Traditional gluten free Swedish pancakes are like a cross between American pancakes and French crêpes.
What’s a little surprising is that they were typically served for dinner. We even had them for lunch every now and then at the school cafeteria. My recipe uses oat flour in place of conventional flour and they’re truly just as delicious as the Swedish pancakes I’ve had in Sweden.
Lingonberry preserves are a traditional topping but I really doubt most Swedes would use lingonberries with strawberry and blueberry season in full swing. I’ve got to say – Swedes, as a whole, love their berries.
Venturing out into the forest to pick wild strawberries and blueberries and then using them on pancakes and waffles later in the evening is just what you do in the summer (at least in the areas I lived!).
I definitely recommend serving these with fruit sauce or piling on some fresh fruit at the very least. If you serve these with just maple syrup, they’re not very filling and you could easily polish off half the batch in one sitting.
There are a few key things to Swedish pancake success:
- Make sure that your pan is well-heated. If it takes longer than about a minute to cook the first side of the pancake, the pan isn’t hot enough.
- Don’t skimp on the butter! The butter adds a lot of flavor and it creates a slightly crisp pancake.
- Don’t just pour the pancake batter in the pan and let it cook like you would for American pancakes as they won’t come out properly. You need to very quickly swirl the batter around the pan like you would when making crepes.
- If you use a different sized pan then you’ll need to adjust the amount of batter used for each pancake accordingly. My cast-iron skillet was sold as a 9″ pan, which is the top measurement, but it’s only 7″ across the bottom.
- Give the batter a quick stir before pouring it into the pan. The oat flour tends to settle to the bottom, especially if you mix the batter by hand rather than with a blender.
Gluten Free Swedish Pancakes
Ingredients
3 eggs (150 g, weighed out of shell), at room temperature
1 tablespoon (12 g) granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups (12 fluid ounces) milk of choice (but not canned coconut milk as it’s too thick)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
14 tablespoons (78 g) certified gluten free oat flour
Butter, for frying
Instructions
Use an immersion blender or a blender to blend all the ingredients together until thoroughly combined and no lumps remain. You can also mix it by hand but make sure to stir the batter very well before pouring the batter into the pan.
Heat a 9″ skillet over medium heat and melt about 1 teaspoon of butter in the pan. Tilt the pan to cover the whole pan in butter. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan. Very quickly tilt the pan to swirl the batter evenly all around the pan. Cook for about a minute or until the bottom is golden brown and then carefully flip it over and cook for about another 30 seconds or until cooked.
Serve immediately with fruit sauce, jam, or preserves.
Sue says
If you made these without the sugar, could they be used for dinner crepes with a meat sauce?
Anna says
Wow, wow! Gluten free Swedish pancakes! I’ve been missing Swedish pancakes for a while now! Thanks for this!
LMyong says
I may sound crazy but there are many occasions that I just yearn for pancakes which I dip into the thick mutton curry gravy. Believe it or not it is most tantalising lunch or dinner and you will want to eat that again. Fish curry will be marvellous too.
Victoria Donaldson says
I woke up this morning and wanted pancakes for brekky but have no flour, was going to Google oat pancakes!!! Can’t believe this, so having it for brekky now. Thanks a tonne from China.
Nykke says
Tuesdays were always soup and pancake day when I lived in Sweden. Without fail. ;-)
Mare Masterson says
This is similar to “egg pancakes” that my sister made!