Blueberry Lemon Pancakes are a fresh and flavourful taste for spring. These are gluten, Dairy, top 8 free AND vegan!!!
Jump to:
- Why We Like This Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Pancake Recipe
- Ingredients for Blueberry Lemon Pancakes
- Substitutions for Blueberry Lemon Pancakes
- Directions and Tips on Batter Thinning
- Adaptations on Flavours and More
- Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Pancake Storage and Reheating
- Other Recipes You May Enjoy
- 📖 Recipe
Why We Like This Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Pancake Recipe
I love pancakes and so does our family. We could eat them everyday at every meal, and sometimes do have “breakfast for dinner”. With so many pancakes getting made in our house we love to get creative with the flavours we use.
These taste like a cake to us, they are so popular with our kids we often have to double the recipe. The recipe makes 12 good sized pancakes when we make it. It also doubles really well.
My ultimate favourite springtime fresh taste is blueberry and lemon. In this recipe the lemon flavour comes from the use of lemon zest in the recipe and in the lemon sugar.
Ingredients for Blueberry Lemon Pancakes
Making Lemon Sugar
To make lemon sugar mix 1 cup granulated sugar with the zest of one lemon. To get the best lemon sugar flavour let it sit at least overnight. It can be stored in jars and should be shaken daily or the oils from the lemons will cause it to clump up.
The first few days I put a paper coffee filter between the jar lid and the rim of the jar to let extra moisture escape the jar from the lemons. After the few days I take away the coffee and store it sealed. If you forget to shake it to keep it loose, I can usually break it up with a spoon. On really tough clumps I throw it in the food processor to break it up.
I often forget to shake the sugar daily because who really has time to shake all the extracts and sugars I make!
What Kinds of Blueberries are Best to Use
The recipe is best with fresh blueberries but if you use dried blueberries steep them in just boiled hot water for 10-20 mins until re-hydrated, drain the water and dry the outsides on a paper kitchen towel. Toss in 1 Tbsps of your flour from the recipe, then fold it in this will help them not sink to the bottom of the bowl and the colour may not bleed as much.
Frozen blueberries are not recommended as they will colour the blueberry lemon pancakes and change the moisture in the mix. If you do use them thaw completely, drain, and try to dry as much as possible with paper kitchen towels being careful not to mush them. They tend to keep a lot of water when frozen and thawed, cutting back on a bit of the thinning water would be best.
I would add the blueberries, then the thinning water if using frozen. Their colour will seep and they will not be as firm as fresh blueberries. You could try to coat them in flour to help mitigate the colour change, like with dried blueberries.
Substitutions for Blueberry Lemon Pancakes
Gluten free oat milk, rice milk, the refrigerated drinking coconut milk, or any other non dairy milk will work in this recipe. If none of the milks are suitable, water can be substituted instead. If you do use all water take 2 teaspoons of neutral safe oil and add it with the water to add a bit of fat.
Directions and Tips on Batter Thinning
When mixing the ingredients the batter will thicken as it sits. Adding more water to thin the batter as you cook up the gluten free blueberry pancakes will solve that issue. Thin to your desired viscosity. I like the batter fairly thin as too thick and the gluten free blueberry pancakes are fluffy but won't cook in the middle.
Adaptations on Flavours and More
Change the fruit and the sugar flavours for various taste variations. Strawberry and vanilla, cardamum and orange, raspberry chocolate, to name a few. Any in season fruit can be used as long as it isn't too wet, like watermelon.
A variation we do a lot on these blueberry lemon pancakes is to put them in a doughnut baking mould or as a muffin or loaf. They take around 13 minutes for doughnuts to 18 minutes for thicker muffins and loaves.
Making the gluten free pancakes into breakfast doughnuts is often our go to for breakfast for dinner. It frees up the stove top for sausage cooking. The baking method also means we can do 12 (6 in each pan) straight away and feed the brood all at once. This is also a preferred method for kids sleep over parties. You can feed many kids quickly and they find doughnuts for breakfast such fun.
Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Pancake Storage and Reheating
Storage Ideas
-Fridge
The blueberry lemon pancakes can be stored in the fridge
-Freezer
We have made them in advance as they do freeze well for a month and can be kept in the fridge for 72 hours and re-heated to serve. Use a well sealing container to store the blueberry lemon pancakes in the freezer.
Reheating Tips
-Toaster
If the gluten free blueberry pancakes are thawed I often pop them in to the toaster to heat them up for breakfast or a quick snack. We have a toaster that is just used for our top 8 allergen safe foods as it is difficult to clean and can pose a risk for crumbs for foods that aren't safe for all in our family.
- Microwave
35-45 Seconds in the microwave to warm up the pancakes. The blueberry lemon pancakes are best if 2-3 are on a microwave safe dish.
What To Serve With
Other Recipes You May Enjoy
Allergen Friendly Double Chocolate Muffins
If you make this recipe please let us know in the comments.
📖 Recipe
Blueberry Lemon Pancakes- Vegan, GF/DF/EF, Top 8 Free
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsps ground Flax or psyllium husk based egg replacer mixed with 4 Tbsps water to make flax eggs
- ¼ C Lemon Sugar see blog above for how to make it
- ¼ C neutral oil canola or rapeseed
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 C Gluten free all purpose flour with xanthan gum
- 2 tablespoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 C Oat Milk Gluten free or other safe plant milk
- ⅓-½ C cold water to thin mix extra water from what is used with flax egg mix
- 1 C fresh blueberries
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk ground flax or psyllium husk with 4 Tbsps water until fully mixed and not clumpy. It may take a few minutes.
- Add lemon sugar, continue to hand beat with whisk.
- Mix in oil, vanilla, and lemon zest until combined well.
- Sift in GF flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir to combine.
- Pour in Oat Milk and stir with a large baking spoon until just combined.
- Add water until desired thinness and stir until just combined. (I like my batter thinner as it cooks through nicely but still gives fluffy pancakes. I use around ⅓-½ C of water)
- Fold in fresh blueberries. Do not overmix.
- Heat a frying pan on medium heat and spray the pan with neutral oil. When heated, pour ¼ C batter in each pancake round, leaving room around each as they will spread slightly.
- Flip pancakes when they start to bubble and cook the other side. When the blueberries start to release juice. Flip back to the original cooked side and cook slightly on that side until the berry juices run a bit on that side too.
Have you made this recipe? Please leave a comment and us know how much you liked it.