Pumpkin Oat Pancakes
Fluffy, spiced pumpkin pancakes made with oat flour. These pumpkin oatmeal pancakes are gluten free and simple to make!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
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The brown armchair in my living room has become the scapegoat for everything that is wrong with my life. It’s not a bad-looking chair, really. It has a nice shape and swivels around in a circle. The nubby brown fabric, however, hangs onto dog hairs for dear life. It will soon be a sweater chair. The longer I sit on my couch and stare down the sweater chair, the more I despise it. It must go.
I’m going on about the chair because last week’s pantry makeover was followed by a borderline obsessive-compulsive fall cleaning spree. I’ve gone through every belonging I’ve stuffed in this place and filled my trunk with junk destined for goodwill. It had to be done.
The sheer volume of stuff that I own had been weighing on my psyche. The state of my living quarters is representative of my state of mind, so I’ve felt extra scatterbrained as all the visible projects have been calling for my attention. I’m finally feeling better now that I’ve cleared out some space.
As nice as it is to keep stuff around in case I need it someday, there’s also the burden of ownership, of upkeep. Do I really need a whole box full of mystery cords or a tin of my grandmother’s thimbles? No and yes. I’m also in the process of sprucing up my decor, which includes replacing the brown hand-me-down armchair. I wanna be a grown-up! With grown-up furniture! Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Sifting through all my things has made me nostalgic, too. The old newspaper wrapped around a vintage ceramic Santa Clause smelled like my grandmother Mimi’s house. One whiff transported me from my bedroom in Kansas City back in time to Mimi’s kitchen in small-town Oklahoma. Sleepy eyed, I pattered across the cool laminate flooring as the smell of bacon filled the air. Mimi smiled and poured Welch’s grape juice into a little glass cup with dinosaurs on it. My favorites.
Pancakes remind me of my dad. Every time my mom went out of town, my little brothers and I got to eat pancakes for dinner. He always turned it into a silly display of fatherly strength, whipping the Bisquick batter so fast we could hardly see the whisk. And over the past week, every time I check the news, I hear my dad’s exasperated voice at the dinner table. “Can’t we all just get along?”
These pumpkin pancakes have sentimental potential. They’re flavored with warming spices and made hearty with oat flour, which you can easily make out of old-fashioned oats (see notes). I often hear that the base recipe for these orange cakes, my gluten-free banana oat pancakes, yields your all-time favorite pancakes. That’s quite a compliment. Dare are I suggest that the pumpkin version is even better?
More Pumpkin Treats to Enjoy
- Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Waffles
- Healthy Pumpkin Bread or Healthy Pumpkin Muffins (both offer oat flour options, see gluten-free recipe note)
- Perfect Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
- Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes
View more pumpkin recipes here.
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Oat Pancakes
These fluffy, healthy pumpkin pancakes are laced with hearty oats and warming spices. Since they are made with oat flour, they are gluten free! Note that these pancakes should be cooked low and slow—use a lower temperature than you would with other pancakes so that the insides of the thick batter get nice and fluffy, but the outsides don’t get overdone. Recipe yields 8 to 10 medium-sized pancakes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup milk of choice
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup oat flour (see notes for how to make your own oat flour out of old-fashioned oats)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice blend (or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon ground allspice or cloves)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, stir together the pumpkin puree, milk, butter, maple syrup, lemon juice, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs. (If your butter or oil goes back to its solid state like mine did at this point, warm the mixture for short 20-second bursts in the microwave, stirring between each, until it is melted again.)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, and salt. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. With a big spoon, stir just until the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened. Do not overmix!
- Let the batter sit for 10 minutes. If you’re using an electric griddle, heat it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Otherwise, you can wait a few minutes before heating your skillet.
- Warm a large skillet (stainless steel or nonstick) over medium-low heat. You’re ready to start cooking pancakes once a drop of water sizzles on contact with the hot surface. If necessary, lightly oil the cooking surface with a pat of butter or oil, carefully wiping up excess with a paper towel (nonstick surfaces likely won’t require any oil).
- Scoop ¼ cup batter onto the hot skillet, leaving a couple of inches around the pancake for expansion. Cook until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake and the underside is golden, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Flip the pancake, then cook until lightly golden on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat the process with the remaining batter, adding more butter and dialing down the heat if the pancakes turn dark on the outside before they’re cooked through on the inside.
- Serve the pancakes immediately or keep them warm in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven. Leftover pancakes can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. To reheat, stack leftover pancakes and wrap them in a paper towel before gently reheating in the microwave.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my banana oat pancakes recipe.
Gluten-free oats: If you need these pancakes to be gluten-free, be sure to purchase certified gluten-free oat flour or certified gluten-free old-fashioned oats.
How to make your own oat flour: To make oat flour out of old-fashioned oats, simply pour one cup of oats into a food processor and process until it looks like fine sand. See pictures here.
Make it dairy free: Use non-dairy milk like almond milk and coconut oil instead of butter.
Make it egg free: Replace the eggs with flax eggs (I’ve heard this works well from other commenters, but haven’t had a chance to try myself).
Update September 2024: I’ve improved this recipe, adding ¼ cup more milk to thin the batter, increasing the maple syrup from 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons to help prevent burning against the pan, and increasing the amount of spice for more autumnal flavor.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This was a bit saltier. Although the recipe is almost exactly like the banana oat pancakes and that’s my most favorite pancake in the whole entire world. I will use just a sprinkle next time. I though addition of raisins might be nice for some sweetness.
That’s great, Madina! I appreciate your review.
Can I make the batter and store in the refrigerator overnight? I’d love to be able to whip these up for breakfast
Hi Patsy, I wouldn’t recommend it. But these could be a good option to keep in the freezer!
I love a bit of orange with pumpkin, so I added some orange zest to the recipe, and I always add a little non-bitter brewer’s yeast and ground flax seed to my pancakes for some health goodness. I’m actually thinking an orange syrup would be dreamy with these! Today, I had elderberry/rose/cinnamon/honey syrup on hand, which was also lovely.
Kate, I noticed reference to “orange cakes” in your recipe. Was there supposed to be a link? I’m thinking of experimenting with orange pancakes soon. I’m certain I could search your site for the orange cakes, but if you have a link, thought you might want to make it active on this page.
These are a great idea! Very pumpkiny, oat flour works perfectly.
The recipe seems a bit off though. Two TABLESPOONS of oil seems like a lot for a fairly small batch of 8 pancakes. The pumpkin already provides plenty of moisture. And one TEASPOON of maple syrup adds basically no sweetness.
I’d recommend 1 Tbsp of oil at most, and 1-2 Tbsp of maple syrup to bring out the pumpkin flavor better.
Hi Kate, I’m sorry you didn’t love these. I appreciate your feedback. I found this recipe works best as is. I’m glad you found something to work for you.
Like many others, I had way-too thick pancakes in that first batch (I used Bob’s GF oat flour and whole milk and followed to a T). They were more like scones or biscuits! Hard to cook through without burning–I finally decided to finish them in the oven. I thinned the second batch with quite a bit more milk–at least double, maybe triple the recipe–and then they flowed and cooked more like pancake batter, and the finished pancakes looked like pancakes. Even so, the interiors never quite tasted cooked. They didn’t crumb up, so were pretty mushy. We like the flavor, though, and have always made the NYT fluffy pumpkin pancakes, but I’m looking for a GF version now that my daughter has tested positive for celiac disease. We all love these gf muffin
I’m sorry to hear that! How did you measure your flour?
These were delicious! Easy to make (no mixer involved). I was able to use up some of the pumpkin I roasted.
These were great! I left the batter in the fridge overnight and they turned out wonderful. Thanks Kate x
Great to hear, Katja! I appreciate your review.
My kids and I really enjoy these! They have more pumpkin puree than any other pumpkin pancake recipe I have found, which I love. They are quite nutritious, yet still delicious! I use 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of measuring out the individual spices :)
I love this recipe and I like the banana ones as well! I make them and freeze them. I would like to know the nutrition for each pancake if you could please share. I don’t see it given?
Hi Cheryl! The nutrition information is below the notes section.
These pancakes are so good. I added chopped pecans.
Can you make these with regular flour too?
Pumpkin Pancakes is a great recipe if you want to use other flour.
Wow so tender!! I always add less salt. I used buttermilk so didn’t add lemon. Very yummy!!!
Great to hear, Marcia!