thank you!!!!!

    Reply

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