Best Pancakes Without Milk of Any Kind

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Let me show you how to make whole wheat pancakes without milk or butter from scratch. I'll even teach you my trick to making pancakes in half the time!

Several small pancakes overlapping, topped with pieces of banana and strawberry. Drizzled with maple syrup.

Not able to find a box of pancake mix on the shelves? No problem! Thankfully homemade pancakes are very easy to make and use basic pantry ingredients. So great!

When I first started posting recipes, I was seeing posts about people not being able to find pancake mix on the grocery store shelves. Then I thought to myself, who needs buy pancake mix when you can easily make your own? It really is so easy!

Unlike my blueberry pancake recipe, I've updated this recipe to be made without milk. And because milk adds substance and flavor to pancakes, I had to play around with the other ingredients a little. But don't worry, I'm pretty sure you'll just love this pancake recipe I've created!

Plus, serving a hearty wholesome breakfast like this might just help lessen the non-stop requests for snacks!! It's true!

Dress pancakes with your favorite fixings or use them to make mini breakfast burritos. Encourage your kids to get creative! My son recently ate his taco-style, while my daughter has requested a pancake sandwich in her school lunch. Whatever works!

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Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ingredient Notes
Dietitian Tip
How to Make Pancakes Without Milk
How to Make Pancakes in Half the Time
Helpful Tips
Questions You May Have
Related Recipes
More Easy Recipes
Homemade Pancakes Without Milk

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Easy recipe You only need one bowl!
Light and airy While I wouldn't describe these as 'fluffy pancakes,' they are light and airy, which I think you'll love.
Dairy Free These pancakes are made without milk of any kind or butter. Whether you've run out of milk, are vegan, or have kids with dairy allergies, this recipe will show you how to make the perfect pancakes without milk of any kind!
High in fiber Serving whole grain pancakes for breakfast will help keep you and your kids feeling full longer.
Easy meal prep recipe I will provide tips on how to freeze and reheat pancakes!
There are so many ways to serve pancakes! I love how versatile pancakes are. Pancakes can be served first thing in the morning or when having breakfast for dinner. In fact, one of my kids likes it when I made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using small leftover pancakes in place of bread. Get creative!

Ingredient Notes

Pancakes Without Milk ingredients in separate measuring dishes, labeled.

White Whole Wheat Flour White whole wheat flour is unbleached. It has the same nutritional value as whole wheat flour. And, because of the variety of wheat used to make it, white whole wheat flour has a milder flavor, a lighter color, and a softer texture.
Water That's right! This recipe uses milk instead of milk of any kind.
Egg white This recipe calls for egg whites from two large eggs. Using egg white instead of a whole egg helps to keep these pancakes lighter. One whole egg can be used in place of two egg whites, but the pancakes will be denser.
Olive oil This recipe uses olive oil instead of butter. However, if you don't need a dairy-free pancake recipe and prefer to use butter instead of oil, you can substitute two tablespoons of melted butter for the oil.

Dietitian Tip

To give your kids some 'say' in breakfast and lessen the struggle on busy mornings, ask your kids how they would like breakfast served. Who knows, the child that won't eat eggs may actually eat them if wrapped inside of a pancake.

Or the child that doesn't like plain pancakes may love the of topping them with vanilla yogurt and strawberries and eat it like a breakfast taco.

This is because sometimes it's less about what is actually being served and more about how it's served. Whether I'm serving waffles or pancakes, I ask my kids what they would like as toppings. I give options like slices of fresh fruit, peanut butter, and maple syrup.

And if it takes a few mini chocolate chips sprinkled into the batter to get them to eat a whole grain pancake, I'd consider that a win as well 😉

How to Make Pancakes Without Milk

Four process shots showing steps to make 4-inch pancakes.

Here's a quick overview of the steps to make these whole wheat pancakes without milk. For the full list of ingredients and instructions, scroll down to the recipe.

Add egg whites to a medium or large mixing bowl and whisk well. Whisk for about 30 seconds. Small bubbles should form.
Add water to the egg whites and whisk again.
Whisk in the vanilla and oil. The liquid mixture will look a little like foam on top.
Stir in the sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Stir in the white whole wheat flour just until all of the flour is mixed in. There will still be some lumps in the batter.
Let the batter sit for about 3 minutes.
Heat a greased griddle pan on medium heat while the pancake batter is sitting.
Once the pan is hot, pour 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake on the griddle, being sure to space them out on the pan.
Cook pancakes for about two minutes. When the edges appear lightly golden brown and bubble formation slows down, flip the pancake over and cook for an additional two minutes, or until the pancakes are fully cooked.

How to Make Pancakes in Half the Time

While this may seem like common sense to some, it took me years of making pancakes to figure out that I could have two stovetop griddle pans going at the same time! With this strategy, you can cook 8 4-inch pancakes at the same time. Genius, right? 🙂

If you don't have two griddle pans, large flat skillets can be used instead. I can usually get 3 pancakes to fit on a large skillet. Try it and let me know how it works!

Helpful Tips

This is a very thin bater. If you prefer thicker batter, you can stir in a few extra tablespoons of flour but, because this uses a whole grain flour, the pancakes will be heavier if you add more flour.
Make sure the pans are hot and greased before pouring the batter on.
I like to use avocado oil spray to grease my pans because avocado oil can withstand high heat.
Cook pancakes on medium heat. Do not try to rush the cooking process by increasing the heat higher than medium for even cooking.
Make sure the pans are hot before pouring the batter on.
Let the batter sit for 3-5minutes before cooking the pancakes. Don't skip this step or you will end up with very flat and dense pancakes.
While I haven't tried it, I have no doubt that you could substitute all-purpose flour for the white whole wheat flour if that's what you have.
Let pancakes cool completely before storing in the refrigerator or freezer.

Questions You May Have

Can you make pancakes without milk?

Yes! This recipe shows you how you can make pancakes without milk of any kind.

However, because milk provides flavor and texture, I do suggest adding vanilla extract and adjusting the amount of flour slightly when you substitute water for milk in a pancake recipe that calls for milk.

How do you make fluffy pancakes?

I get the fluffiest pancakes when I use buttermilk or extra baking powder in a pancake recipe. I did increase the amount of baking powder in this recipe, but not too much because I don't like it when you can taste the baking powder. I also decided to use egg whites instead of a whole egg to not weight the pancakes down as much.

Can you freeze pancakes?

Yes, absolutely. I freeze pancakes all the time. If you have the freezer space and time, you can freeze pancakes individually for a few hours and then move them into a freezer-safe resealable bag to freeze for longer.

I don't usually take the time to do this. I let pancakes cool completely and then stack them in a freezer safe resealable bag. I squeeze as much of the air out as I can before I seal the bag and then stick the bag in the freezer for up to 3 months

When it's time to defrost the pancakes, I either take a bag of froze pancakes out of the freezer and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight to defrost or I pull the pancakes apart from each other while they are still frozen and defrost them using my air fryer.