I am not sure I have any business calling anything made with coconut flour “light and fluffy”. Really, have you ever worked with the stuff? If you are used to wheat flour, you will find coconut flour to be very odd stuff indeed. You’ve never seen the like, I can assure you. Oh sure, it looks like flour, all powdery and off-white. And when you open the bag and inhale that coconutty goodness, you will think it divine. And then you set about trying to develop a recipe, and you begin to wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into. If you’re smart, you don’t delve in without referencing some other coconut flour recipes first. Because this isn’t like wheat flour. Oh no, coconut flour is a different beast altogether and will take you for a wild ride if you try to treat it like regular flour. It will soak up all your liquids and oils and stay as thick as porridge. If you add more liquid, you might finally get what seems like a typical batter, but it will fall to pieces when you cook it or bake it or fry it. It will resist you, simply out of pure spite that you thought it was in any way similar to wheat flour. Think again, my friend, it taunts you…think again.
Yes, apparently I like to anthropomorphize my ingredients. Weird. Moving on…
One of the tricks to working with coconut flour is that you must use a lot of eggs. It can be shocking to see a muffin recipe that takes 6 times the typical amount of eggs. Yes, it’s true, you can often use up a whole dozen eggs when working with coconut flour. And unlike some low carb, gluten free recipes that rely on a lot of eggs, your end result won’t be rubbery at all. Coconut flour is like a sponge when it comes to eggs and other liquids, it just keeps on soaking them up. If you add just oil or milk or water, you might get something that resembles a typical batter, but it won’t hold together at all. But add more eggs and you might just get something that works.
I’ve made coconut flour pancakes before and they were rather ho-hum. I wanted to attempt them again and make them better, simply as a gluten free breakfast option for my kids. I am not a huge pancake fan, but my kids adore them. So I consulted a number of different recipes, and then went with my gut. I know the basics of working with coconut flour, so when my batter turned out too thick and porridge-y, I made sure to add more eggs along with more liquid. Still, I added them to the pan with some trepidation, wondering if they would hold together well enough to flip over, always a risk with gluten free pancakes.
The Results: Thankfully, they held together perfectly, although I did keep them on the small side (no more than 3 to 4 inches in diameter). I was also impressed with how well they browned and how they rose a little during cooking. They ended up having a lightness in texture that surprised me. They are still dense and filling as pancakes go, because coconut flour is mostly fiber and, as such, fills you up quickly. But they were really good and my kids didn’t distinguish them at all from regular pancakes. And I enjoyed them quite a bit too, with some butter and sugar free syrup. I will tell you, this pancake recipe is a keeper.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 3 tbsp granulated erythritol (I used Swerve)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Additional butter or oil for the pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together coconut flour, erythritol, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter, almond milk and vanilla extract. Add the egg mixture to the coconut flour mixture and stir well to combine.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and brush with vegetable oil or melted butter. Scoop two heaping tablespoons of batter onto skillet and spread into a 3 to 4 inch circle. Repeat until you can't fit any more pancakes into the skillet (you should be able to get 3 or 4 in).
- Cook until bottom is golden brown and top is set around the edges. Flip carefully and continue to cook until second side is golden brown. Remove from pan and keep warm on plate or baking sheet in oven, while repeating with remaining batter.
Notes
Serves 6 (about 12 pancakes, 2 per serving). Each serving has a total of 6.8 g of carbs and 3.3 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 3.5 g.
I am Carolyn, a writer, runner, mother and diabetic. I am also the evil mastermind behind this blog. I live for food. Join me in my experiments in creating delicious low carb, gluten free recipes. 
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I've never worked with coconut flour before but I'm willing to give it a shot! These DO look very fluffy and delicious
Coconut flour is really tricky to work with. Recently, I came up with a coconut cupcake recipe after talking with someone in Bob's Red Mill test kitchen and they gave me some tips. I mixed the coconut flour with almond flour and brown rice flour for a lighter texture. That way, you don't need as many eggs either.
Could you tell me what the ratio was? How do the ingredients change when you add the almond and brown rice flour? How many eggs?
Every time I read your posts I wish I lived closer to my family so I could make what you've made for them. My brother, who has been carb-free for over fifteen years, would flip for these and my mom, who's just been diagnosed with diabetes, NEEDS them.
i can't wait to try these!
These look perfect Carolyn! Great job on figuring out what sound like an incredible recipe!
I have never used coconut flour so thanks for the heads up! And I would love to make these pancakes once I find erythritol…
Oh, but they do look light and fluffy! Those are truly gorgeous pancakes.
Oh wow, I must try these. So gorgeous and coconut is one of my faves. You did a wonderful job with these.
Hey Erin, you can make the pancakes with sugar if you like! That would work just fine.
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Ok great! Didn't realize that was a sugar substitute. Out of the loop.
I am making these now, but the batter is pretty runny…they are tasty, but are more like a crepe than a fluffy pancake.
Added a bit more flour and now they are behaving. They are great!
Made these this morning and they are absolutely delicious! (Added one extra tablespoon of coconut flour to thicken the batter). I think these are the best low carb pancakes I have ever had
We might be using different brands of coconut flour. What did you use? Sometimes that makes a difference, I think.
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Oh yay, so glad you liked them. I wonder if different brands of coconut flour behave differently?
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Awesome looking pancakes, just how I like them..Never used coconut flour, only oil which I love!
Thanks..
I often think my coconut flour is spiteful
Awesome pancakes, darling! Buzzed!
Thanks for asking/answering my question! I was wondering about erythritol myself! never heard of it. We have Stevia in our house, so I'll try it with that. I have all hte other ingredients. Just got coconut flour and am trying different things for low carb! Such a find!
I've read that different coconut flour brands vary quite a bit in fiber content, by as much as 50%! Some cheaper, less reputable manufacturers will resort to this cheap "trick." Even if you watch your carbs, you don't want to go with one too high in fiber, else it will no longer behave like flour. A "typical" good quality coconut flour will have in the neighborhood of 1.5 – 2 carbs per tablespoon, roughly speaking. If you see some with one carb or less per tablespoon, you mostly have coconut fiber, which is fine -for the right application, but probably not for these delicious pancakes! Just my observation, based on trial and error(s!). Hope this helps. Gabriela
Plain stevia will work fine as a sweetener, but it does have a little bit of a licorice-y aftertaste. Just FYI. I don't mind it but some people do.
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Hi Gabriela…I used Bob's Red Mill this time (I usually use Tropical Traditions but both are quality brands). It has 4 g of carbs per tbsp (8 per serving of 2 tbsp) and 2.5 g of fiber per tbsp. It worked beautifully in this. I think Tropical traditions may have more fiber per serving but I bet it works well too. Might have to adjust the liquid ratio. I should play with that one a bit!
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Those look great! I've been looking for a good cf pancake recipe. Thank you.
We had these for breakfast this morning and they are exactly as described and photographed! I no longer have to search for a pancake recipe, Carolyn. My very picky teenager asked what was different and I just said, 'oh, they are make using coconut flour'. He's had real maple syrup while husband and mine were with the Nature's Hollow Sugar Free Maple. Thank you. And I am experimenting with refrigerating the batter for the last four pancaked in the next few days. Can't wait to see if it works.
they look wonderful and fluffy. I will have to give coconut flour a try!
Looks wonderful, Carolyn. I'm curious to try them.
Oh yay, how wonderful. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to read that someone tried a recipe and it worked out well. It makes my week!
Carolyn
Blog: All Day I Dream About Food
URL: http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com
I've been loving coconut flour lately too, but you're right it's not like wheat flour at all!
I love the idea of using coconut flour in pancakes. I am definitely going to have to give this a try.
FYI, Bob's Red Mill has 4 carbs per TWO tablespoons, at least that's what my bag shows and what their website shows, for the organic.
Wow! Gorgeous pancakes and definitely light and fluffy – something my pancakes definitely are not! A wonderful healthfood store opened near my place and now I am going to see if I can pick up these ingredients.
I am so trying these on the weekend! They really do look fluffy. I've tried lots of coconut flour pancake recipes before but didn't really like them. The best I could do was part almond flour, part coconut flour. Those were yummy and I love that recipe but these need to be made! So fluffy looking.
Thanks for the recipe. They taste wonderful!
Nice thank you! Gluten-free pancakes were the first thing I learned to make when I went GF. Without guidance it took 2 tries to get it right, wish I had known about your blog before I attempted them.
I have been getting up the nerve to work with coconut flour. These look perfect!
These pancakes look so fluffy, will have to get my hands on some coconut flour and give them a go
I made them yesterday with some blueberries and normal cow's milk and they were very tasty! They were fluffy and had a nice texture, and although I think I'm still getting used to coconut flour, I really enjoyed them. Thanks for the recipe!
Just made these and they were wonderful!! I left out the sweetener and the cakes were still yummy as pancakes and They work great for bread for my PB sandwiches.
No joy for me. Not sure what's going on but my pancakes are flat. Oh well, I'll use them as wraps I suppose, maybe with Mexican style mince or salad….
Tried these today and they were a huge hit and really satisfied my pancake craving! Husband actually made them and said that while the batter started out thin, it thickened up as he let it set for a minute so there was no need to add more flour. There is a tiny hint of coconut flavor. For those starting out with CF. I hate coconut, but the hint of coconut I get when using the flour doesn't bother me at all and I have made several recipes with it.
Wonderful pancakes. Fluffy and light! And the photo is so bright and colorful! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the great recipe! These are indeed light and fluffy, although it felt almost like eating a fluffy omelet. Is there a way to counteract the taste of eggs? Any tips?
These were awesome. I have worked with coconut flour and hated it most of the time! Until these. I use raw cows milk and added about an extra tablespoon of coconut flour to get them to be thicker and fluffy. Glad to finally have a low carb pancake!! My kids devoured them (age 2 & 5) and so did I, but my husband did ask what was different about them. He’s what we call a picky Pete haha. I made syrup by boiling 1/4 cup of water, whisk in 6 packets of Truvia until disolved then added maybe 1/4-1/2 tsp maple flavor and a pinch of xanthan gum. Such a treat!!
Would you mind if I post this recipe under the recipe section of my forum? I’ll give you full credit of course just wanted to make sure before I did. I’ll add a link to your blog as well. Thanks!
Made these this morning – happy to try a coconut flour recipe – I find almond meal too meal-y! These are much fluffier too. Used a combination of coconut milk/almond milk to use up what was in my fridge. Also found adding a wee bit more flour worked best. Best textured pancake I’ve found since going Paleo 10 months ago!
Made these today. Both my husband and I loved them! These are the first LC pancakes we’ve had! I used Coconut Secret flour and substituted sugar-free vanilla coconut milk for the almond milk since that’s what I had opened. I didn’t have to make any modifications to the recipe at all. Thanks for another great recipe!
Thank you very much for this recipe. I translated it in german. It smells really good and my daughter can even distinguished it from a really pancake.
I write the german recipe on my facebook blog.
These look perfect. I can’t remember the last time I had a pancake. This low carb diet made me forget about them. Thanks!
Is there a difference between Coconut Powder and Coconut Flour ?
For instance, is the Powder made from dried Coconut Milk, and the Coconut Flour from the flesh/meat ?
And would the Powder be soluble and NOT be ‘defatted’ whereas the Coconut Flour IS defatted but would not be soluble ?
Just tried your wonderful coconut flour pancake recipe ,,never tasted anything so delicious cant wait to make another batch ,,
We loved these! Finally a yummy low carb pancake! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Made these this morning after months of my own experiments – your recipe is just wonderful! My husband loved these pancakes! My go-to recipe!
Just made these. Didn’t have baking soda, the sweetener specified or butter. Used honey and EVOO and these were great. Ended up adding TBS more coconut flour to make them thicker but that is a personal preference. Great recipe, thank you so much!
I have recently started transitioning my family from processed foods, GMO’s, sugar, grains, etc. They are not very happy about it so I am doing a LOT of searching for recipes. I was a little nervous trying this recipe because I do not have a lot of experience with coconut flour. My hubby was not impressed, but our nine year old daughter and I liked the pancakes (I put chocolate chips in hers)! I put fruit on mine and think these will be a great alternative to white/wheat flour. Thank you so much; I look forward to trying more recipes.
Just made these for supper on New Year’s Day. My hubby and I were tired of our meat-with-sauteed-veggies dinner, and this hit the spot. I used Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour and it was a very thick batter. It did need a lot of stirring to get the lumps out, but it performed wonderfully! I kept them small like silver dollar pancakes, using about 1 tbsp of batter. I got 12 of those size, and 4 big ones (2 tbsp of batter). These are really filling! I was also proud I didn’t ruin the first pancake like I normally do! haha
I always mangle the first pancake!
WOW. I am STUFFED! I just finished making and eating these – boy did I miss eating pancakes! I was diagnosed w/Type 2 a year ago.
This was my first attempt at working with Coconut flour and I would say it was a definite success. After reading the comments I used regular whole milk (didn’t have anything else), and I used Splenda instead of the other sweetener listed (never heard of it), but halved the amount. I also doubled the vanilla amount. I definitely smelled that “eggy” smell when cooking them but to me they didn’t taste “eggy” and I didn’t taste coconut at all. Oh, and to successfully prevent lumping, I sifted the dry ingredients. I used Bob’s Red Mill Organic/High Fiber coconut flour and didn’t have to add any additional flour – the 1/2 C was just right.
Ate them the way that I used to, smeared some peanut butter on them and topped off with syrup (now sugar free). AND these are so filling that I didn’t/couldn’t eat as many pancakes as I used to, lol.
As someone commented before me, I too always mangle the first pancake, but didn’t with these
I love pancakes with peanut butter. Nummy!
I think I’d check out erythritol first to see if you’re comfortable using it. Can’t you just use sugar???
Hi Thom…to whom is this comment addressed? This is a low carb blog, so most of my readers avoid sugar. If you research erythritol, you will find it’s a natural substance found in fruits and fermented foods. It’s no more processed than sugar and most of us are eating it without knowing it anyway. Yes, you can make these with sugar, but that would rather defeat the purpose.
I See the carb intake, but does anyone know the calorie intake?
You absolutely DO have the right to call these light and fluffy! They were amazing– my husband has been asking for pancakes, but I can’t eat gluten and am trying to stay very low carb. We enjoy the eggy-crepey cream cheese+ egg riff, but we wanted something more true to the classic American breakfast bread. These were so, so, SO good. I served them with a thin layer of cream cheese in the middle of two pancakes. Thanks so much for this recipe!
I made these this morning and they are delicious! My batch however made 24! I used a smaller ice cream scoop to place them on a griddle. They’re still a decent size and I’m going to try freezing them to use as needed. I can’t wait to try some of your other pancake recipes! Thanks for the blog!
Also, I sift all my coconut flour whenever baking with it. Do you do that with any of your recipes?
I don’t, actually, although I know it helps a lot. I am just a bit lazy about it!
Thanks!
Hi Carolyn, your blog is my first stop for low carb recipes. I love your style and I have learned so much! Anywho, I made there pancakes and love them. Mine were pretty thin. I am not sure where I went wrong. I live in Colorado so maybe the altitude? Thanks so much! Kim
Hmmm, might be. Might also be different types of coconut flour. I think next time, add another tbsp or so to see if you can thicken up the batter a bit.
I am wondering if anyone has tried making this with egg substitutes? Flax or chia? I was told to stay away from any recipe that required more than 3 eggs when I sub but I would really like to try these.
These came out just great-loved them! I’m off flour so I never thought I’d enjoy pancakes again. Thank you!!!
Just made these pancakes for my mom and sister. I mashed one banana and put it in the batter, cut out the erythritol and used only 4 jumbo eggs. They were delicious and I had them with sausages! Thank you Carolyn! I used Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour and the consistency was perfect.
Carolyn, thank you for this recipe, you’re such a wonderful LC cook, I’m enjoying recipes in LCing with Friends!!!
I subbed coconut milk (the milk cooler type, not canned) for almond milk and replaced 1-2 Tbsp of flaxmeal for some of the coconut flour and they came out wonderful, even held well in the refrigerator! Could probably work like crepes, if more liquid added.
thanks again!!!
These came out well and were easy to make. First pancake in a year! Thanks for a well thought out recipe.
This was the first time I had made a low carb non meat dish that turned out well. I’m amazed. I have a bit of a sweet tooth (probably what got me into trouble in the first place) so I added a bit more erythritol and cinnamon and they were absolutely fabulous!!! Thank you so much.
So glad to hear it!
These sound delish- I can’t wait to make them! What is a good sugar free syrup?
I really like Nature’s Hollow. That’s my favourite in terms of flavour and consistency.
These were incredible! I made them for my mom for Mother’s Day and it’s the best grain-free, low-carb pancake recipe I’ve ever tried (And I’ve tried many). I will definitely be saving this recipe.