Bite-Sized Comfort Food: Mini Pancakes
These mini pancakes have a question for you: will you enjoy them for brunch, as a snack, or a sweet dessert? And, yes, you have to decide now. Kidding, of course! Though these cherry mini pancakes may be too adorable to eat, I do believe you can power through, friends. The real issue is deciding when to stop.
If you’ve poked around Pinterest lately (ok, for the last few years), you’ve probably noticed the GORGEOUS brunch board ideas – like the ones I have pinned here. Once we are all able to safely gather again, post-COVID, I can’t wait to break out the entertaining gear and share one of these brunch boards with friends. Let’s be honest, there is a strong possibility I’ll enjoy my own brunch boards sans anyone to share it with. Strong possibility. I can picture these mini pancakes displayed with some powdered sugar or little serving cups of syrup and paired with some cheese, fruit, and other goodies. For those who follow a vegan diet, though, this gets even better! The pancakes are made with flax meal eggs, plant-based based buttermilk, and sweetened with coconut sugar and pure maple syrup. Seriously delicious and seriously cute.
Why make mini pancakes?
Um, because why would you not make something that’s adorable and has the word “pancake” in it? I’ll wait. In all seriousness, there are several reasons to add this to your brunch rotation:
- These bake in the oven, leaving your stove available for other important dishes and allows you to make quite a few at once. If you have two muffin pans available, you can make 24 at once. Plus, with only ten minutes baking time necessary, you could easily double or triple the recipe and have enough to feed an army.
- A fun, healthier twist on comfort food…which is really what this space is all about – making healthier options more fun!
- Perfect for entertaining or a grab-and-go snack. These are easy to pick up by hand…just dust with a little powdered sugar or drizzle with some pure maple syrup. I love how cute these are arranged on a serving tray or charcuterie board, especially since they are small enough to tuck into corners or create different patterns on the board.
- Easy to make and easy to customize. Not a cherry fan? Pick whatever flavors you enjoy – different berries, a cinnamon streusel…whatever suits your mood. All these mini pancakes require are a few minutes prep before bake time. Easy peasy!
Ingredient List
I bet you have most of these ingredients on hand, so these might just save you a trip to the grocery store. If not, rest assured these ingredients are easy to incorporate in lots of other recipes, so you will definitely put them to good use.
The foundation
All-purpose flour: We are adding other ingredients for leavening, so I suggest using all-purpose flour. This is the most versatile of the flour options, for those not on a gluten-free diet, of course.
Baking powder and baking soda: For leavening…these ingredients do the heavy lifting and we love them for it! The baking soda is ideal because we add an acid to the dough with the plant-based buttermilk.
Cornstarch: This is our secret ingredient to make these a little lighter and fluffier.
Kosher salt: I use Pink Himalayan Sea Salt that is very fine and perfect for an even distribution.
Wet Ingredients
Plant-based buttermilk: If you are familiar with my other baked goodies, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of plant-based buttermilk. Just because I don’t tend to keep traditional buttermilk on hand (does anyone these days…let me know!) and it’s easy enough to whip up a quick version while preparing the rest of the ingredients. Just add lemon juice to the plant-based milk of your choosing, stir, and allow it to sit for a few minutes.
Lemon juice: For the plant-based buttermilk – this recipe only calls for the juice of 1/2 a lemon.
Flax meal eggs: These are made from flax meal and water, a 1:3 ratio. Just mix the flax meal with the water and allow it to chill for a few minutes in the fridge to allow the flax meal to absorb the water and get thick enough to do its job properly. This does add structure to the batter.
Extra virgin olive oil: You are welcome to use any neutral-flavored cooking oil of your choice. This adds a healthier fat than butter to the recipe.
Add the flavor
Coconut sugar: I love the warm flavors and more moist crumb the coconut sugar adds to the pancakes. I think it pairs well with cherries, especially. Though not considered health food, coconut sugar does offer a little more “pros” when compared to traditional refined sugar.
Fresh cherries: I use one cherry per mini pancake. These need to be washed, drained, pitted and halves.
Optional: Serve with the sweetener of your choosing – usually, powdered sugar or pure maple syrup.
Cherry Mini Pancakes Recipe
Cherry Mini Pancakes
Equipment
- 12-count muffin pan (2 pans are preferred, or bake in more than one batch)
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups plant-based milk I prefer unsweetened milk.
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or neutral-flavored oil of your choice
- 2 flax eggs 2 tablespoons flax meal mixed with 6 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 27-30 cherries washed, drained, halved, and pitted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Spray your muffin tin with a little nonstick cooking spray.
- If you have not already mixed the flax meal with water, go ahead and make these and place in the fridge while you prepare the dry ingredients. The longer the flax eggs have to chill, the better the consistency for baking.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients and stir to thoroughly combine.
- Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet and stir just to combine and removing any lumps of flour.
- Gently pour pancake batter into each muffin cup, filling about 1/4-inch full. Add two cherry halves to each muffin cup with dough.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the center is set and no longer looks like dough.
- Cool on a wire rack until ready to serve with warm syrup. Enjoy!
Notes
- 2 regular eggs in place of the flax meal eggs.
- Buttermilk or regular milk in place of plant-based milk.
- Coconut sugar with light brown sugar or granulated sugar.
- Any berries of your choice in place of cherries.
Pro Tip:
After mixing the flax meal and water, place the flax eggs in the fridge for 5 – 15 minutes to allow the meal to absorb the water so it can act as a proper binding agent in your baked good. It does offer a slightly nutty flavor, but is not noticeable in this particular mini pancakes recipe.
Pancake Substitutions
Have some fun with these and use the substitutions you prefer!
- Eggs: You can use 2 regular eggs instead of flax eggs.
- Buttermilk: If you prefer the dairy version, go right ahead! No need to make adjustments to the amount.
- Sugar: Light brown sugar is the closest flavor to coconut sugar, adding warm, sugary notes to the pancakes. Substitute with light brown sugar, or try with granulated sugar or Truvia baking sweetener.
- Filling: Make these with the fruit of your choice, or nuts or streusel.
Want more brunch ideas?
Try some of these hearth • health • happiness favorites:
If you decide to whip up your own batch of cherry (or berry) mini pancakes, be sure to let me know how they work for you and tag me on social media so I can share in the cuteness!
Until next time, friends, cheers to your hearth, health, and happiness!
