Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes
These vegan peanut butter banana pancakes with strawberries are inspired by a PB & J sandwich!
These wholesome pancakes are made with just a few healthy ingredients. They’re super easy to make in one bowl and have the best thick, fluffy, hearty texture and peanut butter flavour.
They’re also easy to customize. You can use almond butter instead of peanut butter, try different add-ins like chocolate chips or blueberries and of course, go wild with your favourite pancake toppings!
Enjoy these pancakes as a lovely Sunday morning treat or delicious breakfast any day of the week. They’re best served piled high with extra berries, banana and a drizzle of maple syrup.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- Easy to make in one bowl in 10 minutes with just a few simple, everyday ingredients.
- For the peanut butter lovers! If you love the classic combo of peanut butter and banana, these are the pancakes for you!
- No eggs needed and completely dairy-free!
- No oil added to the recipe and they can be made sugar-free.
- Vegan and can be made gluten-free.
- Delicious way to use up ripe bananas.
- Made with whole grain whole wheat flour.
- Try doubling the recipe and freezing or storing in the fridge for snacks or quick breakfasts during the week.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Banana: You’ll need 1 ripe medium-sized banana. The riper the banana, the sweeter the pancakes will be. Somewhere between the ripeness you’d enjoy as a snack and a brown spotted banana works well.
- Whole Wheat Flour: This can be substituted with white whole wheat flour, spelt flour or all-purpose flour. You can also use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend such as Bob’s Red Mill.
- Baking Powder: Be sure to use baking powder and not baking soda.
- Almond Milk: This can be substituted with any plant-based milk or just water.
- Maple Syrup: Adds just a little touch of sweetness in addition to the banana. You can omit it, increase it for more sweetness or use a different sweetener such as cane sugar, coconut sugar or even a sugar-free option like stevia or monk fruit.
- Peanut Butter: Use your favourite peanut butter. I would recommend a slightly running, natural peanut butter with just 1-2 ingredients (peanuts, salt). For peanut-free you can use almond butter. For nut-free, you could use sunflower seed butter or Wowbutter.
- Strawberries: These are optional. If you just want peanut butter banana pancakes, you can skip the berries. For PB & J pancakes, use fresh or frozen berries of choice such as strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. As another option, you could swirl some of this chia seed jam on top of each pancake once you add them to the pan!
How to Make Peanut Butter Pancakes
Step 1: Mash the banana into a paste in a mixing bowl using a fork, potato masher or immersion blender.
Step 2: Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients, starting with the flour, and mix them together lightly as they sit on top of the wet mixture. Fold them into the wet mixture until fully combined. As soon as all of the flour has been incorporated, stop mixing.
Let the batter rest while you heat a non-stick skillet or pancake griddle over medium heat.
Step 3: Add approximately 1/4 cup scoops of the batter to the hot pan. Add a few chopped strawberries or other fresh or frozen berry to each pancake.
Cook the pancakes until bubbles appear and the edges of each pancake looks firm, dry and cooked.
Flip and cook for a few more minutes then repeat until you’ve used up all the batter.
Peanut Butter Pancake Tips
Here are a few tips for banana pancake success:
- Use drippy natural peanut butter. A nice, creamy natural peanut butter will mix in easily. Now, if you’d like to reduce the fat in this recipe, you can mix up some powdered peanut butter and use that.
- Don’t over mix the batter. The secret to fluffy pancakes is a slightly lumpy batter. Gently mix the wet and dry ingredients together until all the flour is “just mixed” in.
- Let the batter rest. I find that letting the mixed batter rest for 5-10 minutes results in fluffier pancakes!
- Pre-heat the pan. While the batter sits, get your pan heated over medium heat so it’s ready to go.
- Flip when you see bubbles and dry edges. When you see a few bubbles in the centre of the pancakes and the edges are starting to look dry and cooked, go ahead and flip! Once you flip, they should only need 1-2 more minutes to cook through.
Topping Ideas
Besides pure maple syrup, here are some fun ideas for topping your pb pancakes:
- Fresh fruit. Try raspberries, strawberries, banana or diced apple/
- Berry sauce. Heat up frozen berries stovetop to make a quick berry sauce, add a bit of maple syrup for sweetness, if you like.
- Chia seed jam. I love using my 10-minute chia seed jam for pancakes!
- Date caramel. Make a quick date caramel sauce by soaking fresh dates in hot water for 15 minutes then blending with a little water or coconut milk. I like to add a pinch of sea salt and some vanilla. Or you can use this date paste recipe and just thin it out a bit with water or milk.
- Any nut or seed butter. A drizzle or spoonful of your favourite nut or seed butter is always a welcome pancake addition. Try tahini, sunflower seed butter or almond butter.
- Tahini caramel. Mix 1 tbsp of tahini with 1 tbsp of maple syrup and a bit of water to make a delicious tahini caramel sauce.
- Homemade caramel: Easy to make with coconut sugar.
- Sautéed apples. Sautéed apples take minutes to make stovetop. Just heat diced apples in a pan with a pinch of cinnamon and either water or coconut oil until softened. Get a full how-to here. These baked pears are also yummy.
- Vegan chocolate sauce. Use this simple vegan chocolate sauce made from almond milk, cocoa powder, nut butter and maple syrup.
- Chocolate chips. Sprinkle over top for a treat!
- Yogurt. Spread your favourite yogurt over the pancakes or between each each pancake. Granola is a yummy topping to pair with yogurt!
FAQs
Yes. To make these gluten-free, subsitute the whole wheat flour with a 1:1 gluten-free baking flour such as Bob’s Red Mill. If you’d prefer not to make substitutions, I have many gluten-free pancakes to try:
• Vegan Quinoa Flour Pancakes
• Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes
• Chickpea Flour Pancakes
• Vegan Oat Banana Pancakes
Yes. You can use any nut or seed butter you enjoy. For peanut-free pancakes, I would suggest almond butter. If you need the recipe to be nut-free, I would suggest sunflower seed butter, though tahini would also work.
The best peanut butter to use is a drippy (on the runny side), creamy natural peanut butter. This will be easiest to mix in to the batter.
If you’re new to natural peanut butter, when you bring it home with a thick layer of oil sitting on top. This is normal. You can store the jar upside down until you’re ready to use, or open and mix well to mix the oil back into the peanut butter.
This recipe is best made with fresh ripe banana as frozen banana will add excess liquid and you’d need to adjust the recipe.
If you must use frozen banana, let it thaw completely first in a bowl in the fridge, then drain off the liquid from the bowl before using.
Yes, to use powdered peanut butter, substitute the peanut butter with 1/4 cup powdered peanut butter and use a little extra liquid as needed to each a thick but pourable batter.
Storing & Making Ahead
Freezing the Pancakes: Let the pancakes cool completely before storing. You can either freeze them on a baking pan before transferring to a freezer bag or container, or freeze them with a piece of parchment paper between them to prevent them from sticking together.
The pancakes can be stored in the freezer for up to 4 months. When you’re ready, you can reheat from frozen in the oven or toaster or thaw them in the fridge or at room temperature then reheat.
Storing in the Fridge: Let cool completely then store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave for 10-20 seconds or pop them in them the toaster.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
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Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These peanut butter banana pancakes taste like a PB & J sandwich! Pile them high and top with extra strawberries, banana and maple syrup for a delicious breakfast the whole family will love.
Ingredients
- 1 ripe banana, mashed (120 g)
- 1 cup almond milk (250 mL)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup, or more to taste (15 g)
- 3 tbsp natural peanut butter (45 g)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (120 g)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup diced strawberries or other berries of choice (140 g)
Instructions
- In a bowl, mash the banana with a fork until you have a paste. Add the maple syrup, peanut butter and milk and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. While the flour is sitting on top of the wet ingredients, lightly mix the baking powder, salt and cinnamon into the flour to help distribute it before folding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients underneath.
- Mix until you have a fully combined but slightly lumpy batter, then stop mixing it. Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Lightly oil the pan or use a little non-stick cooking spray, if needed.
- Scoop approximately 1/4 cup portions of the batter into the pan.
- Evenly add a few spoonfuls of diced strawberries or other berries to each pancake.
- Once there are a few bubbles in the middle of each pancake and the edges are starting to look dry and cooked, flip and cook for another minute or two.
Notes
Peanut butter can be substituted with almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
The whole recipe is meant to serve 2 people. The amount of pancakes you get will depend on how big you make them but you should get around 6-7 large pancakes.
For peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes, instead of berries sprinkle a few chocolate chips onto each pancake (or use both!) or mix about 1/2 cup chocolate chips into the batter. Otherwise, any berry like blueberries, strawberries or raspberries work or you can try swirling this chia seed berry jam into the batter or using as a topping.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 of recipe
- Calories: 489
- Sugar: 19 g
- Fat: 16 g
- Carbohydrates: 85 g
- Fiber: 11 g
- Protein: 15 g
Keywords: peanut butter pancakes, peanut butter banana pancakes
More Vegan Pancake Recipes
Loving these peanut butter pancakes? You’ve got to try these too:
I simply love this pancake! My favourite topping is a 2 tsp tahini and 1 tsp hazelnut and cocoa butter with banana and chia. Absolutely delicious.
Can I store any leftover batter? I mean, I’m sure it stores well in the fridge but how long? Thank you! I’m transitioning to a more plant-based lifestyle and I’m having a lot of difficulty finding foods that I like.
It would be ok for a day or two but will get very thick. I would recommend cooking all of it then freezing any extra pancakes or storing in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in toaster or oven.