Healthy Pancakes
These Healthy Pancakes are the best! These whole wheat pancakes are quick to make using simple, wholesome ingredients. They are deliciously fluffy and perfect for a weekend breakfast!
I originally shared this pancake recipe over four years ago and my family has been making these healthy pancakes ever since! These pancakes are still one of our very favorite breakfast recipes. They have become a reader favorite with many glowing reviews, too!
This is my best easy healthy pancake recipe. These whole wheat pancakes have the perfect fluffy texture and crave-worthy flavor. They are especially delicious served with a drizzle of maple syrup and some fresh fruit.
I have tested this recipe many, many times, with all sorts of adaptations. In the end, the simplest recipe is the one my family likes best.
These healthy pancakes don’t require any fancy ingredients, and you can mix up the batter in just five minutes. My daughter has been making these homemade pancakes for our family since she was 9 years old – the recipe is that easy!
Every weekend we make a big breakfast, and we alternate between these healthy pancakes, my best Buttermilk Pancakes and our favorite light and crispy Waffle Recipe. If you love pancakes, you’ll also enjoy my Greek Yogurt Pancakes and these Healthy Pancake Recipes.
Are Pancakes Healthy?
When you make them with wholesome ingredients, pancakes can be a healthy breakfast option.
These healthy pancakes are made with whole wheat flour, which has fiber to keep you full. They won’t spike your blood sugar the way that pancakes made from all-purpose flour might. I use white whole wheat flour because we prefer the lighter texture compared to regular whole wheat flour.
I tested this recipe with varying amounts of melted butter. I found that you can get away with just 2 tablespoons of butter in the whole batch and still have great-tasting pancakes. Adding unsweetened applesauce to the batter allows us to use less butter and sugar in these whole wheat pancakes.
How to Make Healthy Pancakes
Here’s an overview of the steps to making this pancake recipe. Find the full recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: white whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: eggs, applesauce, milk, honey and vanilla.
- Whisk melted butter into the wet ingredients.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter may be a little lumpy.
- Cook the pancakes on a hot griddle or skillet. You’ll know the pancakes are ready to flip to cook on the second side when bubbles form on the top and the first side is lightly golden brown.
How to Freeze and Reheat
Pancakes freeze and reheat wonderfully for quick meals later on. To freeze pancakes, first let them cool completely on a wire rack. Once cool, wrap them airtight in a zip-top bag or other container. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Thaw pancakes on the counter or in the microwave on low power. Reheat in the microwave until warm.
Tips for making this Pancake Recipe:
- The pancake batter will be thick. Resist adding extra milk, as that will create thinner pancakes. For light and fluffy pancakes, you need a thick batter.
- Don’t over-mix the pancake batter when you combine the wet and dry ingredients, or your pancakes may turn out flat or dense instead of light and fluffy.
- I recommend using white whole wheat flour in these pancakes. White whole wheat is made from a different kind of wheat berry and has a lighter color and a more mild, sweeter flavor than regular whole wheat. You can also use all-purpose flour.
- The applesauce is important in this recipe. It helps to flavor and sweeten the pancakes, and gives them the best texture. I’ve tried substituting Greek yogurt for the applesauce and the pancakes did not taste as good. If you need a substitute for the applesauce, I recommend using mashed banana.
- You can add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the batter for extra flavor.
- My trick to deciding when pancakes are cooked through on the second side (besides a golden color) is to lift them up with a spatula and feel how heavy they are. The pancakes feel lighter when they are cooked through.
Healthy Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 ¼ cups milk (whole milk is best in this recipe)
- 2 tablespoons honey (or pure maple syrup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt the butter and set it aside to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the white whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, applesauce, milk, honey and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in the melted butter.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until just incorporated. It's ok if a few lumps remain; try not to over-mix. The batter will be thick, but avoid adding more milk or your pancakes may turn out flat rather than light and fluffy.
- Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Scoop batter by scant ¼ cup onto the heated griddle. Cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form and the bottom side of the pancakes are lightly brown, about 2-3 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until the second side is browned, about 2 minutes more. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree oven while you cook the rest of the pancakes.
Notes
- I recommend using white whole wheat flour in these pancakes. White whole wheat is made from a different kind of wheat berry and has a lighter color and a more mild flavor than regular whole wheat.
- You can add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients for extra flavor.
- Pancakes keep well in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let cool completely and then freeze in a zip-top plastic bag or other airtight container.
Nutrition
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What a perfect stack of pancakes (and waffles) Kristine! I love that this recipe is on the healthier side. It’s so nice to have a staple recipe that you can over and over again. This looks just wonderful for a weekend breakfast!
Thank you, Gayle! My family needs an easy staple pancake/waffle recipe, we make them so often!
Your pancakes look really good! What fabulous way to introduce healthy and delicious into your lifestyle.
Thanks for sharing.
Velva
Tomatoes on the Vine
Thank you, Velva! These are our favorite!
Kristine,
Would you also be able to use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour or Sprouted Wheat Flour?
Thanks,
Mary
Hi Mary, I think either of those would work. Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
Kristine,
Made them this morning with the whole wheat pastry flour and they turned out nice a fluffly! Thanks for the great healthy recipe!
Mary
I’m so glad you liked them, Mary! We make these pretty much every week. 🙂
These are my favorite pancakes! Only change was I made them with spelt flour and stevia instead of honey and they turned out perfect. Thank you for the great recipe!! 🙂
I’m so glad you like these as much as we do, Anna!
Wow! Those are amazing! I used spelt flour and strawberry applesauce and my 18 month old twins devoured them! 🙂
I’m so glad! I bet they were so good with the strawberry applesauce!
These were the best! Felt like a real splurge!! I stuck with unsweetened almond milk & whole wheat pastry flour as that is what I had. Amazing and fluffy!!
Best ever pancakes!
Would this work with gluten free flour?
I think this recipe would work with a 1:1 gluten free flour but haven’t tested it.
I’m an avid breakfast maker! These are great! Do you have the nutritional information for this recipe? (Calories, etc)
Thanks much for sharing this recipe!
I just updated the recipe to add nutrition information. I’m glad you like these! We make them every week. 🙂
So good. I didn’t read the comments until I made them and I used unsweetened almond milk too. my kids hate that I’m on a health kick and they loved them.
Also, didn’t have unsweetened applesauce but had strawberry applesauce. Crazy good. Thank you!!
We love this recipe and have made it several times! We are going camping this weekend and I’m wondering if I can mix the wet together now in a jar and the dry in a ziplock- would this be ok? Thank you!!!
Hi Anna, you can mix the dry ingredients together ahead of time but I would be hesitant to mix the wet ahead. I’m so happy to hear you enjoy this recipe!
My new go to pancake recipe! My girls request pancakes often and I love that these are healthier. I actually discoveredthis recipe earlier this year when my husband and I did a sugar fast. Then I made a double batch at the mountains with family. Everyone loves them. I usually use 1 cup of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat.
I’m looking forward to making these pancakes for our go to breakfast during school. Do you have syrup that you prefer besides Aunt Jemima? We really try to decrease out sugar intake in our household, but we’ve never been able to get away from Jemima syrup.
Thanks!
I always use pure maple syrup. It is more expensive, but I buy the large container at Costco (they also have it at Trader Joe’s and most grocery stores). Since it’s pure maple syrup, I would say it’s more wholesome than imitation syrups. It’s still high in sugar, so I think the key is to just limit the amount. 😉
Would this work with oat flour?
I haven’t tested this recipe with oat flour so I’m not sure.
Though a different recipe still loved it . But did little changes like no apple sauce so added 1/4 cup milk along with another egg , no honey so added molasses to it , no apple sauce so 1tablespoon more mollasses with 1 tablespoon more butter but molasses added more to the flavour yummy it tasted different cake like my family didnot it was healthy they thought I made Some gourmet version of pancakes
This looks great! Going to try this one for sure:)
Very good! And to think I never make pancakes since I never have buttermilk. THANK YOU!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! It’s our go-to for pancakes. 🙂
Made these today and they were so delicious! The texture is perfect. Even my picky 3 yr old loved them. I already can’t wait to eat them tomorrow lol
These pancakes were perfect for a quick and easy breakfast. I had ran out of applesauce so I replaced it with coconut oil and they still turned out wonderful. Thank you for creating a healthy go-to pancake.
Would regular white flour work? It’s all I have at the moment.
Thank you
Yes, that will work just fine. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for this recipe!! My fiancé absolutely loves pancakes but I don’t make them very often because I try to eat fairly healthy. We’ve tried some other healthy pancake recipes but they taste healthy. Not these, they taste as good as normal pancakes and my fiancé loves them (he’s picky!)
This pancakes are my favorite now!! Nice and fluffy and healthy… I love them! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
WOW! I rarely if ever leave reviews of recipes unless whatever I make actually turns out good. This recipe is great! I love the texture of the pancakes and they came out delicious. I actually halved all the recipes because I was afraid to “waste” anything just in case things turned out badly lol. Happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised. Will definitely be making this again and I might just stop buying store bought mixes. Thank you!
Thank you!! FINALLY a healthy pancake recipe that actually tastes as good as promised! I substituted canola oil for the butter and almond milk for the whole milk. I used closer to 2tsp of cinnamon because we like our pancakes “spicier”. I didn’t read all of the comments, but has anyone tried the recipe with fresh pureed pumpkin instead of apple sauce? This is now our go-to pancakes recipe. Thanks again!
Ingredients**
Love love love these pancakes!! My 3 year old devoured them! We are making small lifestyle changes, swapping whole wheat flour for white flour being one of them, so I was desperately searching for a good pancake recipe. I took a chance on this recipe and I will never buy store mixes again! Thank you for sharing!
My favorite breakfast dish. Only I love them with chocolate cream or plain sugar. And I also make small ones in a small frying pan to make it easier to eat. Brilliant recipe, thank you for adding it.
These were delicious! I replaced the butter with the 2 T applesauce, and used almond-coconut milk. Super yummy! Thanks for the recipe!!
Can you substitute almond flour ?
No, I wouldn’t recommend doing that. Almond flour behaves very different in baking than whole wheat or all-purpose flour.
These tasted good but I’m trying to figure out why mine came out so thick. They weren’t light and fluffy. Any top? I did have to use banana because I didn’t have Apple but everything else was same.
this recipe is amazing! ive tried so many healthy pancake recipes but this one is by far the best one. no cap. pancakes are so fluffy and flavorful! I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour + 1 cup of oat flour, and instead of applesauce I smashed 1/2 a banana with just a bit of water and they turned out a-maz-ing !! 10/10 definitively my new go-to pancake recipe
These pancakes have become a part of our Saturday morning pancake breakfast, a routine we started only a coule of months ago during Covid. My husband comments every week how much he likes thes pancakes. Thanks for sharing your recipe with all of us!
Karen
I’ve just tried this recipe and it’s amazing. Thanks 🙂
Mmm, Mmm, good. I had to convince my wife to try these. She did and we loved them. She was worried about the whole wheat flour. But a few days later when I asked what she wanted for breakfast she said the Healthy Pancakes.
Wonderful recipe! The whole family loved them! Thank you for sharing.
Extremely easy receipe. Thanks for sharing. I will signup for free receipe emails rightaway!
This is the only recipe I use now when I go to make pancakes, my kids love these a little too much lol they ask for them almost every morning haha I had to come on here and thank you for sharing this recipe! Its a new weekend staple! Thanks mama!!
Kristine – I cannot WAIT to try this recipe. I wonder if the dry ingredients could be prepared in advance and stored, then add the wet ones when I wish to make the cakes. Please let me know if you have tried this method I thank you!!
I haven’t tried that, but I think it will work well. Enjoy!
My daughter and I loved these! I added a but of ground flax for another healthy fat and then put blueberries in some and stevia-sweetened choc chips in others. They were so delicious ?
Loved them! Great recipe! I replaced applesauce with pumpkin purée and a little pumpkin spice spice. Amazing!
That’s a great idea! Thanks for trying the recipe!
Am I losing my mind or is the 2 tbls of butter not accounted for in the directions? Because you say to cook with cooking spray, so do we add the melted butter to the batter? It’s not listed as a wet ingredient. Thanks!
It’s in step 3 of the directions: after you whisk together the other wet ingredients, you then whisk the melted butter into the wet ingredients. I listed it first in the ingredients list (rather than the order in which the ingredients are added to the batter) so that you can melt the butter first and then let it cool for a few minutes before whisking it in. I hope you enjoy the pancakes!