Leftover Oatmeal Blender Pancakes
Got leftover oatmeal you don’t want to go to waste? Use it in these easy leftover oatmeal blender pancakes for a delicious and nutritious, and cost-saving, easy breakfast option!
Leftover Oatmeal Blender Pancakes
This recipe for Leftover Oatmeal Blender Pancakes was born out of a need to stop having to throw out all the leftover Instant Pot Steel Cut Oatmeal that doesn’t get eaten for breakfast. No one likes reheated oatmeal around here. So it sits for days in the fridge until someone finally gets around to throwing it out. Which is a real shame. So I wanted to see if I could do something about that.
One thing that my kids have missed while on gluten restriction has been pancakes. I can do them dairy-free, I can do them soy-free, but doing them gluten-free has been harder. I thought that maybe I could use the leftover oatmeal to make gluten-free pancakes, but alas, oatmeal by virtue of its no-gluten-ness, lacks the structure to make decent pancakes. Trust me on this one. Now, that’s not to say that you can’t use oatmeal flour, because I’ve done a couple of those, but cooked oatmeal just isn’t up to the task.
We have since added gluten back into our diet now that the elimination period is over, and it doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting anyone. So I think we’re okay on that front. This means that I can use some regular flour in recipes, and that opens a lot more possibilities now! And so my attempts at Leftover Oatmeal Blender Pancakes were finally successful!!
I don’t know if you could use gluten-free baking mix for this, but I suspect that you can if you still need to keep them gluten-free. I’ll try some next time. For right now, I’ve been using regular flour, or even better, freshly ground wheat flour.
You will need to cook these just a little longer than your normal pancakes, as the oatmeal can tend to make them a little mushy and doughy on the inside. So just be aware.
And you’ll want to do these in a high-powered blender, like a Blendtec or Vitamix. (I have not tried them in a Ninja – I have a Blendtec – so someone give a shoutout if they try them in the Ninja and let us know if they work.) It’s just to get the steel-cut oats blended down to a puree consistency so you can sneak them into the pancakes. If you don’t mind chunky pancakes, I suppose you could try just mixing the oatmeal in without a blender.
Now, you’ll have to excuse the odd color on these – this particular batch was made with blueberry banana oatmeal, so the pancakes were very blue-green! But despite the slightly odd color, they taste terrific! If your kiddos would be put off by the color, use plain oatmeal or use a batch that has other fruit (or pick the fruit out). However, strawberries will give these a great pink color which can be kinda fun!
I’m just happy to have a way to use up my leftover oatmeal, and the kids have gone nuts for these, so I think it is a win-win! Hope you enjoy them too!!
Leftover Oatmeal Blender Pancakes
INGREDIENTS
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk*
- 1 tablespoon real maple syrup**
- 2 tablespoons avocado coconut (melted) or canola oil
- 1 cup leftover prepared steel cut oatmeal
- 1 cup flour all-purpose or wheat
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat skillet, griddle or griddle pan over medium to medium-high heat. ( I use a large stand-alone griddle set at 350F.)
- Place all ingredients in high-powered blender in the order listed.
- Pulse on high, or blend on batter setting (if your blender has one), until mixture is combined and smooth. (You may need to scrape the corners a little.) If your batter is a little thick, you can add another tablespoon or two of milk until you reach your desired consistency.
- Pour batter into skillet or onto griddle, about 1/4 cup per pancake. This will make pancakes that are approximately 4 inches in diameter.
- Cook pancakes until they are bubbly and the sides are firm. Turn and cook on other side until golden brown.
- Serve with butter and additional syrup, or top with fruit spread.
To freeze:
- Lay pancakes in a single layer on a large sheet pan and freeze for 2-4 hours (or overnight) before later placing in ziptop freezer bag(s). This helps keep them from sticking to each other and makes it easier to pull just a couple out of the bag when needed while leaving the rest in the freezer.
To reheat:
- Remove frozen pancakes from freezer bag. Place on microwave-safe plate, and heat in microwave for 45-60 seconds for 3 pancakes. Or toss them in your toaster for a fun toasty treat!
SO good! Repurposed our slow cooker oats into these pancakes and they were a hit!
I’m so glad! Finding good uses for leftover oatmeal is a daunting task sometimes. I’m glad these worked for you! 😉
So I was really hopeful to use my leftover oatmeal on this recipe. I did make some substitution such as using almond milk instead of milk and applesauce instead of egg. First off the batter taste very salt or like baking soda. Next it never really cooked on the inside. It was very raw no matter if I let stay on low heat for several minutes or on high heat. Maybe it was because I substituted several items. But I was truly disappointed I this recipe didn’t work out.
I’m so sorry! Using almond milk most likely wasn’t the problem (I’ve subbed that too with no problems), but subbing the applesauce for the eggs likely was. The eggs give structure to the pancakes that they would normally get from a batter made with the full amount of flour and gluten, which is not present in oatmeal. Because these are a lower flour/gluten batter than normal, without the eggs there is no real way for these to form a cohesive structure or to fully cook inside like a traditional pancake (because eggs go through a change of state from uncooked [liquid] to cooked [solid], but applesauce does not). The eggs are crucial in this one for structure, and this is also likely why they tasted like baking powder. Am I right in thinking that you are needing these to be dairy- and egg-free? If you’ll let me know, I can work on a version of the recipe that will work with the substitutions you need.
Unfortunately these didn’t work for me–the insides stayed raw no matter how long I cooked, and they were quite flat.
Rats!! I’m so sorry. Thank you for letting me know – I’ll go back and tweak the recipe to see if I can get better, more consistent results.
Wow these pancakes are phenomenal! I had some leftover steel cut oats in my freezer, thawed them out and voila! Delicious pancakes!
So glad you liked them!
These are super good! I had a batch of leftover steel cut oats that I’d mixed with some spices and topped with golden raisins and toasted pecans. It all went in the blender and boy howdy are these tasty!
They sound super yummy!! So glad you like the recipe!