Gluten Free Apple Pancakes

Passing the orchard booths at the Ottawa Street Farmers' Market recently, I quickly found myself craving gluten-free apple cinnamon pancakes.

Sure, it’s nowhere near the fall season, but even the suggestion of apples put me in the mood for the warm spices and classic fall flavor of my gluten-free apple pancakes.

I love using fresh fruit in the vast majority of my muffin and pancake recipes, like my Gluten-free Banana Buckwheat Pancakes.

Not only are they fluffy pancakes, the fruit is usually a great addition to other nutritious ingredients, making for not only an delicious pancake, but relatively healthy pancakes!

(On that note, making gluten free pancakes are usually a better healthy breakfast option than regular pancakes, as gluten-free flours are usually more nutritious than wheat flour.)

Today’s recipe not only has the fluffy texture of my banana pancakes, but a great apple flavor as well.

This apple cinnamon version is gloriously topped with a cinnamon apple caramel sauce - a great option for when you want to feel like you’re doing something healthy (the pancakes), but also have a raging sweet tooth!

SO GOOD.

Anyway, let’s get to it!

Ingredients

The ingredient list may look somewhat extensive, but it’s mostly all simple ingredients that you’ll find in any store.

If you regularly bake gluten free, you likely have all of the ingredients on hand!

As always, I have a few notes on some of the ingredients.

Caramel Apple Pancake Topping

This is a super basic topping, requiring only:

Apples
Brown Sugar
Butter
Heavy cream
Vanilla
Cinnamon, optional
Pinch Salt

As far as the apples go, you can use pretty much anything you like.

Mutsu apples are my absolute favourite, followed by Granny Smith. Neither of those were available this time around, so we used Honeycrisp. Pink Lady is another good option.

Whatever you use for the topping, you can use for the gluten-free pancakes. The apple in the pancakes themselves is shredded, but the apples in the topping get chopped.

You can peel them or not, whatever you prefer!

For that matter, you can use apple slices instead of chopping them. It’s all good!

Of course, if you don’t feel like making the topping at all, the base pancakes are always fantastic just drizzled with pure maple syrup!

Gluten-Free Apple Pancakes

As with all of my gluten-free baking, I prefer measure individual flours, rather than use premade all purpose flour mix.

I just find it gives the best results when I design a recipe using a specific mix and proportions of gluten-free flour options... in taste, behaviour, and texture.

In some cases - such as with these pancakes - it not only works as well as regular white flour, it’ll taste BETTER.

For this recipe, I use both Light Buckwheat Flour and Sorghum Flour, which work beautifully in this recipe - no xanthan gum needed!

In addition to those flours, you will need:

Granulated sugar
Baking powder and baking soda

Ground Cinnamon, Ground Nutmeg
Vegetable Oil (can use coconut oil)
Milk (Can use coconut milk, almond milk, or soy milk)
Large Egg
Vanilla extract
1 Apple (Same info applies as described for the topping!)_
Cooking spray
Salt

How to Make Gluten Free Caramel Apple Pancakes

Full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Caramel Apple Topping

In a medium pan, melt the butter over medium heat or medium-high heat. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt, stir well to combine.

Add apples, stir well and simmer on medium-low for 5 minutes.

Add heavy cream and vanilla, stir well to form a smooth caramel sauce.

Turn heat down to low, prepare your pancakes:

Gluten Free Apple Pancakes

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth. .

Pour wet ingredients mixture into the large bowl of dry ingredients, along with the shredded apple. Lightly stir, just until combined – do not over beat it!

Preheat your griddle or non-stick pan over medium-low heat, as your pancake batter rests for a few minutes.

Lightly oil your pan with a little bit of cooking spray or a melt a Tablespoon of butter in it.

Scoop pancakes - I like to do ¼ cup of batter per pancake - onto the griddle.

Gently spread batter out into a larger circle, about 4 – 4.5″ in diameter.

Cook until bubbles start popping through top surface. Flip, cook until done.

Repeat with remaining batter.

Divide cooked pancakes among serving plates. Top with caramel apple sauce (or a drizzle of maple syrup!), serve immediately.

* Note: If you don’t have a big griddle, you can preheat your oven to 200 degrees F before getting started.

As pancakes are cooked, transfer them to a baking sheet to keep warm in the heated oven, as you cook the remaining batter.

Leftovers

Leftover pancakes should be cooled to room temperature before being transferred to an airtight container and stored in the fridge.

For best results, reheat for a few minutes in a toaster oven or air fryer.

Variations

Apple Oatmeal Pancakes

If you’d like to take advantage of the health benefits that oats offer, you can swap out the Light Buckwheat Flour with an equal amount of Gluten-Free Oat Flour.

Don’t have any on hand? You can run certified gluten free oats through a food processor until it’s a fine powder.

Homemade oat flour is really THAT easy to make!

Gluten Free Dairy Free Apple Pancakes

Need a dairy free option?

Simply swap out the butter for a plant based butter, the heavy cream out for a plant milk or coconut cream, and the milk for whatever alternative milk you like.

We generally use unsweetened almond milk, as it’s what we have on hand. We’ve also used coconut milk from time to time. (We’re not dairy free, we just tend to reserve our dairy consumption for CHEESE.)

Need to make them vegan or egg-free? A flax egg works fine.

More Gluten-Free Breakfast & Brunch Recipes

Looking for more breakfast food recipes for the whole family? Here are some easy recipes to try:

Gluten Free Bagels
Gluten-Free Banana Bread
Gluten-Free Banana Muffins
Gluten Free Banana Nutella Ebelskivers
Gluten-Free Blackberry Muffins
Gluten-Free Blueberry Banana Bread
Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Bread
Gluten Free Cranberry Walnut Muffins
Gluten-Free Crepes
Gluten Free French Onion Soup Tart
Gluten-Free Lemon Drizzle Cake
Gluten-Free Lemon Mascarpone Ebelskivers
Gluten Free Mushroom Soup & Eggs on Toast
Gluten-Free Paska [Easter Bread]
Gluten Free Pop-Tarts
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread
Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins
Gluten Free Sourdough Waffles
Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

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