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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 freshly squeezed lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
  • 1 ¾ cups (420g) soy milk (see note 2)
  • 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (see note 3)
  • 2 tablespoons (~23g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons organic cane sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons (42g) vegan butter, melted (or refined coconut oil)
  • For cooking: Refined coconut oil, avocado oil, or other high-heat oil

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. Use an electric mixer on low speed until mostly smooth (it’s okay if there are very tiny crumb-size pieces of sour cream).
  • Melt the vegan butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan. Drizzle it into the wet ingredients and mix until combined and no lumps remain (see Note 4).
  • Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mix. 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.
  • Repeat with the batter, adding a teaspoon of oil to the pan to preheat per pancake before adding more batter. Reduce the heat as you go to prevent burning (my burner is 1 to 7; I start at 4 for the first pancake, then reduce to 3).
  • 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 post! Lots of important stuff in there, including what the batter should look like, how to get the crispiest edges, using a griddle, making batter ahead of time, and more! 
Note 1. It's important the sour cream is not cold and thick; it must be at room temp for 20 to 30 minutes to incorporate well.
We tested with 5 sour creams: Violife, Follow Your Heart, Kite Hill Foods, Toffuti, and Forager. The first 4 were great: fluffy interior, crispy edges. Forager was good but didn’t fluff quite as well. Tofutti appears to have changed their formula as of 2025 so the results are less fluffy. 
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. Other milks result in much flatter pancakes. 
Note 3. If not using a digital scale to measure, spoon and level your flour; don't dig your measuring cup into the bag or jar of flour, as it overmeasures. 
Want to use whole wheat flour (or add mix-ins)? Check out the Variations section in the 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.