
I’ve made at least four different recipes for pancakes now. Extra thick and fluffy ones (at least ¾ of an inch thick), Medium thick and fluffy (about ½ an inch thick), extra dark outside medium thick and fluffy, and then these.
These ones are only about ¼ of an inch thick. But they are very light and fluffy on the inside, with a nice soft brown outside. When I picked one up to put it on a plate, I was surprised by how little it weighed.
That can only mean one thing: There is a lot of air inside.
I’ve been working on this recipe for a while. It started when I tried putting a little almond flour in the mix. That almond flour is sweet enough that it browns well, and it also doesn’t dry out as quickly (which makes for that nice soft outside). The challenge was to figure out how much almond flour to use. For a while I was using ¼ of a cup, which resulted in an undercooked interior. I tried several substitutions before I tried this one.
So here they are. Pancakes, extra light and fluffy.
Makes 7 5-inch pancakes
Time: 20 minutes
- Dry Ingredients
- ⅝ a cup rice flour (½ a cup plus ⅛ a cup)
- ⅛ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch (can also substitute with tapioca and potato starch)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup milk (plus ½ cup as needed)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Turn your burner to medium heat, grease with ½ tablespoon butter.
- While burner heats, whisk the dry ingredients together in a small metal bowl.
- In your measuring cup (or in another bowl) whisk together the wet ingredients.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- Allow the mix to set for two minutes.
- Add the extra ½ cup milk to the mix and stir until combined.
- Using a ladle, spoon about ¼ cup of the mix onto the burner.
- Cook for 1 minute, until edges are slightly dried with bubbles.
- Flip, then cook the other side for another minute.
- Repeat with other pancakes. Every time you make two pancakes, add about 2 tablespoons of extra milk to the mix and stir. The batter thickens over time and if you don’t continue to add milk it will get too thick. You want the batter to be just on the verge of being watery. It needs to be very pourable and spread fairly thin on the pan (The pancakes will rise to about ¼ of an inch thick, so they won’t stay very thin for long).
- Top pancakes with fruit, maple syrup, butter, honey, or your favorite toppings.

Note how the batter is almost watery. Also note how thin in spreads on the pan. This is the consistency you want.
Leave a Reply