These lightly sweetened vegan carrot cake pancakes are packed with grated rainbow carrots, warm spices, and lime zest. Sub in your favorite gluten free flour mix to easily make these gluten free as well! Top each pancake with the maple tahini glaze and toasted pecans for an incredibly delicious vegan breakfast or brunch.
If I had to choose, I think breakfast might be my favorite meal of the day, especially on the weekends! Weekend breakfasts are a slower, more intentional affair. When I think back to some of my fondest childhood memories, they often involve Saturday breakfasts and the rotation of pancakes, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and coffee cakes. Despite the fact that I absolutely love breakfast foods, I realized that I don’t really post recipes for them anymore. So, I decided to remedy that travesty today with these carrot cake pancakes!
Grated rainbow carrots, warm spices, and lime zest are folded into a standard vegan pancake batter. Once the pancakes are nice and golden, they’re served with a maple tahini glaze and toasted pecans. All of the flavors mingle together so well, yielding a pancake that feels just decadent enough for a weekend breakfast or brunch. These are truly my favorite pancake to date!
Tips for Pancake Success
Pancakes can sometimes be a little tricky if you’re not the most patient person! Here’s how I ensure pancake success:
- Use a large skillet or griddle and heat it over medium heat. Do not even attempt to start your pancakes until the pan has come to temperature! If you’re pan isn’t heated enough yet, the pancakes won’t cook properly and will stick or be hard to flip. This is often why the first pancake is always the ugliest!
- Use a thin spatula meant for flipping pancakes. I’ve found that thicker ones aren’t able to get under the pancakes as easily and make it really difficult to flip them.
- The pancakes aren’t ready to flip until you see bubbles forming across the surface AND the edges are beginning to dry. Depending on the color of the surface of your skillet, this could take as little as 2 minutes or as long as 3-4.
- Don’t crowd your pan! I only cook two at a time to ensure there’s plenty of room for flipping and maneuvering my spatula. If you have a relatively small skillet, you might only be able to cook one at a time.
- If you want to keep your cooked pancakes warm throughout the process, set a plate in your oven and set the oven to the “warm” setting. As each pancake is ready, open the oven and place it on the plate. That way, once you’re done, the first pancakes you made aren’t cold!
What Makes These “Carrot Cake” Pancakes?
The grated carrots and spices in the batter along with the toasted pecans on top of the pancakes are all elements from a classic carrot cake. Rather than giving them a cream cheese topping, or even plain maple syrup, I went with a glaze made with powdered sugar, tahini, and maple syrup. Though these pancakes aren’t as sweet as a cake, each bite is very reminiscent of a carrot cake!
Notes on Ingredient Substitutions
I made these with regular all-purpose flour but you can easily make them gluten free with a gluten free flour mix! This is my favorite one to use. If you can’t eat tahini or don’t want to buy it just for this recipe, you can substitute any nut butter in its place. Just note that you might need to add a bit more milk to the glaze if your nut butter is very thick.
More Weekend Breakfast Recipes:
- Blueberry Corn Muffins with Whipped Maple Butter
- Stovetop Granola with Papaya, Yogurt, & Cacao Nibs
- Rosemary Scones with Blood Orange Glaze
Carrot Cake Pancakes with Maple Tahini Glaze (vegan)
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 medium pancakes 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These lightly sweetened vegan carrot cake pancakes are packed with grated rainbow carrots, warm spices, and lime zest. Sub in your favorite gluten free flour mix to easily make these gluten free as well! Top each pancake with the maple tahini glaze and toasted pecans for an incredibly delicious vegan breakfast or brunch.
Ingredients
for the pancakes
- 1 cup non-dairy milk, such as oat or soy
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup plain unsweetened vegan yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, or alternately an all-purpose gluten free flour mix
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 lime, zested
- 1 cup grated carrots
- coconut oil, for cooking
for the glaze and topping
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk, plus more as needed to thin the glaze
- 1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped
Instructions
Set a large skillet over medium heat. While the skillet is heating up, make the pancake batter. Combine the milk, apple cider vinegar, yogurt, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk until smooth. In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, spices, sugar, and lime zest. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until the batter just comes together. It’s okay if there are still lumps! Stir in the grated carrots until they are evenly dispersed through the batter.
Once your skillet has come to temperature, add a tablespoon of coconut oil. Swirl it around the skillet as it melts. Using a quarter cup measure, scoop up the pancake batter and carefully pour it on the skillet. Depending on how large your skillet is, you may be able to do 1 or 2 pancakes at a time. Just make sure not to crowd the pan! Cook the pancake for 2-3 minutes on the first side until you see bubbles forming across the surface and the edges around the pancake are dry. Carefully flip the pancake and cook an additional 1-2 minutes on the second side until cooked through and golden. Repeat with the remaining pancake batter.
Pro tip: keep a plate in your oven and set it to “warm” to keep your cooked pancakes nice and warm!
When you’re ready to enjoy your pancakes, make the glaze. Put the powdered sugar, tahini, maple syrup, salt, and 2 tbsp of milk in a bowl. Whisk vigorously until you have a very smooth glaze. If it seems a little too thick, you can add more milk a splash at a time until you get a nice drizzling consistency.
Serve the pancakes with a drizzle of the glaze and a sprinkle of the toasted pecans. This recipe makes 8 medium pancakes which is enough for 2-3 servings.
Notes
- I made these with regular all-purpose flour but you can easily make them gluten free with a gluten free flour mix! This is my favorite one to use.
- If you can’t eat tahini or don’t want to buy it just for this recipe, you can substitute any nut butter in its place. Just note that you might need to add a bit more milk to the glaze if your nut butter is very thick.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: breakfast
