Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

Brunch on a Saturday morning calls for pancakes! These blueberry coconut pancakes are my healthier twist on the processed mixes you can find in the stores. Sure, I love several premade mixes, but by creating a homemade version, you know exactly what is going in your dish and can make substitutions to meet your needs. For me, the greatest benefit of this is not being wary of cross-contamination of allergens. Using whole ingredients with additional flavor from the blueberries and coconut flakes, these will soon be your favorite part about getting up for breakfast! With only 6 common ingredients, you won’t spend all morning baking either.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Serves 1

Serving size: 4 pancakes

½ cup oat flour

1 egg

¼ cup unsweetened coconut milk

½ tsp baking powder

2 tsp coconut sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Toppings – fresh/frozen blueberries, unsweetened coconut flakes

First, mix all the dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl. This includes oat flour, baking powder, and coconut sugar. Mix the wet ingredients – egg, coconut milk, and vanilla extract – in a separate medium sized bowl. Once all the wet ingredients are mixed thoroughly, combine the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix well. I suggest using a hand mixer or whisk as you want to ensure there are no apparent clumps; whisk until the batter appears smooth. Then you are on to the fun part!

Place a pan on the stove top over medium heat. Coat with a coconut oil spray so that the pancakes will not stick nor burn easily. Pour a ¼ of the batter into the pan and let cook. As soon as you see tiny bubbles appear in the pancake or the pancake begins to rise, start adding your blueberries. These can be fresh or frozen! I find the pancakes to be tastier and they cook better as you add the fruit while the pancake is heating up, rather than adding the berries to the batter in the bowl.

Flip the pancake and press down with the spatula as you hear the blueberries sizzle. Let each side cook for about 15 seconds and then flip again. Keep flipping back and forth until you achieve a light browned color on each side and can tell the batter is fully solidified! Repeat these steps three more times until all the batter is used.

Top your pancakes with unsweetened coconut flakes.

Now you have your blueberry coconut pancakes! The nice thing about these is that the coconut flavor is not very strong at all. So, if you are not a huge fan of coconut, don’t worry about only being able to taste the coconut. Coconut sugar is a great alternative to cane sugar without making everything you bake taste like coconut. Regular sugar is full of "empty calories" whereas coconut sugar contains many nutrients like zinc, iron, potassium, and calcium. Coconut sugar also contains inulin which slows glucose absorption, meaning it won't spike your blood sugar!

I am a huge fan of coconut so you can bet I top my pancakes with lots of coconut flakes! Toppings are always up to you, so add more berries, dark chocolate chips, honey, or maple syrup for your source of added flavor.

You can also make these pancakes vegan by substituting the egg for 1 tbsp of ground flaxseeds and 3 tbsp of water*. This is a great way for anyone looking to increase their fiber intake too, as flaxseeds provide 4 grams of fiber per serving!

Creating pancakes from scratch is a phenomenal way to make sure you know exactly what you are putting in your food. You are without a doubt decreasing the amount of refined white flour and added sugars you consume. You wouldn’t even guess that my blueberry coconut pancakes came from scratch; they taste even better than prepared mixes and take just as little time to throw together! I’ve always been pretty picky when it comes to my pancake batters, so I love that these do not taste artificial at all, while not lacking in textural or taste appeal. They even impressed my little sister, and she's hard to please with her usual favorites :) Try these the next time you want to enjoy a relaxing morning!

*This is a flax egg – 1 tbsp of ground flaxseeds and 3 tbsp of warm water for every egg called for in the recipe. Let mixture sit in the fridge for 15 minutes to become a gel-like consistency before pouring into the wet ingredients bowl.