How to make fluffy blueberry pancakes from scratch with fresh or frozen blueberries. This fluffy blueberry pancakes recipe makes pancakes that are light and bursting with blueberries. You probably have everything you need in your kitchen right now.
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Related: We love these popular blueberry muffins.
How to Make the Best Blueberry Pancakes
We love pancakes around here and have already shared our essential fluffy pancakes recipe with you. We love that recipe so much that we adapted it to make what our family considers the best blueberry pancakes. These pancakes are quick to make, and we’re willing to bet you’ve got everything you need to make them right now.
Here’s what you need to make them:
Flour — In our photos, we’ve used all-purpose (plain) flour. For more whole grain, use whole wheat flour. When we use whole wheat, we go for a 50:50 blend of whole wheat to all-purpose, so they stay nice and fluffy (we explain why in our recipe for whole wheat pancakes). For gluten-free pancakes, swap in your favorite gluten-free flour blend or try buckwheat flour (
Sugar — Since we usually serve pancakes with syrup, we hold back a bit when it comes to how much sugar we add to the batter. These work with granulated sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, and even honey. You could even mix in a little bit of mashed banana as we did in these banana buttermilk pancakes.
Milk — There are a lot of options for the liquid element of the pancake batter. Since it’s what we have in our fridge, we use reduced fat milk, but you can use non-dairy milk like almond or oat milk if you want.
Baking soda and lemon juice (or vinegar) — It’s the reaction between baking soda and a little acid like lemon juice or white vinegar that makes these pancakes so light and fluffy. If you only have baking powder in your kitchen, don’t worry, we’ve given directions below for substituting it.
Melted butter — To get that melt-in-your-mouth texture, we mix in melted butter to the batter. If you don’t eat butter, you can use melted coconut oil, which does taste amazing with the blueberries.
Egg — The egg adds structure and helps to make our pancakes light and fluffy. If you do not cook with eggs, you can substitute a flax egg.
Vanilla extract and salt — Vanilla extract and salt take the taste to the next level. You can experiment with other extracts, too. I particularly love a tiny splash of almond extract in these blueberry pancakes.
Can I Use Frozen Blueberries in These Pancakes?
You can use fresh or frozen blueberries to make these pancakes. It’s tricky to find sweet fresh blueberries all year round. Thankfully, this doesn’t prevent us from getting our blueberry pancake fix!
When using fresh blueberries, add the berries directly to the bowl with batter and fold them in. For frozen blueberries, skip that and add the frozen berries directly to the uncooked side of the pancake in the pan. This way, the frozen berries sink into the middle of the pancake and when you flip it, they get hot and juicy.
(If you were to add frozen berries to the batter in the bowl and mix, the batter turns an unusual blue-green color. It tastes great, but by adding the berries directly to the pancake, they look better.)
For Fluffy Pancakes, Don’t Over-Mix
Over-mixing pancake batter is a common mistake — it makes them heavy and flat, not fluffy. To prevent this, mix your dry and wet ingredients separately at first then combine just before cooking. By the way, these tips apply to waffles and muffins, too. We use this same strategy when making our favorite blueberry muffins. When you’re ready to make the pancakes, combine the two mixes — we use a fork or whisk. Stir until you no longer see dry clumps of flour. Then fold in blueberries.
Leftover blueberries? Here’s our Buttery Lemon Blueberry Cake — It’s simple to make and tastes amazing.
Can These Pancakes Be Made In Advance?
Pancakes freeze well, making them perfect for making in advance. While pancakes fresh off the stove taste the best, freezer pancakes will help fix your next pancake craving!
Here are our tips for freezing pancakes:
- Freeze the cooked pancakes in a single layer on a baking sheet. We just line them up on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and slide them into the freezer until they are hard. They usually take an hour or so.
- When the pancakes are frozen, place a layer of parchment paper between each pancake to prevent them from sticking to each other.
- Store the pancakes in a freezer-safe container or bag up to two months.
- To reheat frozen pancakes, place them, in one layer, in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven, cover them with some foil, and then bake until they are heated through (about 10 minutes).
- You can also microwave the frozen pancakes, but they will be a little more floppy. Two pancakes should take 20 to 30 seconds to reheat.
For more delicious breakfast recipes, try our Easy Baked French Toast (it can even be made overnight), these Crispy Waffles or our Perfectly Creamy Scrambled Eggs.
Easy Blueberry Pancakes
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PREP
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COOK
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These fluffy blueberry pancakes are light and made entirely from scratch. They’re not too sweet and are scented with vanilla, making them extra delicious. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries in our recipe. In the first step of the recipe, we mix milk and vinegar (or lemon juice) together. This is an easy way to mimic buttermilk. The acid reacts with the baking soda and makes the pancakes light and fluffy. Instead of mixing the milk and acid, you can substitute buttermilk. Or, if you would prefer to use baking powder, we’ve provided tips in the notes section below.
*We call for unsalted butter in the recipe. You can use salted butter, but you may want to reduce the amount of salt used.
Makes 4 servings, 2 pancakes each
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 ½ cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar, depending on preference
3/4 teaspoon baking soda, see notes for substituting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of fine sea or table salt
1 ¼ cups (295 ml) milk, dairy and non-dairy both will work
2 tablespoons white vinegar or fresh lemon juice
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract, optional
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for skillet
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, plus more for serving
Directions
- Make Batter
1In a 2-cup measuring jug or bowl, stir the milk and vinegar (or lemon juice) together, and then set aside for five minutes. (This mixture mimics buttermilk, which when mixed with the baking soda later in the recipe, makes the pancakes fluffy.)
2Meanwhile, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and the salt in a medium bowl.
3Whisk the egg, vanilla, and almond extract into the milk.
4Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour the milk mixture and melted butter into the well and use a fork to stir until you no longer see clumps of flour. It is okay if the batter has a few small lumps – it is important not to over-mix the batter. The batter will be thick, but still pourable. If it seems too thick, add an extra splash of milk.
5If using fresh blueberries, fold in the blueberries. (For frozen blueberries, keep them to the side as you will add them later.)
- Cook Pancakes
1Heat a large skillet (or use a griddle) over medium heat. The pan is ready if when you splatter a little water onto the pan surface, the water dances around the pan and eventually evaporates.
2Lightly brush the skillet with melted butter. Use a 1/4-cup measuring cup to spoon batter onto skillet. Gently spread the batter into a 4-inch circle. If you are using frozen blueberries, scatter a handful on top of the uncooked side of the pancake.
3When the edges look dry, and bubbles start to appear and pop on the top surfaces of the pancake, turn over. This takes about 2 minutes. Once flipped, cook another 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked in the middle. Serve immediately with warm syrup, butter, and more berries.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- When measuring your flour, before you scoop the flour into your measuring cup, fluff or stir the flour in the container (or bag) first, this aerates the flour and makes the measurement more accurate. Alternatively, you can stir the flour in the container, and then scoop it into your measuring cup. Then when the cup is full, use a straight edge to scrape away the excess flour. Doing this prevents adding too much flour to the batter, which causes the batter to be too thick.
- Substitute for baking soda: To use baking powder instead of baking soda, leave out the vinegar or lemon juice called for in the recipe and use one tablespoon of baking powder.
- Non-dairy milk: These blueberry pancakes can be made with or without dairy milk. So feel free to use your favorite non-dairy milk like almond, soy, cashew, oat, or hemp milk.
- Gluten-free blueberry pancakes: Use your favorite store-bought gluten-free flour blend. We are partial to Bob’s Red Mill.
- Vegan / egg-free pancakes: Replace the eggs with flax eggs. To make a flax egg, mix one tablespoon flaxseed meal (ground raw flaxseed) with 2 1/2 tablespoons water. Set it aside for about 5 minutes to thicken then use to replace the egg in the recipe.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
2 pancakes
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Calories
393
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Total Fat
14.9g
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Saturated Fat
8.7g
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Cholesterol
84.7mg
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Sodium
615.8mg
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Total Carbohydrate
52.5g
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Dietary Fiber
2.2g
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Total Sugars
15.1g
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Protein
12g