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Recipe: Plantain Flour Pancakes

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If you can’t tolerate grain or nut flours, this recipe is for you. Made with savory plantain flour, these pancakes are a perfect complement to an array of yummy toppings like berries and fresh fermented cream. You can buy plantain flour online if you can’t find it locally or even make it yourself!

Type of dish: Breakfast

Equipment: Skillet

Servings: Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup plantain flour (buy online or locally if possible, or make from scratch with green plantains)
  • 2 small eggs, beaten
  • 3/4 to 1 cup milk (raw, goat, almond, etc.)
  • 1.5 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • coconut oil (for cooking)
  • butter, berries, fermented cream, coconut milk/cream, etc. for toppings

Directions:

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and sea salt. Mix well.
  2. Add the eggs and milk. Stir well until fully incorporated into a batter.
  3. Heat coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Drop the batter in, using about 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Use the back of a spoon to shape batter into circles, if necessary. A good tip is to make pancakes in batches rather than crowding the pan too much at one time.
  4. Once both sides are browned, use spatula to remove pancakes. Top with butter, berries, fermented cream, coconut milk/cream, or your other toppings of choice.

Enjoy!

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Chris Kresser in kitchen
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39 Comments

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  1. WOW!!! These DO taste like wheat pancakes!
    The ingredients are SIMPLE and they cook up quickly and just like traditional wheat-based mixes.

    I read the other comment above about changing the amount of flour they used for a better pour, and decided to just adjust the amount of wet or dry ingredients as needed to give me the consistency I liked (or was used to cooking with). I made these with plantain flour I made myself.

    Using 1c of almond milk, I added just a bit more plantain flour and ended up with 12 pancakes.

    Thank you for the recipe! My new favorite go-to!

  2. What I want to know is, would crackers made of Plantain flour be retrograde starch and what effect there would be on blood glucose. I have problems with my BG levels and need to know how it would be effected by crackers made from green plantain flour.

  3. The recipe is awesome! I have used plantain flour, as well as sweet potato, tapioca and tigernut flours. The combination I like best is 1/4 C tapioca flour + 3/4 C sweet potato flour. For the milk portion, 1/2 C coconut milk + 1/2 C h20 works well. The batter is thin; 1/8 measuring cup works well to measure & pour into the pan. Heat should be a bit lower than medium. The pancakes turn out light and fluffy, approximately 5″ diameter. They brown quickly, so watch that pan

  4. I don’t usually comment on recipes but I am so impressed with this one I think I’ll have too! I can’t eat gluten and these are the closest I’ve ever tasted to traditional pancakes, it just tasted like they used wholemeal wheat. Nice work!

  5. This recipe looks delicious! However, the brand of plantain flour you have linked is not made in a dedicated gluten free facility according to the Barry Farm website. Do you know of any alternative brands that are safe for those of us with celiac disease in order to avoid cross-contamination?

  6. I found that 1 C of the plantain flour was too much. 3/4 C worked much better. They poured instead of me having to shape them. Great recipe!

  7. Hello;
    Thank you for this recipe. I had my FIRST EVER plantain this AM. I fried up some Tilapia and then fried the plantain in the leftover drippings (peanut oil with a dash of citron/olive oil added & a bit of S&P) Quite interesting. Kind of reminds me of yams. Now I am going to start trying more recipes, as I am allergic to dairy, soy, gluten and, only recently, cooked fresh potatoes. I need a sub for potato. I find your site and offerings very tempting and helpful. Thank you SO much. BTW – – any hints on making one’s own green plantain flour? Be well, be good to you and have a GREAT day!

    JMS

  8. Hi. I am going gluten free and found Plantain flour locally. Must mention I live in Panama. How does it stack up as a substitute flour for bread making? I am making my own blend with millet, almond, cornstarch and tapioca flours. Would be very interested in substituting it as it is cheaper and easily obtainable here. No so much with the Red Mill flours that are currently about $14 a pound bag. Not that I don’t mind paying a little extra to be able to digest my food, that is getting up there. Would appreciate the input. Mark me as a fan. Stephanie.

  9. I don’t have immediate access to plantain flour and I am interested in trying it from scratch how would I go about doing that with a green plantain?

  10. I make my own plantain flour, it’s simple and super cheap. Just peel and thinly slice green plantains then dehydrate them. Then stick them in the dry container of a vitamix or high powered blender until they’re a smooth flour. That is it, that is all. 🙂

  11. Hey Chris, so, would plantain flour be Paleo autoimmune protocol friendly? Would love to get some banana bread and such on the go again but with no eggs and no nut flour it’s kind of proving a tricky one to make work. Will share my recipe on my blog at http://www.primod.co.uk when I am happy it is 100% autoimmune friendly and kick ass tasty. 🙂

  12. Hi Chris, this looks amazing and I really want to irder from your link to support your web site, but the link you sent says that it’s no longer available from that supplier. You may want to re-link it. Let me know if I should wait for the link.

  13. I want to start the prnduction of plantain flour in Nigeria, will you guys buy from me when i am ready. I am trying to market my propose product internationaly. Thanks

  14. OK. I give up. How do you make Plantain Flour from scratch? I got my green plantains and am ready roll, but the Google machine has failed me.

  15. I just ordered my plantain flour but really wanted to try these like *Now* so I made some pancakes using ripe plantains for breakfast this morning 🙂

    1 small to med ripe plantain
    1 egg
    dollop of fresh kefir
    pinch of salt
    ghee (for frying)

    (now that I’m looking at Chris’ recipe again I probably could have added the baking soda)

    I pureed the plantain in my food processor and then whisked in the egg, kefir and salt. On med low heat I melted ghee and spooned in the “batter.” Flipped when small bubbles started appearing in the pancake. Using the ripe plantain makes for a much sweeter pancake. Makes about three small cakes. They were delicious with butter! Can’t wait to get my flour and try the more “savory” version!

    Thanks so much Chris for sharing this recipe/idea!

  16. Looks delicious – any reason for green plantains rather than ripe? lower GI? Or another reason? (Speaking of using fresh plantains, I did some googling, and based on nutrition info, it looks like about 2 cups mashed fresh plantain = 1c plantain flour + a little liquid. Does that sound right to you? Anyone else know?)

    I can find plantains in my area, all over, but haven’t seen plantain flour. Maybe I just haven’t looked…

    • Green plantains are savory and dry, which is better for this application.

  17. Thank you!-this is awesome since I have a family member who is allergic to all nuts, including coconuts so he can never indulge in the almond flour/coconut flour recipes that everyone posts! He is allergic to eggs too but I can usually substitute them w/a flax seed mix.

  18. Chris, interesting recipe:-) I have never heard about plantain flour actually but from my understanding it is some kind of banana. How would these pancakes differ in taste from the ones made with almond flour? And do you know what the GI is or if it will affect your blood sugar much?