These vegan gluten-free peanut butter & jelly oat pancakes are a pb & j lover's breakfast dream. A fluffy, peanut buttery stack of oat pancakes is topped with a sweet strawberry compote and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.
Once in a while, something comes into our lives that makes it all a bit sweeter.
Sometimes it's a person, other times an opportunity, and on rare occasion it's a ridiculously tasty stack of pancakes.
If you've been following along for a while, you might have noticed that there's a serious shortage of pancake recipes on this blog. I outlined the reason for that in this post when I created a giant blueberry skillet pancake to avoid the pour, flip, wait, flip, repeat, repeat, repeat...
REPEAT <-- That? That right there is pure, unbridled frustration, as I'm typically over it by the time the fourth pancake makes an appearance in my skillet.
Another pancake to stare at for four minutes on one side and four minutes on the other? Ugh.
I have patience for just about everything except pancakes and traffic. Of the latter, Dan's always noted that my usual sweetness is overrun by some sort of road-rage monster demon -- seriously, it's something above the playful horror of a monster -- when I'm caught in traffic. I'm not sure what happens but it's unpleasant, and I waste a whole lot of energy being flustered about something I can't control. BUT I'm working on it. Meditation and yoga help, Chicago traffic does not.
As for the pancakes, I'm not sure what came over me the other day but I decided to release my aversion to flipping and repeating and get down with a peanut-buttery, jelly-covered stack of goodness. And you know what? It was completely, totally, 100% worth the effort. If my frustrations for pancakes can be released, I think there's a bright glimmer of hope for that nasty case of road rage. Fingers crossed.
These pancakes are downright delicious and worth every minute of 'cake-flippin' time. The pancakes are home to the peanut butter side of the PB + J equation, with a healthy dose of creamy pb mixed into the batter. The result is a stack of golden, tender, and richly-peanut-buttery pancakes.
The jelly part of the equation is satiated by a sweet strawberry compote. To make it, you'll cook fresh strawberries, pure maple syrup, and a bit of vanilla (optional) until the combination thickens and breaks down into a jelly-like compote. Then, you'll scoop the strawberry compote onto the pancakes and drizzle the entire stack with a bit of maple syrup to pull it all together. The result is nothing short of crave-worthy, and it makes every last flip worthwhile.
📖 Recipe
Peanut Butter & Jelly Oat Pancakes (vegan, gluten-free)
Ingredients
For the Peanut Butter Oat Pancakes
- 1 tablespoon ground flax
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 cup homemade oat flour (see notes)
- 2 ½ tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1 cup almond milk
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
For the Strawberry Compote
- 2 cups quartered fresh strawberries
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- optional: seeds of 1 vanilla bean
- optional: 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder
Additional Toppings
- pure maple syrup
Instructions
To Make the Peanut Butter Oat Pancakes
- Make a flax egg by adding the flax and water to a bowl, whisk together with a fork, and let the mixture stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Add the oat flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, and sea salt to a large mixing bowl and mix together.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flax egg, almond milk, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently mix together, being careful not to over mix.
- Let the batter rest for 10 to 20 minutes. (The baking powder will begin to active during this rest period, yielding a super fluffy pancake batter).
- While the batter is resting, heat a small (approximately 5-inches in diameter) well-seasoned cast iron skillet or nonstick pan over medium-low heat for approximately 10 minutes.
- When ready to make the pancakes, spray the skillet with coconut oil or cooking spray and pour ⅓ cup batter into the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes, carefully flip, and cook another 3-4 minutes. Remove the pancake from the pan and repeat until all batter is used.
To Make the Strawberry Compote
- While cooking the pancakes, add the strawberries, maple syrup, and vanilla to a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the strawberries are tender and beginning to break down. If you want to thicken the mixture, scoop out about ¼ cup into a bowl, add in 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder, whisk together, return the mixture to the pan, and cook an additional 2-3 minutes to thicken.
- Remove from heat and use a fork to mash the strawberries, being careful as the mixture will still be hot.
To Serve
- Stack the pancakes, top with strawberry compote, and drizzle with pure maple syrup.
- Serve immediately.
- Refrigerate leftovers.
Notes
Tanya says
Ohhh these look really good. Thank you for all these recipes you post. I absolutely love looking at your site.
Ashley says
Aww, thank YOU, Tanya! Your sweet words mean so much, and I'm glad you're enjoying the site!
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
These peanut butter and jelly pancakes just look SO incredibly perfect, fluffy and delicious. Wish I had a stack now!
Ashley says
Thanks, Thalia! I don't think there's a tastier or more classic combination than pb + j. Hope you're doing well!
Terje says
Can it be!? A vegan gluten-free pancake recipe that doesn't require stardust and powdered wings from a rare butterfly only found in New Guinea? This is unbelievable, I actually have all the ingredients at home! Or well, I don't have almond milk and peanut butter, but I can make the milk myself and I'll substitute peanut butter with another nut butter that I'm able to eat.
This is pure magic, bookmarking the recipe for a nice weekend morning :)
Ashley says
Hahaha, this is too funny and so true for so many vegan, gf baking recipes! I've had some woefully-terrible creations that involved all sorts of crazy powders, starches, gums, etc, but this one definitely keeps things simple. I'm glad you have most of the ingredients on hand, Terje! This is one that's nice to whip up when the craving strikes. I'm sure this will work well with sunflower seed butter or almond butter (or any nut butter). Hope you enjoy this one!
Terje says
Finally got around to making it, used almond-sunflower seed butter (decided to make a mixed one). It worked perfectly! I did manage to burn most of the pancakes because I was attempting to eat at the same time, but the taste was still excellent. Didn't manage to make it as bigger pancakes (wasn't flippable), so I made tiny blob-shaped ones instead. Even my boyfriend approved, though he of course had to eat them with proper ice cream to cancel out the veganness :D
Terje says
Oh, and the tiny blobs are very fast to make - only around two minutes on one side and one on the other.
Ashley says
Thanks for the feedback, Terje! I'm so glad you and your boyfriend enjoyed these (despite the difficulty flipping them), and I love that he paired them with ice cream. Too funny! I'll have to try making them with almond-sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter to see if I can figure out an adjustment that would make them more flip-able with that substitution. Although, little blob-shaped ones do sound kind of cute :)
Terje says
I had some batter left over, so I made some lunch pancakes the next day. The small blobcakes worked perfectly as long as I wasn't stuffing my face with food at the same time :D Paying attention to the pan meant beautiful little blobs that were nice and brown on both sides, no burning this time. So yeah, I'd just recommend making slightly smaller pancakes and then there are no problems.
Celeste says
These look amazingly delicious! Worth every second of watching and flipping! Look like a great Valentine weekend breakfast.
Annie says
Mmmm! This sounds lovely! I have always wanted to find more gluten-free variations on pancakes, because I can never manage to get them interesting enough, or the right consistency. Thank you for thinking of this one - I can't wait to try it out at home this weekend! :-)
June Burns says
Those look fantastic! I've made pancakes with oat flour in the past, it always comes out great. The strawberry compote sounds like a terrific topping too :)
Anna says
These are really mouthwatering even for a person who is not vegan or looking for gluten/lactose/egg free recipes. I found your blog via Terje's blog and I love it!
Sunday morning is gonna be greate! Looking forward to it, 99% because of the pancakes :P
Ashley says
Thanks so much, Anna! Also, I'm glad you found my blog through Terje's! Hope you enjoy this recipe :)