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stack of fluffy vegan pancakes on a brown plate with maple syrup being drizzled on top.
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Best Ever Vegan Pancakes

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Servings: 9 large pancakes
Calories: 199kcal
Author: Nisha Vora

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (113g) vegan sour cream, at room temperature for 30 min (see Note 1)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
  • 1 ¾ cups (420 mL) plain-flavored soy milk (see note 2)
  • 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour (see note 3)
  • 2 tablespoons (25g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons organic cane sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons (42g) vegan butter, melted (or refined coconut oil),
  • Refined coconut oil, avocado oil, or other high-heat oil for cooking pancakes

For serving

  • Vegan butter + maple syrup

Instructions

  • Add the lemon juice to a medium bowl. Pour the milk on top and stir. It should curdle pretty quickly. This is the "buttermilk."
  • In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar and whisk well to combine.
  • To the buttermilk, add the room temp vegan sour cream and vanilla. Mix on low speed until mostly smooth (it’s okay if there are very tiny crumb-size pieces of sour cream, it doesn’t need to be 100% smooth).
  • Melt the vegan butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan. Drizzle it into the wet ingredients and stir until combined and no lumps remain (see Note 4).
  • Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mix and fold with a wooden spoon until just combined. Do not overmix—lots of lumps are fine.
    Rest the batter for 5 minutes (or 10 minutes). The batter will be very very thick and fluffy, almost like a yeast bread dough. But don't stir after resting—the batter will lose air bubbles, resulting in a flat pancake.
  • Preheat the pan. Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat for several minutes. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil (see Note 5).
    Allow to heat ~30 seconds. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by adding a droplet of water—if it sizzles and dances, it’s ready.
  • Cook the pancakes. Ladle a heaping ⅓ cup pancake batter into the pan (since the batter is thick, it won’t ladle into a perfect circle). For smaller pancakes, use a heaping 1/4 cup batter.
    After the first 20-30 seconds, swirl the oil in the pan around the pancake edges to get those crispy edges. Cook for a total of 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, until the edges start to dry out and you can see the bottoms are golden brown.
    Carefully flip. Cook on the second side for a total of 2 to 2 ½ minutes, swirling any remaining oil around the edges again.
    NOTE: don’t flip back and forth, just the one time. This makes pancakes less fluffy without a uniform golden brown exterior.
  • Cook the rest. Add a teaspoon more oil to the pan and lower the heat a touch to prevent burning (my burner is 1 to 7; I start at 4 for the first pancake, then reduce to 3).
    Repeat with the batter, adding a teaspoon of oil to the pan to preheat per pancake before adding more batter.
  • To keep pancakes warm, add to a wire rack-fitted sheet pan in the oven at 200ºF/95ºC until ready to serve.
    Serve pancakes warm with maple syrup and a pat of vegan butter, if desired.
    If you have leftover batter, store in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 to 6 days.

Video

Notes

Please read all the Tips and FAQ sections in the blog post! Lots of important stuff in there, including what the batter should look like, how to get the crispiest edges, using an electric griddle, making batter ahea of time, and more! 
Note 1. It's important that the sour cream is not cold and thick; it must be at room temp for ~ 30 minutes to incorporate well.
We tested with four different sour creams: Follow Your Heart, Tofutti, and Kite Hill Foods sour cream produced stellar results: fluffy interior, crispy edges (Tofutti was the absolute best). Forager sour cream was good but didn’t fluff quite as well. 
If you can’t find vegan sour cream, check out the FAQ section for alternatives.
Note 2. We recommend soy milk for the fluffiest pancakes. If you're allergic to soy, the next best option is a creamy oat milk. 
Note 3. If not using a digital scale to measure, be sure to spoon and level your flour; don't dig your measuring cup into the bag or jar of flour--this guarantees you'll overmeasure the flour. 
If you want to use whole wheat flour (or add mix-ins), check out the Variations section in the blog post. 
Note 4. Add the butter while still warm. This helps blend everything together and ensures there are no lumps. 
Note 5. If you have a large pan and are cooking two pancakes at once, use two teaspoons of oil. If using a griddle, read the FAQ section.