Super quick and easy 5 ingredient Corn Flour Pancakes. They are golden, fluffy, and can be mixed up & on your plate in under 15 minutes!
Oh my these Corn Flour Pancakes are so good! Golden, super light and fluffy, and slightly crispy on the outside.
They have a delicious, mellow sweet taste from the corn flour, (a bit like cornbread), and are so much lighter than pancakes made with regular all-purpose flour. They also happen to be dairy-free, egg-free, naturally gluten-free (like my vegan banana oatmeal pancakes), and so quick and easy to make.
Add a pat of vegan butter and a drizzle of maple syrup and it's like all your perfect vegan breakfasts have come at once!
In this post - Everything you need to make Corn Flour Pancakes:
Ingredients
This is an incredibly simple recipe that is made with just a handful of pantry staple ingredients and no eggs are required! Here is exactly what you need:
And a couple of ingredient notes:
- Corn flour - You must use corn flour and not cornmeal in this recipe. Corn flour is very finely ground cornmeal. It is not cornstarch/UK cornflour. I use Bob's Red Mill Corn Flour. This recipe will not work with all-purpose flour.
- Sugar - This is optional in this recipe. It does bring out the flavour of the corn flour and helps to make the pancakes golden though so I do recommend using it if you can.
Success Tip- For maximum flavour, colour and crispiness, I highly recommend cooking the pancakes in vegan butter.
How To Make Corn Flour Pancakes
This has got to be one of the easiest and quickest pancakes recipes to make EVER. Unlike most pancake recipes, there is no resting time for the batter and you don't even need to worry about over-mixing because it is naturally gluten-free.
Here's a quick summary of how it's done:
- Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix them together.
- Pour in the plant milk and vanilla.
- Whisk together to form a smooth batter.
- Cook the pancakes in batches on a skillet or griddle over medium-low heat.
The whole process takes less than 15 minutes start to finish!
Success tip - Treat the pancakes gently when cooking/flipping. Because they don't contain any gluten they are quite delicate.
Serving Suggestions
The very best way to eat Corn Flour Pancakes is with vegan butter and maple syrup. Maybe with some vegan sausages or vegan bacon on the side? They are also great with frozen berry compote, fresh berries, roasted strawberries or blueberry lavender sauce.
If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it by leaving a comment and rating below! And be sure to join my mailing list for more deliciousness!
Recipe
Corn Flour Pancakes
Author:Ingredients
- 2 cups (247 grams) corn flour , not meal - it must be very finely ground (see recipe notes RE how to measure correctly) In the UK it is sometimes labeled as maize flour.
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1⅓ cup (320 mls) milk of choice
INSTRUCTIONS
- To a medium bowl, add the corn flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Whisk them together.
- Add the milk and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix them together well.
- Heat a griddle, skillet or frying pan over a medium low heat. Add a drizzle of mildly flavoured oil or some vegan butter and allow to melt/spread around the pan. If you have a good non stick pan/griddle you can cook them oil-free.
- Once hot add the batter about ⅓ cup (80 mls) at a time. Allow them to cook undisturbed, until bubbles start forming around the edges and they start to look slightly set around the edges. Don't wait for bubbles to appear all over the top.
- Flip gently and cook on the other side until lightly golden. This won't take long. 30 seconds or so. Don't overcook them or they will become dry.
- Remove from the pan and serve immediately.
Alex says
These are like little light n fluffy cornbread pillows. Thanks for another banger Mel!
Maile K Epperson says
Followed the instructions, including how to measure the corn flour, and had a completely unusable paste. Do not recommend.
Theresa Freeman says
I made this pan cake and my family love it.
Lisa M Jensen says
I tried to make these but the batter turned out like cookie dough and looked like pucks in the frying pan. What did I do wrong?
Melanie McDonald says
If the batter was like cookie dough, and you used corn flour (and not any other type) as per the recipe, then you didn't weigh or measure your ingredients properly. You can see the texture the batter should be in my instructional video.
Desiree says
Making this in the USA, using masa harina which is Hispanic corn flour. I added the ingredients in the amounts stated and it turned out like wet sand, not like a batter at all. I added more milk and I’m going to try cooking them anyways, but I don’t have high hopes. Any idea on what went differently for me?
Melanie McDonald says
This recipe has only been tested with regular corn flour, not masa harina. Masa harina is different. Corn flour is made with yellow corn. Literally just dried corn that is ground to a flour. Masa harina is made with white corn that is treated with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). Basically, an alkaline solution is used to soften the corn enough for grinding into a paste. The paste then gets dried to make masa harina. Corn flour is acidic and masa harina is alkaline.
Also, because you mention the texture of the batter it's worth checking that you measured the flour correctly? By weighing it, or by spooning it into the cup and then leveling the top without shaking or compacting it down? If you scoop it into the cup you can easily end up with 30-40% more flour than intended which can make the batter too thick.
All of this will affect how well the recipe turns out.
Hope that helps!
marie says
that should read Vitamix!!!
marie says
if I blitz cornmeal in the vitamin will that be cornflour?
Melanie McDonald says
I'd blitz it then sieve it so it's superfine then it will be fine!
Paula says
Is polenta the same as corn flour?
Melanie McDonald says
Polenta is made from corn but it is usually coarser than flour. More like our cornmeal in consistency. You need a corn flour that is really fine, like regular wheat/plain flour consistency. If you can find a bag of polenta that is like that in texture then it will work, but I think most will be too coarse/grainy. You'll need to examine the bags and check before you buy. Some have a window so you can see it. You might also fine it labeled as maize flour.
I just checked Tesco and Sainsbury's online and they have Natco fine corn meal and from reading reviews of it it looks like it might be flour-like in consistency, but I've never used it myself so can't guarantee how fine it will be. It looks like Amazon Uk might also sell corn flour and maize flour too but it's hard for me to see for sure as it keeps defaulting to the Canadian Amazon when I search.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy to find as it is in North America, but I hope that helps a bit!
Julie R says
Is the corn flour you use known as maize flour here in UK?
Melanie McDonald says
Yes, it is. I'll make a note of that in the recipe.
Dianne says
They taste amazing. Like cornbread and are so soft and fluffy. Our new favorite. Kids loved them!
Melanie McDonald says
Thank you Dianne. I'm really pleased you all enjoyed them!
Mary says
Love them!
Prue says
OMG just made them. So good!! I can’t believe how simple they are either!
A Virtual Vegan says
Yay! I'm so pleased you enjoyed them Prue. Thanks for stopping by to leave feedback. It's much appreciated!