How to Make Lemon Pancakes
These Lemon Pancakes are thin and delicate yet bursting with fresh lemon flavor. If you have 1 lemon + basic pantry ingredients, you’re ready to make them!
These Lemon Pancakes Will Melt In Your Mouth
If you have one lemon in your kitchen right now, you’re a few seconds of zesting and squeezing away from the best pancakes you’ll ever make at home.
This lemon pancake recipe starts with a tried-and-true pancake batter that we’ve been perfecting for years. If you love a delicate and airy pancake versus a thicker, denser one, this is the recipe for you.
This recipe calls for staple pantry and fridge ingredients + 1 lemon. That’s it. Nothing special needed – no buttermilk, no lemon extract.
We’re using both lemon juice and lemon zest to add a bright, fresh flavor to these zesty delights that will absolutely just melt in your mouth.
Why You’ll Love This Lemon Pancake Recipe
- Pair them with a bit of whipped cream and fresh fruit, and they’re a gourmet experience with minimal extra effort beyond making traditional pancakes.
- The refreshing lemon flavor is great year-round. Pair with in-season berries in the summer or warm maple syrup in the winter.
Lemon Pancake Ingredients
- flour – nothing fancy, you’ll just need all-purpose flour for these lemon pancakes.
- sugar – you’ll need a little bit of granulated sugar to sweeten these pancakes.
- baking powder – this gives the pancakes their light, delicate texture.
- salt – a little bit of salt balances the sweetness in this lemon pancakes recipe.
- egg – you will need one egg to help bind and leaven the pancake batter.
- lemon – you will need both zest and juice from 1 large lemon. Be sure to zest it before juicing! Buy a few extra lemons to make a batch of agave lemonade to enjoy this week.
- milk – just like with baked goods, whole milk is best for pancakes. It lends the best texture and flavor to the pancakes.
- butter – this adds fat and flavor to the pancake batter.
- vanilla extract – a dash of vanilla really balances and enhances the lemon flavor.
How to Make Lemon Pancakes
1. DRY INGREDIENTS. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. WET INGREDIENTS. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, then add the lemon zest, milk, butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
3. COMBINE. Add the flour mixture, and the lemon juice, to the milk mixture and whisk until just combined. It’s OK if the batter is slightly lumpy. Don’t overmix.
4. GRIDDLE. Heat a griddle or large nonstick skillet, and spray with nonstick spray. Pour 1/4-cupfuls of batter onto griddle and cook until both sides are golden brown and cooked through. Pancakes are ready to flip when surface of batter is covered in bubbles.
5. FINISH. Continue the process with the remaining batter. Transfer completed pancakes to a rimmed baking sheet in a warm oven to keep warm as you finish up.
Lemon Pancakes Recipe Variations
Make these into lemon blueberry pancakes
Do you love the combination of lemon and blueberry? Honestly, who doesn’t? It’s a flavor match made in heaven, as evidenced by my buttermilk blueberry muffins.
It’s easy to add blueberries to this lemon pancakes recipe! I recommend making the batter as written, and after you spoon the batter onto the griddle, add a few blueberries to each pancake.
Do this as soon as the batter hits the griddle so that the blueberries get “stuck” in the batter.
You can use frozen or fresh blueberries to make lemon blueberry pancakes. We usually have berries in the freezer for lemon blueberry smoothies, so we typically use frozen.
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Make these into lemon poppy seed pancakes
Poppy seeds are another classic pairing for lemon (see also: lemon cornbread), and adding them to this lemon pancake batter is a really fun twist.
To make lemon poppy seed pancakes, add 2 teaspoons of poppy seeds in Step 3 where you add the lemon juice and flour to the milk mixture (before stirring).
If you wait to stir the poppy seeds into the batter at the end, you run the risk of over-mixing the batter and ending up with tough pancakes.
Home Chef Tips for Lemon Pancakes
- Whatever you do, don’t overmix the batter when combining the wet and dry ingredients. There will be lumps, and this is OK. Overmixing can lead to dense, tough pancakes, so resist the urge to keep stirring!
- Using a fresh lemon is key here. Bottled lemon juice doesn’t give the same vibrant flavor.
- Pancakes are ready to flip when the surface of batter is covered in several bubbles in different places, and the edge of pancake starts to look a bit dry.
Toppings for Lemon Pancakes
There are so many fun ways to garnish this lemon pancakes recipe. Of course, you can keep it very classic and simply drizzle them with maple syrup (buy the good stuff for mom, she deserves it!).
But for a special Mother’s Day brunch, you can garnish these pancakes with so many other beautiful and delicious ingredients.
I love homemade whipped cream. It’s so quick and easy to make, and tastes worlds better than store-bought.
A scoop of ice cream like my blueberry cheesecake ice cream makes brunch an over-the-top decadent affair.
Fresh berries are a classic garnish, of course. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or blackberries would all be great garnishes here.
A sprinkle of grated lemon zest or even lemon zest curls really enhance the lemon theme and make these pancakes so beautiful.
If you have some handy, a sprig of fresh mint always adds a fresh, pretty touch.
Whatever you do, don’t forget a side of salty, crispy bacon or juicy sausage. See my culinary school-inspired guides on how to cook bacon in the oven and sausage links in the oven to make them perfectly, every time.
More Foxes Love Lemons Favorites
Lemon Zest Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- Grated zest of 1 large lemon about 1-1/2 teaspoons
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Whipped cream, maple syrup, fresh berries, lemon zest curls, and/or fresh mint, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
- In small bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until well combined. In medium bowl, whisk egg. Add grated lemon zest, milk, butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Add lemon juice and flour mixture to milk mixture and whisk until just combined. Batter will be slightly lumpy; this is OK. Do not overmix.
- Heat griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. In batches; spray griddle with nonstick spray, then pour batter by 1/4-cupfuls onto griddle. Cook 1 to 3 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through (pancakes are ready to flip when surface of batter is covered in bubbles).
- Transfer cooked pancakes to rimmed baking sheet and transfer to oven to keep warm. Repeat process with remaining pancake batter. Serve pancakes with desired toppings.
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.
August 2022. I tapped into your recipe this morning. Couldn’t be happier! I’m challenged with pancakes and a thin pancakes recipe that was great but lost it. I tried yours this morning and BAM! They were insanely delicious! Absolutely perfect! Thin, moist, yummy! I added blueberries from the freezer straight into the batter just before pouring. They were perfect in the iron skillet.
Thank you!!
I am so glad to hear you liked these, Deedee! I too like pancakes! Love the addition of blueberries.