Gluten-free Apple Puff Pancakes
A family favorite, these gluten-free apple puff pancakes are like a gluten-free Dutch baby or German pancake. They puff up in the oven, then collapse, and you’re left with this yummy pancake with raised edges that’s unlike regular pancakes. We love this apple cinnamon version best!
If you have never had a puff pancake before, you are in for a treat. A pancake-like batter is poured into a pie plate of sizzling butter (and in this case, cinnamon apples too), then baked in a hot oven. It will puff up on the edges and be bumpy in the middle too. A few minutes after you take it out of the oven, it collapses. I’ve also heard people call a puff pancake a German pancake or Dutch Baby. Some people enjoy puff pancakes with powdered sugar, but we love a drizzle of pure maple syrup on these gluten-free puff pancakes.
When apples are plentiful in the early fall, we enjoy these gluten-free apple puff pancakes with a drizzle of maple syrup once a week. We usually head out to some apple orchards about 30 minutes away, and I buy several cases of our favorites, McIntosh and Pink Lady apples. With our bounty of apples, I also peel, slice, and freeze some apples in 1 1/2 cup amounts in freezer bags so that I can thaw and use them to make this yummy meal year-round.
We have “breakfast for dinner” at least once a week around here. Truth be told, we never actually eat pancakes or the like at breakfast time, since I’m not a morning person. I’ll never forget this conversation when my boys were younger. On a weekend day, I made gluten-free pancakes for lunch, and my son exclaimed, “Silly Mom, pancakes aren’t for lunch, they’re for dinner!”
Notes in ingredients and substitutions for these gluten-free puff pancakes:
- Butter: I have not tried these with anything except real butter. Feel free to try with a butter alternative that melts well and let me know in the comments how it works!
- Apples: I recommend a tart apple variety like Pink Lady, Braeburn, McIntosh, or Granny Smith, etc. You can use a pear instead if you want.
- Gluten-free Flour: I’ve only tested this with 3 flour blends so far, and they have all worked very well. The three are King Arthur Measure for Measure, Gluten-free Mama’s Almond Blend, and Gluten-free Mama’s Coconut Blend.
- If the gluten-free flour blend you use already has xanthan gum or guar gum in it, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe.
How to make gluten-free puff pancakes:
Puff pancakes are super easy to make, but take a bit of time. While butter melts in the pie plates, you’ll have time to peel and slice your apples. I use my favorite paring knife for this.
Then while the apples cook in the pie plates, you’ll have time to mix up the batter. The batter is made entirely in your blender. I love using my Blendtec blender
for this. I use the batter setting and need only do one cycle. If you don’t want/can’t use your blender for this recipe, you can mix it all with a whisk instead, making sure you whisk until all the flour is dissolved.
As written, this recipe makes 2 gluten-free German pancakes. This easily serves 4-6 people, served with sides of bacon or sausage, and fresh fruit.
I often cook up sausage patties or bacon to have alongside this. You could cook the bacon in the oven at the same time as these gluten-free Dutch babies bake. Follow the directions here for How to Cook Bacon in Oven. It uses the same oven temperature so it’s easy! I would put the bacon on the top rack and the pancakes baking below on the bottom rack when doing this, ensuring that you have plenty of space between racks.
Gluten-free Apple Puff Pancake Recipe:
Gluten-free Apple Puff Pancakes
Gluten-free puff pancakes are also called German Pancakes or Dutch Baby. This makes 2 puff pancakes so you'll need 2 pie pans. That is enough to feed my family of 4, with sides of bacon or sausage.
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp. butter in each pie pan
- 1 medium apple, peeled, cored, sliced thin in each pan
- 3/4 tsp. brown sugar in each pan
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon in each pan
Batter (make in blender):
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups good gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
- 3 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- Place 4 Tbsp. butter in each glass pie pan. Place in oven and turn oven on to 400°. Butter will melt, sizzle and just start to brown while oven warms up and you prepare apples.
- Peel, core, and slice apples into thin slices.
- When butter is melted, remove pans from oven. Place apple slices in a single layer in each pie pan. (You might have some apple slices left over to munch on.)
- Sprinkle apple slices with brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Place pie pans back in oven and allow apples to cook for 7-8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a blender, blend milk, eggs, flour, xanthan gum, sugar, vanilla extract and sugar until well blended. Use batter setting if your blender has one.
- If you don’t want/can’t use your blender for this recipe, you can mix it all with a whisk instead, making sure you whisk until all the flour is dissolved.
- You should have 4 cups of batter when you are done mixing together.
- Remove pie pans from oven after apples have cooked 7-8 minutes. Pour batter evenly over the apples in each pan (2 cups batter per pan).
- Bake at 400° for 22-25 minutes. Remove from oven. Pancakes will collapse after removing from oven.
- Serve hot, with powdered sugar sprinkled over the top or maple syrup drizzled over.
Notes
I recommend a tart apple variety like Pink Lady, Braeburn, McIntosh, or Granny Smith, etc. You can use a pear instead if you want. If you're not an apple fan, feel free to omit the apples! I would still add the brown sugar and cinnamon though!
Gluten-free Flour: I've only tested this with 3 flour blends so far, and they have all worked very well. The three are King Arthur Measure for Measure, Gluten-free Mama's Almond Blend, and Gluten-free Mama's Coconut Blend.
If the gluten-free flour blend you use already has xanthan gum or guar gum in it, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe.
Thanks for this recipe, I have baked it several times. Today, I only had 3 eggs, so replaced the 3 “missing” eggs with 3/4 cup (1/4 cup per egg) apple sauce. I also added a dash of baking powder (1 tsp), a dash of Xanthan gum — even though the GF flour mix contained some already. I took time to spoon the flour into the measuring cup rather than scooping it up and then whisked everything together with a lifting motion. My results today were far superior to all previous attempts. It was neither heavy nor eggy. I will retain these changes for the future. Thanks again for the recipe!
I’m trying to get through a ton of apples the pantry gave us. This morning I thought maybe apple pancakes. Then found your recipe. I was a bit concerned there was no leavening. However it puffed up nicely. It also could have held more apple. It didn’t need any powder sugar or syrup. I printed up the recipe. It’s a keeper. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it Miranda!
In the U.K. these are known as Yorkshire Puddings & are usually eaten with a savoury roast beef dinner (without the sugar & cinnamon, of course), either cooked in small individual cake tins or as a large version sliced. Larger ones are often filled with the dinner, like a plate. Some people eat the smaller ones with jam (jelly), or lemon curd or apple sauce. They can be eaten both savoury & sweet. I’ve heard of them also being called Popovers.
Very good! Very similar to the family recipe of gluten ones I grew up with. I think I’ll use less butter next time and definitely needs salt.
When we first tried this recipe it was good but i knew something was missing. I checked the recipe I had used prior to gluten free— Added one tsp of salt. I wonder if that ingredient was accidentally left out? It’s in all other puff pancake recipes I have tried. Now this recipe is perfect! The salt makes a huge difference. Thanks for the GF recipe!
I live this recipe! I come back to it after trying others because this one is the best. If you’ve never baked gluten free before you should know that not all flour blends are equal and you can’t use just one type of gluten free flour, it has to always be a mix. Good luck to all trying this!
I had to use a 9×13 pan for this recipe and I’m not sure if that’s what caused it to be very dense & did not puff at all. I used the vitamix to blend it….just wondering if there is a point where you could blend it too much. Anyway we still enjoyed it, it just wasn’t as puffy as some that I had 🙂
I used bobs red mill 1:1 and it was so good!thanks for the recipe!
I made these this morning and I turned away for just a second and turned back and my batter was so over processed! It was sad. My pancakes were kind of weird n spongy but my family still ate them all almost immediately. I’m going to try again with a whisk and bowl. Good recipe ????????
@Alleena Logan,
My Mom made the gluten version of these growing up from our German family recipe. It’s a little more buttery than I remember but the texture is suppose to be spongy.
I’ve been told that xanthan gum wasn’t necessary for use in gluten free pancakes. Is it needed since its not a typical pancake
If your GF flour blend already has xanthan gum in it then you don’t need to add more has always been my understanding.
I just tried this recipe this morning.This a very yummy pancake although it is very doughy in the middle probably because we used Pamela’s pancake mix thanks for sharing
I just made this recipe using Robin Hood gluten free nutri blend flour…and it was a total fail. It was thick and dense like a hard loaf of bread and didn’t puff up at all. I’m sure it wasn’t this recipe since there are so many great comments but it certainly shows that not all GF all purpose blends are created equal. When I’m feeling less disappointed I may try this again with a different flour mix. Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Toni, I’m so sorry to hear that! I’ve never heard of that flour, so I have no idea of the ingredients. I hope you will try this again, as it really is fabulous. Unfortunately, all blends are not created equal. I recommend you try it again with Gluten Free Mama, King Arthur Flour, gfJules, or I’ve heard that Cup4Cup is excellent as well.
I’ve never tried a German Pancake with apples. I will now! Thanks. Another great topping is the juice of one lemon mixed with powdered sugar until it’s a runny frosting consistency. Dribble over your piece and eat. It’s delicious.
Tracy,
I’ll definitely have to try that sometime! Thanks for the tip!
Looks amazing! Had all the ingredients except the
The Xanthan Gum , ran out yesterday to get it and
a few things for the snow storm .
A nice treat for later !
Thank You ,
Pat
Pat,
Hope you had a chance to try these and enjoyed them! ~Michelle
I was so excited to try this recipe and it was a huge disappointment when it came out greasy and uncooked after 45 minutes. This is not due to the recipe itself, it is my doing. I have a child with multiple allergies and eggs is one of them. I was attempting to make this recipe with egg replacer and it failed miserably. Is there anyway to make this recipe without eggs?
Harmony,
The eggs are essential in this recipe. This would not work at all with any sort of egg replacements. So sorry!
Hi Michelle-
I’ve been gluten-free for 10 years. Prior to going gluten-free my husband and I enjoyed an “oven pancake”, apple oven-pancake or a “Dutch Baby” usually once a month. I have never attempted to make any of these in a gluten free version. I tried your Apple Puff Pancake recipe this morning. I didn’t have a gluten-free flour mix on hand so I used coconut flour, as the recipe indicated was an optional substitute. I am now wondering if the “Gluten-Free Mama’s” coconut flour is some kind of mix and not straight coconut flour as I used. My batter was about the consistency of biscuit dough. I ended up nearly doubling the amount of milk I used in order to get the dough out of the blender. The finished product was VERY heavy and barely edible. I cooked some more cinnamon apples and served the pancake over them, which made it somewhat appetizing. I see that a lot if people have had success with this recipe & I would like to be one of them. Can you tell me if the GF Mama coconut flour is a mix or straight coconut flour? I am going to hold off rating the recipe until I give it another try with different ingredients. Thanks!
Hi Karen, I’m so sorry for the confusion. Gluten Free Mama’s flour blends are all purpose blends of many flours and starches that you can use cup for cup like regular flour. Plain coconut flour would not work in this at all. I hope you’ll re-try this recipe with a good all-purpose flour blend. I go into detail on my favorite flour blends here: https://mygluten-freekitchen.com/friday-favorite-gluten-free-all-purpose-flour/
Thank you so much for your speedy reply! I looked at your info about flour blends. I will try it again with one of the three that you mentioned.
Karen
Made this for breakfast this morning. Cut the recipe in half since there is just the two of us. Worked perfectly and sooooo good. Served it with GF chicken apple sausage! Yummmmm
Barry,
Glad to hear that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it! Isn’t it so nice to have another yummy recipe to work into your rotation. The sausage was a good choice!
I just made this and we ate half of it already! I love this recipe and can really see me using it every month! I love it!
Heidi,
Yay! So glad you made this and love it! We just had this last night for dinner! Always a favorite around here! Happy Baking!
Since I’m the only GF person AND the only breakfast person in the home, can I freeze what I don’t eat? Or will it be as tasty or fluffy?
Stephanie,
On the rare occasions that we have some left, I always eat the leftovers the next day and love them. I think they’d be fine frozen and then reheated in the microwave. It won’t be quite the same as the first night, but still very delicious and way better than any frozen waffles and pancakes you can buy! Hope you make this soon! This is so good, you’ll probably win over the non-gf and non-breakfast eaters in your house too!
I make a single serving version that I cook in a 6″ skillet. I bake them at 425 degrees F for approx 20 minutes. The recipe for the pancake is 1/8 c tapioca flour + 1/8 c quinoa (or other GF grain flour) whisked until smooth with 2 eggs. Once it is smooth, add 1/4 c milk & whisk to mix before pouring into the hot, melted butter in the hot skillet. I’ve been making this with apple slices, too, and it is delicious!
Thanks for this recipe, it turned out great. I subbed my gf flour blend, but I’m certain yours would have been great too. Next time I’m going to throw in some craisins for texture and a little tartness. **If you don’t already have one, I recommend purchasing a Pampered Chef Apple Corer-Slicer. It’s the easiest tool for all the delicious apple recipes. My apples were ready to put in the pan in 2 minutes!
Rebecca,
Thanks so much for leaving a comment. I appreciate your tips and love the suggestion for adding craisins next time! What a fun idea! ~Michelle