Made with Greek yogurt, oats, whole wheat flour, and not much else. Simple, wholesome, and satisfying.
Healthy whole wheat pancakes are difficult to master because pancakes are meant to be light, soft, and fluffy. All things that whole wheat flour isn’t. However, finding the right balance of ingredients to make your pancakes whole-grain AND fluffy isn’t impossible. It just took me a few (um, several) tries.
I’ve never met a pancake that I didn’t like.
Correction. I’ve never met a fluffy buttermilk pancake that I didn’t like. I have, however, met several flimsy-dense-flavorless-whole-wheat pancakes in my life. And they’re quite a disappointment to say the least.
The chocolate chip version of this recipe is our favorite. Though I can never say no to a classic, maple-syrup drenched whole wheat pancake.
Making these pancakes is actually really simple. There’s no crazy ingredients you’ve never heard of. Nothing requiring you to spend $15 on a crazy sugar substitute you can’t pronounce. Just plain everyday ingredients like whole wheat flour, egg, quick oats, milk, and yogurt. The pancake batter is flavored with cinnamon and vanilla extract and is very lightly sweetened with brown sugar. Only 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar for the entire recipe. Not too shabby, right?
Let’s just discuss how thick these guys are. You have the baking powder to thank. Not too much baking powder so that your pancakes taste like chemicals, but just enough to give them a little lift. Ok, a lot of lift. And I’m lovin’ it!
The addition of oats adds fiber to your pancakes, as well as gives them a hearty, satisfying texture. The oats bulk up the batter without adding any unnecessary sugar or fat. You know when you mix oats with water/milk, they bulk right up? The same goes with this pancake batter. I always add a touch of oats to my batters. Oh and don’t worry, these pancakes won’t taste oat-y. If you prefer to skip the oats, try these whole wheat pancakes instead.
Greek yogurt adds a slight protein punch to the batter. It also keeps things on the lower fat side. I love using Greek yogurt in my healthier recipes; it’s like a softness inducing miracle ingredient. Yogurt also brings so much moisture to the resulting pancake.
These whole wheat oatmeal pancakes are:
- Soft
- Thick
- Healthy
- Whole-grain
- Moist
- Really, really good
These whole wheat pancakes are not:
- Made with weird ingredients
- Boring
- Flavorless
- Diet-busting
- Dry as cardboard
- Hard as bricks
Just making sure we’re clear here.
Healthy Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 7-8 pancakes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Made with Greek yogurt, oats, whole wheat flour, and not much else. Simple, wholesome, and satisfying! Recipe may be doubled.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (123g) whole wheat flour or white whole-wheat flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (43g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats or quick oats (not instant)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg or 2 egg whites
- 1 cup (240ml) milk*
- 2 Tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (63g) Greek yogurt*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: 1/2 cup add-ins like chocolate chips or fruit
Instructions
- In a large bowl, preferably with a pour spout, toss the flour, oats, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Whisk in the brown sugar and yogurt until no lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently whisk to combine. Make sure there are no patches of dry flour at the bottom of the bowl. The batter is thick and a few lumps are fine. Gently fold in any mix-ins you prefer.
- Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat. Coat generously with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Once it’s hot, drop/pour a heaping 1/4 cup of batter on the griddle. Cook until the edges look set and you notice holes in the pancake’s surface around the border, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until cooked through, about 1–2 more minutes. Coat griddle/skillet with butter or nonstick spray again, if needed, for each batch of pancakes.
- Keep pancakes warm in a preheated 200°F (93°C) oven until all pancakes are cooked. Serve pancakes immediately with toppings of choice.
- Cover and store leftover pancakes in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Pancakes freeze well up to 3 months. Reheat frozen pancakes in the microwave. Or you can reheat frozen pancakes in a 350°F (177°C) oven. Place pancakes on a lined baking sheet and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 6–8 minutes or until defrosted and warm.
- Can I make the batter the night before? No, I don’t recommend it. Baking powder is activated once wet. You can, however, mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together and keep them separate and covered in the refrigerator until the morning.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Griddle, Griddle Pan, or Shallow Skillet/Pan
- Milk: Recipe tested with both skim and vanilla almond milks. Soy milk, 1%, 2%, buttermilk, or rice milk are OK.
- Yogurt: Recipe tested with plain 0% Greek yogurt. Regular yogurt, any milk fat and your choice of flavor, is OK.
Keywords: whole wheat oatmeal pancakes, whole wheat pancakes
These were great. I used almond milk and strawberry Greek yogurt (it’s all I had) I didn’t need any toppings. They are delicious plain.
The best whole wheat pancakes ever! My whole family loves them. Thank you!!!!
Made these this morning – and added a 1/2 cup pumpkin pureé!!! SO tender and moist and you can’t even taste the oats. I reduced the milk by 1/2.
Thanks for sharing this! REALLY good and filling and awesome for in between workouts!
Made this pancakes for the first time-WOW. THEY ARE DELICIOUS. I used whole wheat pastry flour, old fashioned oats and low fat milk and plain 0 fat yogurt. I added nutmeg with the cinnamon and used coffee bakery emulsion instead of vanilla. For add ins, Chocolate chips and sliced almonds. They rose and became light. These are some of the best I have made and I cook a lot.
These are one of the best Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes I’ve ever had. My family loved them!!!
I would love to have these for dinner but don’t get home til 8pm most nights, and would like to skip making the batter that late. If I made a big batch of batter on weekends so I could just cook pancakes when I get home, how long do you think the batter would last in the fridge? (I don’t want to make pancakes ahead of time and freeze, because I don’t have a microwave…apt living!)
Hey Sarah. The batter must be cooked right away– the baking powder is activated once wet. (The pancakes would be flat and dense otherwise.)
Delicious pancakes, thanks for the recipe! I added 2 TB hemp hearts to pump up the protein and blueberries and they turned out great. Definitely my favorite pancake recipe!!
I made these into waffles. They turned out soft and fluffy, as I imagine the pancakes would, so we popped them in the toaster oven and they were perfectly crispy on the outside and tender inside. They are DELICIOUS! My 16 year old daughter has been eating them every morning for a week. Thanks for a great, wholesome recipe. I’ll be trying some more of your recipes soon. 🙂
Hi Sally, I love this pancake recipe!
One question, my family doesn’t have brown sugar but we have coconut sugar. Would that still work?
I’m sure it would, but I’ve never tried it. Let me know how you like it.
Hi Sally! Can this recipe be used for waffles as well?
Absolutely!
I’ve made these three times and LOVE THEM! So hard to believe they’re whole wheat. My favourite add-ins are chocolate chips and orange zest. They also freeze really well. Thanks Sally!!
I have made these twice this week. My husband said they are the best pancakes he’s ever had. They are so delicious with home made jam and honey. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
I just made these an hour ago. Hands down best pancakes I’ve ever gotten from my own kitchen! I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe. Thank you!!
I never leave comments for recipes. But I made this recipe today. These pancakes were amazing, delicious, divine. I addins’ were fresh banana and walnuts—the taste was that of a banana bread. This batter will pick up the flavors of any fresh ingredient you dd. Amazingly delicious.
Hi,
These sound absolutely perfect! Was wondering if you’ve ever tried freezing the mix before cooking? (Trying to get organised for our upcoming camping trip) 🙂
Thanks!!
The mix must be made into pancakes right away because once mixed with wet ingredients, the baking powder begins activating. You may freeze the cooked pancakes if you’d like.
Sally these were fabulous! I used applesauce instead of yougurt just because I can’t do yougurt – I used old fashioned oats added blueberries. Thanks for sharing
Possibly the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten! so light and fluffy and so filling. I drizzled mine with a berry and greek yogurt puree but they have enough sweetness and flavour to eat by themselves. Sooooo yummy!
Just tried this recipe. It’s everything you said and more. Definitely a winner! THANKS.
My first ever pancakes and they were super soft and delicious!! Thanks for listing! Made exactly as said in the recipynand wouldnt change a thing!
These were great! I followed them to the letter and they turned out awesome. I made them for my boyfriend using blueberries and bananas and he freaked out. One question though, how do you freeze and unfreeze them for later?
I simply let them thaw in the refrigerator overnight and warm them up in the microwave.
I just made these pancakes with raspberries and chocolate chips and they were absolutely wonderful! I’m definitely making these again
These are the absolute best pancakes! They are nice and fluffy while full of hearty ingredients that are soo good for you! They keep me full for hours and I feel do good feeding them to my kids
These are absolutely amazing! I love pancakes but quit eating them for a while because of how unhealthy they can be. I am so happy I discovered your recipe though! My husband and 19 month old son loved them as well! Thank you for such a great recipe!
Best pancakes I’ve ever had! I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, light brown sugar, plain unsweetened fat free Greek yogurt, and thawed blueberries. Perfect!
These pancakes were amazing! Best ww pancakes I have ever tasted! My kids gobbled them up and OK so did I! This is now my staple ww pancake recipe 🙂
For anyone who wants to make these as waffles, I tried it and it works great! But you have to be sure to grease your waffle iron very, very well. Just a light coating won’t do — they’ll stick. I heavily greased mine with Pam and they came right out 🙂
I didn’t have enough of my regular Bob’s Red Mill pancake mix to make for brunch so I started searching around for a whole wheat recipe. I ran across this one with oatmeal, double bonus! I only had old fashioned rolled oats on hand but after scrolling through the comments, I saw that I could give them a few pulses in the food processor and use them instead of quick oats. I made a quadruple batch since we invited the neighbors next door over for brunch. I was taking a bit of a risk trying a new recipe on guests! This recipe did not disappoint however, it was amazing! The kids and adults gobbled down pancakes like there was no tomorrow. With butter, pure maple syrup and these pancakes you can’t go wrong! I actually had a few leftover so I threw them in the freezer for later.
Thanks so much for this excellent recipe. It made my recipe hall of fame, I printed it and put it in my binder 🙂
I actually prefer this recipe without the sugar. After making them I topped them with just a little bit of raw honey with royal jelly, propolis, and bee pollen. Yum! Too much sugar can ruin your palate! We NEVER consume refined sugar in our house and prefer it that way.
These look great! Could I use quick cooking steel cut oats instead?
Yes you could. Enjoy!
Omg…
Just made these.. They taste like light little bites of heaven!
Added dark chocolate chips and broken up bits of frozen raspberries… Shame no one else is home…. Might have to eat the whole batch myself! 😉
Thank you!!