This morning I had this sudden craving for pancakes. I’m not sure where it came from but I assume it stemmed from a desire to switch up my normal breakfast. I’ve also been in a nostalgia mood lately and one of my favourite food memories growing up is my dad’s passion for pancakes. He was so good at making them the perfect texture of fluffiness, and just knew how to create the perfect pancake.

It’s been years since I’ve had a “dad pancake” as I started making my own healthier versions (usually in the form of banana pancakes) and wasn’t always able to digest regular pancake batter. However that doesn’t mean the cravings don’t hit sometimes.

I was first set on making simple banana pancakes with bananas, oats and eggs, but I’ve had this buckwheat flour I’ve been wanting to use and I like to attempt vegan recipes as much as possible so I thought: challenge accepted.

This is the perfect recipe if you have a gluten, egg or dairy allergy or are vegan. I find these to have the perfect combination texture of fluffy and dense to be satisfying and filling.

Ingredients Highlights

Buckwheat flour

Buckwheat is a gluten free grain that sits in the same family as quinoa and amaranth. On it’s own, it can be cooked like quinoa or steel cut oatmeal and has a nutty flavour. It’s also quite low on the glycemic index so it won’t spike your blood sugar. There also many nutritional benefits such as manganese, copper, magnesium, iron and phosphorous. All minerals that play an essential role in the growth and repair of our muscles and tissue.

Ceylon Cinnamon

I wanted to highlight this because I don’t think enough people know that the cinnamon you buy at the supermarket often isn’t even real cinnamon! Ceylon cinnamon is native to parts of Sri Lanka and India and has that strong, spicy flavour that you normally would associate cinnamon to; whereas most supermarket cinnamon is a lower quality from Indonesia or China where it’s mass produced. Ceylon cinnamon is made from the inner bark of the Cinnamon tree and has a stronger taste. The best place to find Ceylon cinnamon or “true cinnamon” is at a health food store like Holland and Barrett, or most local health food stores and spice shops will have it. The benefits of choosing Ceylon cinnamon is the antioxidant enzymes it contains and just like buckwheat, it’s low on the glycemic index and keeps your blood sugar stabilised.

Apple Cider Vinegar

A staple in my kitchen. I haven’t gone without ACV for years because it does so much. It’s active cultures are great for digestion, but it’s particularly good in this pancake recipe because of it’s acidic effects. As it mixes with the baking powder, it creates a natural rising effect making the pancakes fluffy and soft.

Maple Syrup

Growing up in Canada, I'm serious about my maple syrup. It’s my sweetener of choice when baking and I’ve even had it in my coffee sometimes… don’t knock it til you try it. It’s delicious. I also love that it’s a lower glycemic sweetener than most other sugars, so again stabilises blood sugar. Have you noticed I kind of love a low glycemic life? Anyway, the key to finding good maple syrup is making sure it’s 100% maple syrup and not “maple flavouring” or anything that contains high fructose corn syrup. That just deserves to go straight to the garbage. The local health food store is your best bet to finding high quality, legit maple syrup.

Okay back to the pancakes…

This recipe is quite simple and it’s likely you have almost everything in your pantry already.

Note: the pancake batter is thicker than packaged pancake batter so you’ll need to add a bit more effort to spread across the pan yourself. These also come out more dense than regular pancakes but are still fluffy and delicious.

This is just a baseline recipe but I highly suggest adding in your own ingredients to it like almond butter, cacao powder or even some superfood powders if you have them. I would personally add mace powder, lucuma and cacao nibs for added crunch and magnesium benefits.

I hope you enjoy this vegan, dairy free, gluten free and egg free pancakes that will keep you full and energised without spiking your blood sugar, and get intuitive with your add ins! Let me know if you try the recipe and like it in the comments below.

With love,

M xx