Vegan Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes

Lemon and corn both work to bring out each other's best qualities in this Vegan Lemon Cornmeal Pancake recipe: corn highlights lemon's tanginess and lemon enhances corn's savory flavors. These bright, buttery flavors packed into a vegan pancake is a great way to start the day. Try them topped with a touch of almond butter, fruit and/or real maple syrup.

Proper cooking surface temperature is key

In order for your pancakes to cook to perfection, it's essential that your cooking surfaces reach the proper cooking temperature (about 375F or 191C). This will ensure your pancakes don't stick and are cooked through consistently with slight browning but no burning. If your pancakes are sticking it's almost always because your cooking surface isn't hot enough. I recommend turning on the heat under your cooking surfaces as soon as you walk into the kitchen to make your pancakes so everything gets a chance to heat up, un-oiled. Most cast iron griddles, skillets and electric griddles have lots of metal to disperse the heat so they need extra time to reach their proper cooking temperature.

Find more Lemon recipes on Veganbaking.net

Vegan Lemon Cornmeal Pancake Recipe

1 ¾ cups + 3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup corn meal
¾ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup (71 grams) Regular Vegan Butter or stick margarine, melted

zest of 2 lemons
½ cup corn kernels

1) Curdle the non-dairy milk mixture

In a medium bowl, whisk together the non-dairy milk, lemon juice, lemon extract, vanilla extract, almond extract and salt. Let it sit for about 10 minutes so the non-dairy milk curdles.

2) Whisk together the dry ingredients

In a large bowl whisk together the corn meal, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.

3) Whisk the batter together

Whisk the Vegan Butter into the non-dairy milk and lemon juice mixture from Step 1 then whisk the mixture into the large bowl containing the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the lemon zest and the corn.

4) Bake the vegan pancakes to perfection

Grease a griddle or a large iron skillet with canola oil. If you're using a non-stick surface forego the greasing process. The surface is ready for pancakes when water flicked on it sizzles. Using a ladle, drop about 1/3 cup of batter to form a pancake. When small bubbles appear, flip the pancake with a spatula. A thin steel spatula with a large surface area works well on cast iron surfaces. Let the pancakes cook for at least another 2 minutes on the other side or until golden. Do not press down on pancakes with the spatula.

Pancakes keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge and can be easily heated in a toaster.
This recipe makes about 12 Vegan Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes.