Apple Oatmeal Pancakes & News!!!
Fluffy apple pancakes that you can make in your blender! These healthy apple cinnamon pancakes are gluten free, too (no flour required, just oats!).
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
I have never enjoyed keeping secrets, even the good kind. I just might burst from anticipation so here it goes: I’m making a cookbook! It has been in the works for ages, and by ages I mean years, which is a long time in the blog world.
My cookbook is called Love Real Food, as in Cookie and Kate Love Real Food. It’s a title that makes a statement, one that I hope will appeal to you, my most wonderful readers, and a broader audience that hasn’t yet stumbled on this blog or this way of cooking. It’s a statement that conveys my bursting-at-the-seams enthusiasm for real, wholesome food, the kind that both delights the senses and nourishes the body. I hope you like it!
Love Real Food will be an extension of what you have come to expect on this blog, plus some fun special features. It will include 100 recipes that are all vegetarian, fresh and full of flavor. I’m being very careful to use accessible ingredients and have been testing the recipes over and over again to make sure they’re perfect.
I’ve finalized about a quarter of the recipes so far and I CAN’T WAIT to share them with you all. The blueberry muffins alone! They took me nine tries to get just right but they were worth it. The book won’t be complete without a few favorite recipes from the blog (even those will be reworked and tweaked), but the vast majority will be brand new. My stomach is so full right now, you guys.
I’m busy in the best of ways, stretched to maximum capacity with both the blog and the book. Maintaining my presence here and my recipe quality is very important to me, so I’m just moving a little slower than usual. Please keep visiting and letting me know how the recipes turn out for you and sharing my blog with your friends and family! I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
In all sincerity, this blog would never have turned into a recipe website or now, a cookbook, if it weren’t for your presence and your kind words. I took an awfully long time to gather the courage to write this cookbook proposal (my second proposal, long story). Every time you asked me when I was going to publish a cookbook, you gave me a welcome push in the right direction. Thank you. I can’t wait to show you what I’ve been working on!
The book will be coming to you in spring 2017, which might seem like a long time from now. It’ll be here before we know it! I’ve grown accustomed to doing everything myself on this blog, so learning to lean on others in order to make a book has been an adjustment. Big thank you to my awesome agent, Steve Troha, for believing in me and helping me land a deal with Rodale. Rodale has been promoting healthy lifestyles since 1942 (they’re the publisher behind Yummy Supper, Thug Kitchen and The Year of Cozy), and they seem like the perfect fit.
My editor, Dervla Kelly, has been reading this blog for four years, which is pretty special. I’m really excited to be working with her. We’re going to make sure Love Real Food is beautifully designed and full of big, colorful photographs of the recipes (and of Cookie, of course).
I’m so glad the secret’s out now so I can start sharing the creation of Love Real Food with you. Be sure to follow us on Instagram (I’ll be using #loverealfoodbook) and Snapchat (we’re @cookieandkate) for updates! I’ll be putting out a call for recipe testers, too, if you’d like to get involved!
Oh and these pancakes! I thought we could celebrate with pancakes. They’re light, fluffy and infused with apple flavor times two (applesauce and grated apple). They’re also 100 percent whole grain, gluten free and, I kid you not, you can make them in your blender. Just throw everything but the grated apple in there and you’ll have pancakes in no time flat!
Apple Oatmeal Pancakes
Fluffy apple pancakes that you can make in your blender! These healthy pancakes are gluten free, too (no flour required, just oats!). Recipe yields 6 medium pancakes about 4 inches in diameter.
FAIR WARNING: For reasons that I have not been able to deduce, these pancakes haven’t turned out well for everyone like they did for me (I’ve made them six times and they always turned out well!). Oat flour is always a little finicky but I don’t know why these pancakes have been particularly problematic. These pancakes are the reason why my cookbook’s pancakes aren’t oat flour based.
Ingredients
- 1 cup apple sauce
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats (gluten free if necessary)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup grated tart apple (1 large honeycrisp apple was more than plenty for me)
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients except for the grated apple in your blender. Blend until the batter is completely smooth (as in, you shouldn’t see any remaining bits of oats or hear oats hitting the blades), pausing to scrape down the sides as necessary. Stir in the grated apple but do NOT blend again.
- Heat a heavy cast iron skillet/non-stick pan over medium-low heat, or heat an electric griddle to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly oil the surface of your pan with coconut oil, butter or cooking spray. If you’re using a non-stick electric griddle like mine, you might not need any oil at all.
- Once the surface of the pan is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles on it, pour about ⅓ cup of batter onto the pan. This batter is thick, but your pancakes won’t cook through if they’re thicker than ½-inch, so you might need to help spread the batter out with a spatula. Let the pancake cook for about 3 minutes, until bubbles are popping up and the edges are more matte than shiny. (Be patient, these pancakes need to cook a little lower and slower than most.)
- Once the underside is lightly golden, flip it with a spatula and cook for another 90 seconds or so, until golden brown on both sides. You may need to adjust the heat up or down at this point to avoid burning the outsides before the insides are cooked. Repeat with remaining pancakes.
- Serve the pancakes immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my gluten-free peach pancakes and vegan pancakes, with reference to Kelly’s banana blender pancakes and Deb’s apple pancakes.
Applesauce substitutions: If you can’t find applesauce, use plain yogurt instead (I know this works with regular plain yogurt, but suspect that Greek yogurt will be too thick). For the yogurt version, increase the amount of maple syrup or honey to at least 1 tablespoon. Milk will not work.
Storage suggestions: These will keep well, covered and refrigerated, for several days. I bet they will freeze well, too!
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.
Hi, I just made these for breakfast today and it was great! It’s so healthy and more importantly it’s gluten free. Good thing I read up on all the reviews first and did not use quick cooking oats as I’m not particularly fond of rolled oats. Thank you for the recipe!
Just tried these for my one year old daughter and boy, what a success! I omit the maple syrup, since there’s enough sweetness for baby. At first I was a little off-put by the texture (so much moisture gets trapped them because of all that apple!) but then… wouldn’t you believe it, her and I both couldn’t help but eat the entire batch!
Is the oil/butter in the ingredient list part of the ingredients for the batter or for greasing the pan?
Hey Alena, the oil/butter in the ingredients goes into the blender with the other ingredients. You’ll need cooking spray or additional oil/butter for the skillet.
These were amazing! I thought I’d give them a try after making the banana oat pancakes, which were also super yummy. The 1/3 cup scoops of batter took about 4 minutes till the flip for me, it definitely took some patience but was totally worth it. My blender has a big pitcher that’s a pain in the butt to clean, so between that and reading others’ comments and the warning about difficulty with the batter I decided to buzz up my oats into oat flour in my little food processor and then made the batter in a bowl the usual way, which turned out really well.
These have become our go-to pancakes with consistent results every time. Letting the batter sit for a bit, and not over-blending it are probably both god tips. We’ve made them with coconut oil as well as olive oil and haven’t yet bothered with the grated apple because lazy. Texture and flavor are great.
I used apple slices instead of applesauce. Weighed it out to be 1 cup. The pancakes would not cook through no matter how long I left them on the griddle. Tried cast iron too. Very disappointed. Thinking maybe it was because of the apples? Any thoughts? The flavor was good though.
Hi Haley, I’m sorry it didn’t turn out for you! You need the applesauce here for it to turn out.
Hey Kate! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, it is so tasty! Better than regular pancakes by far. I had a bunch of apples about ready to go bad and needed ideas for cooking them. I swapped the applesauce for homemade coconut yogurt. And adjusted the recipe to suit 5 apples. Ended up making more of a cake by baking in the oven, but it is amazing. Relatively healthy as well. Awesome recipe, thanks again!
I followed the recipe. I had the burner on medium low. They browned and bubbled like a pancake should. There was no way to flip them. Just a pile of mush. I smoothed them out. They never cooked through. It was like eating apple custard in pancake form. So disappointed.
I’m sorry to hear that. Did you use the leavener?
Hi, Kate. These were delicious! One question – a tablespoon of baking powder is very high in salt. I made them with a teaspoon of baking powder. They maybe were not as fluffy, and were very moist. Any suggestions re: the baking powder? I was maybe going to add a tablespoon of ground flax the next time I make them, which might help them firm up more. I read the comments about letting the batter rest. Will try that also.
Hi Ann! The baking powder is what helps get these fluffy, reducing or changing it would require a new recipe. If you didn’t mind the result then I would suggest that approach.
Unfortunately I have to add my voice to the nay column. I preblended my oats to ensure they were smooth. I tried a regular thickness pancake like you mentioned using the low and slow method and it was completely raw. I made a thinner pancake and left it on for what felt like forever and it was still raw. I left them on a plate to cook because I know sometimes that helps to firm them up – still a no. I even peeled the thins one apart and it was like a crepe and that finally crisped up – but certainly not pancake. I even too the thicker raw ones and sort of rehashed and tried to cook that again – still no dice. Eventually I just scrapped them all because of the egg and didn’t want to feed to the kiddos. Perhaps the grated apple adds too much moisture??
Hi Erin, I’m sorry this one didn’t work for you. I’m not quite sure, but your apple may have had a lot of moisture. I may take a look at this one again.
This recipe worked perfectly for me. The only switch I made is I used light olive oil instead of coconut oil because of a previous comment regarding that oil seizing (which has happened to me in other recipes). When cooking, I let them sit in med-low – no touching until I flipped it! A really great filling, fluffy pancake.Cookie + Kate never disappoints!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for sharing your experience, Giselle.
This is one of my go-to pancake recipes, I’ve made it a dozen or so times. I wanted to try it with a flax egg today so I read the comments to see if it works, I was surprised to see how many people had trouble with it! Sometimes I put 2 apples and it still works. (I use large flake oats if that makes any difference)
So today I did it with a flax egg and added some chopped nuts, it not only worked great, it may be the best batch yet!
Thank you for the great recipes! It seems like whatever I’m craving and google you have a recipe for!
That’s great! Thank you for your review, Becky.
These are delicious, but if you’re using a griddle, I would set the temp a bit lower. At 350F the insides don’t cook enough to hold together super well and they start to tear when you flip. I had better luck at 300F. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
I made this today, I wasn’t super happy about the consistency of the batter and it was a little on the bitter side for me, so I added about a 1/4 cup vanilla oatmilk, and they are cooking a lot better and have just a touch more sweetness to them.
I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t love these. Did you use baking powder and not baking soda?
Very anxious to make these pancakes
These pancakes are my Mom’s favorite breakfast! I’ll be making them again tomorrow for Mother’s Day. Bonus **the rest of my family (not gluten free) love them too. The only substitution I make is extra applesauce in place of half the oil/butter. So many of my attempts at gluten free baking are sub-par, but this one always comes out perfectly. Thanks!
I LOVE this website and have been cooking from it for years. This morning, I wanted to make something for baby and for my husband and Googled “apple oatmeal pancakes,” and I was pleasantly surprised to find a C+K recipe. I followed it to a T, and the texture was fine, but HOLY COW the baking powder. My husband who will eat aaaanything (like, pick-the-mold-off-and-eat) and hates food waste stopped eating and shuddered at the taste. I had given one to my 10 month old and then proceeded to Google “too much baking powder harmful for babies?”
Again, I love you guys! But this one needs some work. I think maybe embrace the mushy texture without adding so much baking powder?
Hi Grace, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this recipe. I tested it several times and didn’t have that same reaction. Did you use aluminum free?
I did! Which is what confuses me. I’ll definitely try it again with less and see what happens.
I made a few modifications and ended up making them into waffles instead of pancakes, but they turned out great!
I used pumpkin puree instead of applesauce, omitted the cinnamon and instead used a mix of allspice, nutmeg, and ginger, and substituted a flax egg. I also squeezed out most of the juice from the grated apple as some others suggested and used oat flour that I had on hand instead of blending old fashioned oats.
Overall another great Cookie + Kate recipe!
Unfortunately mine refused to cook properly and I could taste the baking powder.
Hi Jessie, I’m sorry to hear that. Did they seem like they were too wet?
I added raisins into the butter and substituted eggs for the “flex eggs” to make it vegan. Tastes great! Thank you!
I’ve made these twice as written, and they’ve turned out great! I use a Vitamix blender, and rolled oats.
I love your recipes! What do you recommend for egg replacer? I prefer not to use Aquafaba but could use flax is necessary. Thanks!
Marsha
Hi Marsah! I think a chia egg would work out fine – or a flax egg. Maybe peruse the comments here to see if anyone else had success with that substitution.
Just made this, no maple syrup and no sugar apple sauce, since I was also feeding my 8mo and they loved it. It turned out so good. Thank you!
I’ve made these twice now and never have applesauce so I used plain 3.5% fat yogurt both times. I also used quick oats and blended them on their own first, into oat flour, before adding the other ingredients.
Other changes: I use less than a full cup of apple because mine are never that large. And I cook them on lower heat because otherwise they’ll seem done on the outside but remain quite mushy on the inside.
They’ve turned out great both times and I’m sure I’ll make them again. Hope this helps for anyone who’s had trouble with the recipe! They’re delicious.
I’m a huge fan of your Blender Oatmeal Pancakes recipe (with a banana). They’re fantastic. I had some leftover applesauce on hand, and I decided to give this recipe a try. Unfortunately, with this apple recipe, the consistency was all wrong for making pancakes, so I put the batter in a bread pan (it smells great) and made regular pancakes instead.
Hi Caitlin, I’m sorry to hear that. Thank you for your feedback.
I’ve made these many times and find that oat flour works much better than putting oatmeal in the blender. With the blender, I find my pancakes fall apart more than if using oat flour. Also, using chunks of sautéed apples is a great sub for grated apples!
I loved these so much—they’re a little wetter inside than normal pancakes but i found them delicious and did not need any toppings. I recommend squeezing out the apple for less moisture and making the pancakes smaller and spreading the batter with a spatula. A Vitamix and low-sodium baking powder may have helped with my good results, if you don’t have a high-power blender you may want to buy oat flour instead?
these pancakes are awesome! i kinda played with the recipe a bit and made a carrot cake version and a spinach version, and both worked great! i did change a few things based on what i had at home, but its a fantastic base recipe and i’m definitely adding these to my breakfast prep rotation.
whenever i’m looking for a recipe, and this website is among the results, itll always be my go to. ive never made any of your stuff i wasnt happy with! i’m so grateful.
I’m happy you enjoyed these pancakes, Danny! I appreciate your review.
My first time to make these. I followed the recipe exactly and they were a big sloppy mess. I think the grated apples needed to be squeezed of all the juice before being added to the batter. It was simply just too wet.
Im sorry to hear that. What type of apples did you use?
We make this fabulous recipe at least once a week. It always works out, even when we’re travelling and don’t have quite the right ingredients. We’ve done it with different homemade and store bought apple sauces, without cinnamon, even without butter. Always scrumptious. Every Friday we check in to make sure we have everything on hand to make sure we can have a delicious weekend! Thank you.
That’s great to hear, Sally! Thank you for sharing.
We cooked these. They were a disaster – even after cooking for nearly 10 minutes they are still mushy. We kept the batter thin but made no difference.
I’m sorry to hear that. From the recipe: FAIR WARNING: For reasons that I have not been able to deduce, these pancakes haven’t turned out well for everyone like they did for me (I’ve made them six times and they always turned out well!). Oat flour is always a little finicky but I don’t know why these pancakes have been particularly problematic. These pancakes are the reason why my cookbook’s pancakes aren’t oat flour based.
I made these today for my husband and myself. I ground quick oats, as it was all I had, but once ground, I doubt it matters. I used one squeeze package of snack applesauce, and dumped a large handful of thawed out apple slices and juice from my freezer. I blended everything, and cooked it in my waffle iron. There was no crispiness, but otherwise the flavor and texture was wonderful. I think my batter was definitely thinner than the recipe called for, but it was perfect for waffles and they were out of this world. I will make them again, as our trees produced heavily a couple years ago, and I froze them all. This recipe is outstanding. You just have to flex it a little to suite your needs. Healthy and yummy.