Light & fluffy cornbread pancakes that can be made sweet or savory – perfect for breakfast or dinner!
The secret addition of vinegar in these pancakes makes them irresistibly light and fluffy – without needing any oil whatsoever!
If you want to get all scientific: basically what happens when you add vinegar to the pancake batter is that it will react with the baking soda to create carbon dioxide. In other words, the baking soda is alkaline and the vinegar is an acid, so when they combine in a mixture, it will bubble up. (Remember making volcanoes in elementary school???)
The bubbles expand the batter, causing it to rise – Voilà! Fluffy pancakes!
Or exploding volcanoes…
Science that pertains to everyday life—especially the science of baking—is completely fascinating to me. Not so much, moles and electrons. I still don’t really know how I got through AP chemistry in high school.
If you want the not-so-scientific explanation for including the vinegar in these pancakes: it just means you’re making homemade buttermilk. So think of these pancakes as buttermilk cornbread pancakes. Which sounds quite a bit better than vinegar cornbread pancakes.
And don’t worry – you don’t taste the vinegar in the pancakes once they’re cooked.
For many more healthy pancake recipes, including Apple Pie Pancakes, Blueberry Cheesecake Pancakes, and Brownie Batter Pancakes, have fun checking out the link above. All of my favorite pancake recipes are included on this page.
I kind of really love pancakes.
This question seems to come up a lot: Yes, you can make the batter up the night before, leave it covered in the fridge, and cook the pancakes in the morning.
You can also cook up the pancakes, put them in a container with a piece of parchment paper separating each pancake, and freeze them for another day. Just reheat them in the oven before serving.
Cornbread Pancakes
Adapted from Healthy Corn Muffins
Fluffy Cornbread Pancakes – Oil-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegan!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp milk of choice
- 1 tbsp oil or additional milk of choice
- 1 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- pinch uncut stevia OR 1 tbsp maple syrup (If using maple syrup, omit 1 tbsp of milk)
- 1/2 cup corn kernels, fresh or canned or frozen (50g)
- 1/4 cup fine cornmeal, whole-grain if desired (40g)
- 1/4 cup oat flour (To make oat flour, grind oats in a food processor until a fine flour forms) (30g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
Instructions
*If you want savory pancakes, feel free to omit the sweetener and add some garlic, chives, nutritional yeast, cheese-style shreds, onion powder, or any other spices you wish.
Whisk together the first 4 ingredients, then let sit for at least 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients. Pour dry into wet, stir to form a batter, then let thicken in the fridge 10-12 minutes (important). Grease a non-stick skillet very well, then turn heat to low. Cook pancakes on low about 2 1/2 minutes, then flip for another minute. It’s a good idea to re-grease the pan after each batch.
Link Of The Day:
Healthy Pumpkin Pie (the extra-creamy recipe)
Alison says
Why do you have so many photos before the recipe? Can you please put one to start and the rest at the end for people who just want to get the instructions? Thank you!
Lisa says
Maybe because it’s her blog and she can do whatever she wants? Or maybe because you’re not paying anything for the recipe so it’s pretty rude to complain? Or maybe because readers like me enjoy the photography? Just three possibilities.
Alison says
Thank you, Lisa, for pointing out that it’s not my blog! I offered my comment because while I’m “not paying anything” for the recipe, I can choose to go to thousands of other similar-enough blogs that offer a quicker experience, aka photos after the recipe. Also, since Katie makes a living from the number of readers who read/use her blog, it behooves her to pay attention to time-consuming metrics such as what I mentioned. Lastly, I took time out of my busy day to provide some constructive criticism. Calling me rude, Lisa, is neither constructive nor polite. Obviously you missed it that I said “please.” If you don’t have anything useful to say (as I did with a potentially profit-enhancing suggestion) please don’t say anything at all as it creates bad feelings and introduces a “blanketing” effect on people wanting to provide comments.
Rose says
Photos get my appetite going…love them !
Laura says
What would you think of substituting teff or sorghum flour for the oat flour? I can’t eat oat. I am think ing the family might like these with some jalapenos and scallions for the savory version..
Julie Dove says
Definitely feel free to experiment! Let us know how it goes if you do!
Laura says
I substituted sorghum flour for the oat flour and I do not recommend it. Mine were not fluffy and pretty much fell apart. I may try again with buckwheat or teff.
Larisa says
hi Laura – my coeliac friends and family cannot eat oat either. I made these with half buckwheat flour and half a commercial (Orgran) gluten free flour – I doubled the recipe. I also used fine polenta for the cornmeal. They turned out really well, but putting in the fridge to firm up was a big help in making the mixture firm and less ‘fall-apartable’ (not sure that’s a word!) kind regards, Larisa
Lisa says
Hi when you say cheese-style shreds, do you mean something like Daiya? Thanks.
Julie Dove says
Yes Daiya would be one example 🙂
AZ@... And A Dash of Cinnamon says
Yay for fluffy pancakes!
Joanne says
I love cornbread pancakes, and I like that you added oat flour, too.
Nadia says
They look delish! Cornbread isn’t a ‘thing’ here in the UK so I’ve never tried it, but I’m going to have to try this recipe 😀
Whitney says
Hey Katie, I was making breakfast with your healthy Nutella a few minutes ago, and a weird thought popped into my head: your Nutella recipe is excellent. Your healthy deep dish cookie dough pies are to die for. What if you put them together and made Healthy Deep Dish Nutella Cookie Dough Pie???
Since I don’t have FaceBook or any other social media account (except Pinterest, where I first discovered you :-D), I didn’t know where else to post it except here. I hope that’s okay?
Carlene says
Hello Katie,
Can not wait to give this a try. Is cornmeal the same as polenta? and/ or can I use polenta as a substitute for cornmeal in this recipe?
Thank you!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Yes, same thing 🙂
You want to look for fine polenta as opposed to course.
Carlene says
Perfect! Thank you!
Medicare Number says
Wow! Looks delicious. Thank you for sharing!
Cassie says
I don’t know if I’m more of a mini pancake person or a ginormous pancake person, LOL! But either way, I’d TOTALLY try these out!
Larisa says
Hi Katie – I made these for a group of kids, one of whom is coeliac and dairy-free. They went down a treat! I added parsley and a few savoury yeast flakes too to make them extra savoury.
My kids go to an Ananda Marga school (no onion/garlic/meat/egg) and have a bake sale on Friday. Do you know if these pikelets will freeze well? I’m pretty time-poor in the week but could make these in advance to freeze, and a vegan gluten-free option at the bake stall would be great for the vegans at the school and the few coeliacs. thanks for your advice! Kind regards, Larisa
Julie Dove says
yes they freeze well
Kari Ani says
Can you use any GF Flour, or do you have to use Oat?
Julie Dove says
You can definitely experiment with different types of flour to see what differences will come about, and please be sure to report back if you do experiment!
Mariana says
I made this for breakfast today, as I was out of any oats I subbed the oat flour with almond flour but I think the oats would’ve worked better. As for the serving size I had four and a half pancakes and they were small compared to the ones I typically make
Eva says
Thanks for sharing how many servings you’re got out of the recipe. I’m in the middle of letting the batter rest in the fridge and it just seems very little. Looking forward to try them though.
Victor says
These were the best pancakes I ever made… and I’ve tried pancakes in many flavors: apple, blueberry, chocolate chip, cheesecake, and chocolate. All those were delicious, but, even I was taken by surprise when these were my favorite pancakes I ever had. I could eat them every morning.
Cam says
I only got three pancakes,are these silver dollar Size typically?
Javonni says
Could I make these without the corn kernels?
Javonni says
Could I leave the corn out?
Efi Sarris says
Hello! I was wondering what the nutritional information is for the whole recipe? I only see the nutrition facts per pancake.
Nicole says
Definitely different, but good! i doubled the recipe and it only made four pancakes or two servings for me, but I also make larger sized pancakes normally. The pancakes are a little loose and come out a bit like fritters in my opinion. I used cashew milk and did one tablespoon of maple syrup instead of another tablespoon of milk. I also added blueberries and did not add any corn.