[Note: This recipe got fresh photos in 2019 and it’s a very good thing.]
If I could have a breakfast rallying cry, a breakfast mantra, if you will, it would be, It’s not cake! It’s breakfast! It would be rather dull, naturally. I know that the line between Cake For Breakfast and our various formats of Breakfast Cakes (muffins, coffee cakes and pancakes) is thin, I know the distinctions on either side of it are, at best, tiny, but they are what allows me to pretend I’m eating cake for breakfast when I’m really not, so I cling to them.
I said as much a few weeks ago when I made coconut muffins. Oh sure, they’re like a glorified macaroon, but! a macaroon full of healthy oils and Greek yogurt and whole wheat flour and a moderate level of sugar. They win at breakfast. Cake, 0, Breakfast 1, you could say. But when I spotted a recipe for carrot cake pancakes, replete with what we all know is the very best part of carrot cake, a sweetened cream cheese topping, I said, “No way, uh-uh. Carrot cake is dessert, not breakfast.”
Thank goodness I studied them more closely from there because when I did, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a trace of evil. A smallish amount of flour, minuscule amount of sugar, single egg and not a lick of melted fat (inside the pancake, that is) batter up with the better part of a pound of carrots, and together they make The Very Best Way To Skirt The Breakfast/Cake Divide and Totally Win. Or, more succinctly, you could just call them Carrot Cake Pancakes.
I should have known they’d be delightful, based on the source, the first cookbook from one of my favorite voices in food blogging, Joy the Baker. Joy is — in case the glamour gal in the cocktail dress, holding a towering pink birthday cake, on an even pinker book cover didn’t give it away — a delight. When I found her blog a few years ago, I was drawn to the girly chattiness, like being on the phone with a friend and realizing that you’re eating chocolate cake for dinner and laughing about it. She’s that kind of fun. But when I think of Joy, I really think of pancakes because this woman, she knows her pancakes. From the The Single Lady Pancake to Cornmeal Molasses and Smashed Raspberry and Chocolate Chunk Pancakes, she’s got more pancake recipes on her site than I can count on both hands and I love this story about her dad and pancakes. If I was going to drag her book into the kitchen with me, I knew it would have to be to make pancakes.
This recipe is the kind that will go instantly into a regular weekend morning rotation. Or, perhaps, you regularly get your meals mixed up like I do. I made these on Thursday afternoon, thinking we could heat and eat them on Saturday morning. But Thursday 5 p.m. crept up, then 5:30, then 5:45 and I couldn’t put off making dinner any longer, and little thought crept into my head… two cups of carrots, two cups of carrots and I think we know what happened next. By Saturday, it was time to whip out the grater again.
One year ago: Poppy Seed Hamantaschen, Tiny
Two years ago: Spinach and Chickpeas
Three years ago: Penne with Potatoes and Rocket and Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Cornbread
Four years ago: Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts and Feta
Five years ago: Skillet Irish Soda Bread and Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake
Carrot Cake Pancakes
Adapted, barely, from the Joy the Baker Cookbook
It’s delicious sailing the rest of the way. If you’re of the misconception, as I was, that cream cheese frosting has no place at the breakfast meal, I think this will change your mind: softened cream cheese is beaten with just a fraction of the sugar you’d use in a real frosting, and milk, not cream, is used as a thinning agent. Despite concerted dolloping efforts, we had a bit of extra and should you, as well, I advise you to definitely not try to figure out whether it would taste good on banana bread, or an oatmeal muffin, or a… spoon. Just don’t. It’s a slippery slope.
Updated: The original headnotes for this recipe warned against using a food processor to shred the carrot because the carrots needed to be more finely grated than it usually makes them. Good news: Years later, I cannot be bothered to hand-grate carrots and have found no problem with making it faster in the machine. Pre-grated carrots from a store might prove to coarse (i.e. the carrots could take longer to cook than the pancake).
The second update is that I start with half the buttermilk these days — 1/2 cup instead of the 1 cup in the original recipe. I find they cook through better. If your pancake batter ends up too stiff for your liking, you can always add a little bit extra before cooking them, as noted.
Yield: About 12 to 16 3- to 4-inch pancakes
Pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I used a smidge less)
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional, I skip them)
2 tablespoons golden raisins (optional, ditto)
1 large egg
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk, plus more if needed (updated, see note)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups finely grated carrots (from about a 3/4 pound bundle whole carrots)
3 tablespoons butter, for griddle
Cream cheese topping
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dash of ground cinnamon
Place a rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat to 200°F. This will keep the pancakes warmed as they’re fried in batches.
To make the pancakes: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and, if using, nuts and raisins. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in carrots. Stir carrot mixture into dry ingredients, stirring until just incorporated. Let rest for five minutes while you make the cream cheese topping.
To make the cream cheese topping: In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy and lump-free. Whisk in powdered sugar, two tablespoons milk, vanilla and cinnamon. If you’d like the mixture thinner, add the remaining tablespoon of milk (I did not).
Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a cast-iron skillet or griddle pan. Check your batter; if it seems too thick to you (although I like a thicker batter because it spills less in the pan), add a splash or two of extra buttermilk, as needed. Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons batter into the hot pan per pancake (to me, this seemed like too little but after experimenting with larger pancakes, I advise you to listen to Joy; it’s nice in small puddles), flipping once, until pancakes are golden on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer finished pancakes to a serving dish or tray in the oven, to keep warm while you repeat the process with the remaining batter, adding more butter as needed.
Serve warm with cream cheese topping.
Oh goodness. This weekend I’m running my last super long run (22 miles, ahh) before the Boston Marathon and these pancakes look like the perfect way to refuel. Now I just need to find someone willing to make them and have them ready for me as soon as I’m finished running…
Ooh, what a great pancake idea, especially the cream cheese topping (I could eat cream cheese frosting on its own, it’s one of my fave things)
These look fabulous!
Note to self: buy carrots.
Ok, these sound like an amazing way to start the day … or end the day … or enjoy brunch! I love the idea of a carrot cake flavored pancakes, and I bet the cream cheese topping is to-die-for! Yum!
AAH!These look fantastic! My dream come true!
I can’t wait to get Joy’s cookbook and try these pancakes!
They just look so amazing and she’s probably one of my favorite bloggers, apart from you of course!
These look delicious! Any excuse to have the equivalent of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for breakfast sounds good to me!
I must try these. I haven’t tried carrot cake in twenty years. I didn’t like it back then. This looks good though.
Oh these look just divine! I can’t wait to try this!
I’ve given up trying to deny it. This week I made a chocolate cherry bread in a bundt pan. It’s my breakfast for the week.
Hey, it’s healthy-it’s got whole wheat flour, yogurt, eggs from my own hens, fruit and not as much sugar as an actual cake, so it’s ok for breakfast, right??
Do you think this recipe would work in a belgian waffle maker?
I hate using a food processor just because getting it out is such a pain. These pancakes look worth it! I had been eyeing them in my cookbook as well:-)
These look lovely, I’ll have to make them. My food processor has two different shredding blades, and I’m hoping that the finer one will work out for this. I apparently have nothing like your patience and I don’t think they’ll get made otherwise!
Fresh carrots for fresh carrot bread, what could be better?
Wow. Thanks for giving this recipe a whirl!! You’ve inspired me to put these at the top of my “to make from Joy’s cookbook” list. I Just made her Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (with pecans), and they were absolutely amazing. So happy to see her cookbook is producing some great eats, and super looking forward to yours book Deb!!
What a fabulous idea for a passover dish! This has such lovely spices… no doubt this would be a hit at this year’s seder.
Due to the grating, i cannot make these! Or it would be blood carrots in the pancakes ;-) Just history repeating itself! SO feel FREE to bring me a few of these to Alabama! DELICIOUS!
Oh my goodness!! Carrot cake is my favourite dessert and now it can be my favourite breakfast! I can’t wait to try these :)
Carrot cake is my all-time favorite, in fact it is the one I ask for every year for my birthday cake. How cool to now be able to have my favorite “cake” for breakfast! Can’t wait for the weekend to try this one.
Carrot cake is my favorite–thanks so much for this Deb! Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried making carrot cake crepes? I wasn’t sure if that was a real recipe, but I could totally envision them layered with cream cheese frosting to make one of those beautiful crepe cakes. What do you think?
Lili — That sounds amazing. I promise to try it soon.
Oh man. I still have a zillion carrots from our CSA box and was just thinking this morning about what I could possibly make with that many carrots. These seem more like a carrot lakte pancake, which is fantastic. Definitely need to try these!
I did a happy dance when I saw this recipe. I have some maple cream cheese frosting left over from when I made your carrot cake for a friend on friday… Now I know exactly what to do with it.
Carrot cake pancakes with maple cream cheese frosting, oh yes please!
The cake turned out OMG AMAZING IMMA DIE RIGHT NOW OF GLORYTUDE perfect, by the way.
I could look at the first picture of this post all day long. Carrot cake is an absolutely favorite of mine, so I foresee *a lot* of these pancakes in my future.
Ooh, these look good. Glad to know you’re also a Joy fan! I enjoy her blog and her podcast, she’s always making me laugh. :)
One of many wonderful recipes from a fantastic book. These are definitely on my list of things to make soon.
pure brilliance. both you and joy have rock solid sites, it is great to see you feature her!
Oh my goodness… I have everything I need to make these pancakes. I hate grating carrots too, sometimes when I’m not paying attention I tend to start grating my knuckles too. But if grating carrots is what it takes to eat this, I’m totally in!
These look awesome and ironically, I just made carrot cake and cream cheese cookies and just got done edited my pics RIGHT before I read this post. The universe is speaking Carrots to me, around every corner :)
as soon as i saw the title i knew exactly where the recipe came from! these are next on my weekend list.
this seems like such a good idea, but is it only for people who like carrot cake? or do I need to revisit the whole idea of carrot cake and believe that it’s tasty?
This looks like a fantastic way to sneak some carrots into my kids’ bellies. Thank you!
What a clever twist on pancakes! My favorite carrot cake recipe has pineapple in it; I wonder if that would work here. Ditto on shredding carrots by hand. Hate it.
Wait. . . don’t you mean “pretend I’m eating breakfast when I’m really eating cake”?
I just made buckwheat cakes and my little boy loved him! Was so happy he loved them — now — I will make these! Carrot pancakes, absolutely genius!
I’m always looking for ways to tuck some “healthy,” into meals like these.
Thank you again!!
Wow, these look really delicious, I love carrot cake but it would be nice to have a bit of a healthier version so this might be a good alternative.
1. Why isn’t there a fine grating disk for the food processor? You would think that KitchenAid would provide…but no. 2. You little one looks like a handsome boy now! Love the haircut! 3. Must make those pancakes asap!
Can’t wait to try these! I’m a big fan of cake for breakfast;)
Wow, these look fantastic. Carrot cake for breakfast doesn’t sound too bad when there’s so little sugar involved . . . will definitely be making a GF version of these soon =)
Oh WOW… after my leisurely morning searching the net for a new unique recipe to try… I’ve found it right HERE! I LOVE carrot cake and this spin on it as a pancake makes it the ideal weekend breakfast treat xo Thank you!!!
I’ve made these and they are fabulous. So, SO good! I actually use my food processor to grate the carrots, and they turn out just fine for me. I just can’t with the hand grating…that’s only for an extra special birthday cake, not breakfast. :) If you have a small chopping bowl for your food processor, I recommend using that to make the topping. It makes it easier to smooth out the cream cheese.
I just made these for a birthday breakfast yesterday!
What an interesting recipe! It looks like a delicious alternative to pancakes. Do suggest anything to substitute the cream cheese topping? Sometimes I try to cook dairy-free.
Have you made any other recipes from the cookbook? I’m curious if they all turned out as good as this one did.
The box hand grater is my least favourite kitchen implement, but these pancakes look like they’ll be worth risking a knuckle for! :D
Hmm, I’ve actually been enjoying your Apple Sharlotka recipe, also for breakfast — it’s amazing with a cup of coffee.
Just made these–can’t believe how tender and yummy they are! The spices are just right–subtle but still there. I found a way around having to hand grate the carrots. I couldn’t bear the thought of hand grating that many carrots, so I ground them up in my Vitamix (a food processor would do the same thing), then par-cooked them for 2 minutes on high in the microwave. After coming out of the microwave, they still had a but of crunch. They came out perfectly tender in the pancakes. :)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! I haven’t had a chance to pick up Joy’s book yet, so I’ll definitely be making these in the meantime. They look delicious!!
Stunning! And delicious! An all-around win! :)
What a great idea! I hate pancakes, but I think I would actually eat these haha
Can I borrow you breakfast mantra? Because its better than mine which is “This cookie has less sugar than a bowl of Lucky Charms”.
I’ve been petrified of carrot cake ever since my ex-gf and I went to the Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach and had a slice – but they put coconut in it and I am very allergic!
This? This sounds like an amazing way to indulge in carrot cake without attempting to try someone else’s carrot cake.
Killian — Wait, there’s a restaurant called “Jewish Mother” in Virginia Beach? Because that might be the awesomest thing I’ve heard in a while.
“How does she know, Rich? How does she know?” I just asked my husband about your latest food offering. Last week you did knishes like the ones we devoured on our honeymoon, and now you’re offering carrot cake pancakes because you somehow knew our wedding cake was a carrot cake? (Carrot cake, raspberry filling and marzipan fondant all Martha Stewarted up with yellowed fondant and daisies. I digress.) My husband and I have just agreed that we will have these to start our anniversary day in June.
I once tried to make carrot cake pancakes but they were horribly dense and I think I overcooked them (or it could have been because they verged more on the side of cake than breakfast). At any rate, these look awesome and so good for you too!
Sounds amazing, but hand-grating the carrots not so much. I’ve had success grating on the food processor attachment and then mulching with a hand blender. Bit of washing up though! I’ve gotta try these pancakes.
the more “cake” in my breakfast the better…
I just THOUGHT carrot cake oatmeal was the best thing ever. These looks amazing! Any excuse to have cake for breakfast. :) And the icing! Brilliant.
Yes Ma’am. It has the most amazing sandwiches, and cake slices the size of your head.
I know about the no advertising rule, but um, if you happen to maybe browse the web and go to the restaurant name and add a .com after it, you’ll find the site for it. =)
Oh Deb, I’m with ya on the grating carrots thing. That and peeling potatoes; it freaks me out every single time! I’m reduced to making hubby do that stuff for me, I just say, “Honey, if you don’t do it, we’ll starve to death.” Gets him every time. But it just feels like there must be another way!! Maybe we could start a brainstorming session and we could invent the new Perfect Carrot Grater….hmm….thanks for this, healthy pancakes? I’m in!!
Re: grating carrots:
The Silver Palate carrot cake recipe requires cooked, mashed carrots instead of grated carrots. For small amounts, just grating them is probably easier/faster, but I’m wondering if that trick might be convertible to these pancakes to make them more reasonable to make in larger quantities?
That carrot cake also just generally a really, really good carrot cake, at least without the nuts and coconut; I’ve actually never eaten it precisely as it’s written.
(also: yum. And I love the idea of topping it with a lightly sweetened cream-cheesy dollop.)
Love it!!! The cut, the carrots and of COURSE!!! JOY! Just love her and her blog (as well as yours) to death!
Go team!!!
Oh Wow! They look amazing and delicious!
Those sound wonderful. This calls for a smidge of whiskey in the coffee, ut as you say it’s a slippery slope…
I love carrot cake, I love pancakes, and I love these moments in life where the admirer and the admired switch places. Joy has spoken so fondly on her blog about looking up to your blog and it’s such a satisfying thing to see a post of yours with her BOOK in the background! I cannot get over how great the blogging world is.
Recipe looks awesome, we go thru 10 lbs a week around here ! But where did you get those plates. Love them, I’m in Canada so hoping, slim chance, they can be bought on-line ?
Jenny — I bought it a couple years ago at Crate and Barrel. I see they have something similar right now, but it’s got a colored center (mine doesn’t, not that you’d ever know with food on it).
omgoodness… what a hearty breakfast!
ooo these look great! and i love joy the baker! i was just at her book signing, she is really lovely. and i so can’t wait to start cooking my way through her pancake recipes! thanks for the inspiration!
yurm yurm. i wonder if you can substitute a diff root veggie?
My turn to edit: last paragraph before the recipe: I think this will change “your” mind. :) So much for my pledge to never comment before making the latest smitten recipe!
These look crazy-good, and I think they could definitely qualify for a regular spot in the breakfast rotation. As for grating the carrots, what about putting them in the food processor with the regular blade? I do this for my carrot cake which produces a similar effect to the small-hole box grater, yet with much less effort and far easier clean-up!
I’ll bet with a little ingredient swapping this could be used as a base for chocolate zucchini bread pancakes!
What if you did the latke trick with these and grated them in the food processor and then gave them just a couple pulses with the ‘S’ blade? Will try and report back….
That will be the perfect breakfast for my husband’s birthday! He is a carrot cake lover!! I just don’t think I can wait until September:-)
I’m so glad this is the recipe you made from Joy’s cookbook because its the one I wanted to try first toooooo…. I’m so happy.
I just adore Joy the Baker as well…she has a light hearted approach to baking, which I admire and she is very creative with her recipes. Such a delight to see one of my favorite bloggers blog about another one of my favorite bloggers ;) Carrot cake pancakes definitely sound wonderful, and your stack with cream cheese topping is exactly what I would want to eat every morning!
of COURSE cream cheese frosting is a breakfast type food! cinnamon buns anyone?
I love carrot cake (my mom’s is the best in the world and I will fight to the death anyone who says otherwise. or, you know, we could have a cake-off, I’d judge) and I love Joy the Baker! I can’t wait to get my hot little hands on her cookbook, but for the meantime, I know what I’ll be having for breakfast this weekend!
Are these for real?! I just learned to love Carrot Cake… now married with my long-time love of pancakes!
do you think they would still turn out well if i subbed coconut milk for buttermilk (i really try to avoid milk) and halved the brown sugar measurement?
these do look amazing and i can’t wait to try them!
agh! I can’t wait to get Joy’s book, I’ve been hearing great things about it
but I want to see for myself!
These pancakes sound amazing I will definitely be making these, skipping the
cream cheese topping and using plain ol’ maple syrup yummyyy.
Ah, Deb saves the day again! I will make them tomorrow.
Delicious!!!
I’ll try them for my breakfast tomorrow… they are really nice, I love carrot cake in any version and I have lots of carrots…
Oh my..I’m so intrigued..carrot cake pancakes..who would have thought of those!!:)
I just have to sing your praises!!! I absolutely adore your photos and all your recipes are just what I love. I go to photography school and my dream is to make my photos “taste” the way yours do!
Anna,
Norway
I see the hidden Joy the Baker cookbook! Made me giggle :)
Ooh, so sorry to bother you with this but do you have any ideas for what to replace the buttermilk with here in France? Creme liquide and…?
I am so happy to have found your blog–as corny as this sounds, you make me want to cook! As an American living in France, I really miss the best of American cooking–clean, simple but interesting–all of which I find here. Merci. :)
Is it Saturday yet?
Oh, I don’t mean to be a nitpicker… “couldn’t put off making dinner no longer” The English-teacher in me just took over. I LOVE YOUR BLOG. Thank you for sharing this recipe. You rock, Deb.
Joanser — Thanks. Just a typo.
I LOVE THIS RECIPE! I really need to try it! It’s genius!
Breakfast is my favourite day, so I always try to make something for the week, now I am into granola with yogurt in weekdays + pancakes in the weekends :)
It’s funny how eating Carrot cake is indulgent but eating carrot pancakes is virtuous! I plan to be virtuous tomorrow!
My husband prefers to call it Breakfast Cake….of course, it doesn’t seem to matter what kind; if he eats it in the morning then it’s Breakfast Cake! Now he can have healthy BC! Thank you
These look so so so yummy!
Yummy, am hungry now
I’ve been on a pancake kick lately. Just made blueberry buckwheat this weekend. I’ll definitely have to try this recipe soon too!
I love carrot cake, I love breakfast food, this is a match made in Heaven, hahaha.
Ooh, I love Joy’s new cookbook. I was just thinking about her kitchen-creativity this morning. That is truly a gift to be able to do what she does – and these pancakes certainly look divine – I thought so when I saw them in her book and now when I see them here too!
These look so awesome. I think my daughter might actually eat some vegetables with her breakfast if I made these! The only way she likes carrots is in carrot cake! Love these.
I was just thinking the same thing Trish was thinking. Vegetables at breakfast! Any thoughts on using whole wheat pastry flour for all or part of the flour? Would they just be too dense? Thanks!
First off – Jacob looks insanely cute with the new haircut. Love it!
Second – the pancakes look brilliant – they’re calling my name.
Last – To Heather: put a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring cup, fill with regular milk, stir and let sit for a few minutes. Instant buttermilk!
Brilliant! This could actually make me like pancakes!
Deb, this is so my kind of breakfast. I’m gonna make these for my kiddos and they will freak! Or maybe I’m just using them as an excuse so that I get to eat a nice stack of these beauties in the morning;)
-Erin
LOVE joy the baker. Amazing. Have you tried her arroz con pollo? We had it for valentine’s day (http://yellebellyboo.blogspot.com/2012/02/arroz-con-pollo.html) and loved it.
These look like a must-try!
Yes, the pancakes look wonderful, but I admit my first thought was a heart-wrenching “Oh, his beautiful curls!”…
Hi Deb – I have never written a comment, but I LOVE your blog! Just wanted to comment that I print your recipes all of the time, but I always wish they would print with one of your beautiful photos at the top. Any chance this is possible? I am so visual that a photo really helps me remember what the recipe looked like when I go to make it…
Hi Grace — It is! However, it’s an either/or thing (I’m not so technically fancy that I know how to offer it as an option for the reader doing the printing). When I had the top photo in the printing template, people complained that it used up toner/pages/etc. When I took it off, I do hear that people miss it. I can’t win. :)
Oh. My. This goes in the “for the husband” recipe box. He will love them!
And who said you can’t have dessert for breakfast? Am going to give these a go on Sunday..looks super yummy
What a delicious sounding pancake – totally is a great twist on the original! That and with carrots you feel healthier :)
Definitely will be trying these. My carrot cake recipe was my grandmother’s, and it’s a tiny bit famous. In our family, anyway. ;) But I only mention that to tell you that – besides the fact that everyone around here loves carrot cake and all related goodies – the recipe actually directs you to pureee the carrots (raw, but peeled and coarsely chopped) in a blender with some of the liquid for the cake before adding to the batter. Perhaps this would work for these pancakes, if you’re not into grating it? I think I’ll try; the buttermilk will get really foamy, but maybe if you do it first and then let it rest while you get the other ingredients ready? All in the name of progress and experimentation, of course. ;) Now I just have to try to decide how much coarse chopping will be required to equate to the 2 cups of finely shredded…
So just made these… It was an epic fail. I used yogurt instead of buttermilk because I read that could be a substitution… They would not cook through without the outside burning so they were a gushy mess. Same thing has happened making banana pancakes… Wish I could just eat the pictures!!
Is there anything you could substitute for the buttermilk? We LOVE pancakes but are trying to eliminate dairy from our diets.
I’m wondering if applesauce wouldn’t work to some extent for moisture? I know we’ve added that in the past in place of oil in other pancake recipes.
I love carrot cake! The idea of getting to eat it for breakfast is so exciting! The pictures look great-can’t wait to try! Thanks for the recipe!
perfection.
and gorgeous photos, as always :)
Aahh!!
Making these! I recently bought a whole nutmeg. I thought I was supposed to crack it open, but it does not look like yours is? Do you just grate it as is when you buy it then?
Chelsey — I just grate it as is. I’ve never cracked it open.
Dawn — Applesauce would probably be delicious.
I was struggling to come up with a dinner last night when this popped up on my facebook page! I had all the ingredients except the buttermilk – which was easy to substitute with some milk and lemon juice – and we got to cooking. They were delicious! They were just the kind of thing I needed after giving up “sweets” for lent. I figure I walked a thin line last night…but just to stay on right side of the line, we didn’t make the cream cheese topping. Needless to say, next time we make them, we will fully indulge! Thanks for sharing :)
these sound heavenly! can’t believe i’ve never seen carrot cake pancakes before, these would be amazing
x kat
I do hate grating – a lot. However, my favorite dessert of all time is carrot cake, mostly for the cream cheese icing, moist cake and kick of cinnamon. Maybe I can get my kids to grate the carrots!
Dear Deb,
You might be evil.
— My bum
Mmmmmmm. Cream cheese topping.
Love your blog. Love Joy. Love pancakes.
Yummmmmm.
Would finely chopped carrots work in the recipe? Perhaps not as lovely as grated but easier on the wrists and arms?
Oh these look amazing. What a fun weekend brunch idea!
Best,
Charlotte
Hmm, tempted to tweak the topping to use maple syrup instead of sugar and (part of the) milk. Either way, can’t wait to try them!
These look so fantastic! Carrot cake is one of my favorites! I have to have the rasins though! :)
dear god in heaven if there really is a second life, i’d like to come back as a member of your family . . . or at the very least your taste-tester . . . i can’t quit you Deb, i really can’t . . .
Wow, what a great idea! I quite often have pancakes for brunch on the weekend so I’ll definitely be giving these a try.
Did anyone else have problems with them cooking all the way thru? The edges cook, but the middle just isn’t cooking :-(
Wow, two of my favorite things in one…looks amazing!
These look fantastic! I love how finely you grate your carrots!!!
I made these this morning! (hallelujah, i had all the necessary ingredients on hand). Delicious & I felt so virtuous eating all that carrot fiber. Mine were a bit irregular shaped (I didn’t work too hard on shaping them round, because I don’t care–and irregular edges mean more crispy pancake edges!).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cristine/7000122625/in/photostream
I already made a run and brunch date for the purpose of making and eating these pancakes! Can’t wait for that day to come!
I think I rarely make pancakes because they can seem too dessert-like for me. Your argument for these may have swayed me!
O.M.G. this looks amazing! I will definitely have to try this one. IF only I could keep a photo journal of all your posts.. Have you ever thought of starting a cookbook? Or have you beat me to it already?
could you cook this in the oven in a cast iron pan?
Wow! I love carrot, but to be honest any kind of carrot dessert seemed to be very controversial. But pics are so remarkable that I think I may try yours carrot pancakes :)
I make pancakes more for dinner than for breakfast. Corncakes–with cornmeal and corn–for example, have a semi-regular spot in our rotation. One of my kids is very picky, but pancakes work for her. Any suggestions for accompaniments, particularly to add a little protein (I guess the walnuts would work too – maybe even toasted and ground?)? By the way, I am a huge fan; my family and I have enjoyed MANY of your recipes over the years – THANK YOU!
Joy in the back! That’s a pretty sweet way to make a shout out…about to make these. Super excited! I have success with all of you recipes (even the hand pies!). This site is my touchstone and has given me great confidence in the kitchen. I previously had VERY little. Thank you! Keep it up!
This looks UNREAL!! I WILL be making this for the hubby and babe. Thanks so much for the recipe and gorgeous photos!
Random question, Deb. Do you see a large difference in flavor between grating fresh nutmeg everytime you need some, and just using the store-bought pre-grated stuff? Always wondered.
Brittany — I think the ground stuff has a tenancy towards mustiness; I never cared for it. But the freshly grated is lovely. And really, a cinch. You can just use your Microplane zester and it takes only 30 seconds longer.
This is PERFECT! I have so many carrots, I just don’t know what to do with all of them. I’m tired of carrot cake. My kids will love these.
Thank you!
After grating the carrots, I kind of wanted to squeeze some of the water out. Like you do for like potato pancakes–maybe not that extreme but maybe blot with a paper towel before adding to the milk. I didn’t but wondered if anyone else tried that. I felt like it might have helped the final texture.
Yay! I am so glad to see Joy getting props on one of my other favorite food blogs. I also think of her as the Queen of Pancakes!
I am so, so, so in love with the JTB cookbook! I haven’t made these pancakes yet (though I did give her peanut butter birthday cake a try and oh, I’m am so glad that I did) but given my penchant for pancakes-for-dinner, I think I’m going to have to soon!
This is awesome, all of the pictures look so good! Good job!
thoughts on using whole wheat flour here?… to make them less guilt inducing :)
Joy is pure awesomeness and pancake truth all in one.
Thanks for the heads-up on the plates !
Wow, I just made carrot cake for my husbands birthday (it’s his favorite), but now I think I’ll have to make these this weekend. Cream cheese frosting at breakfast? Yes please!
Great recipe!!!
I would try it but I don’t like leek.Can I add red onion? What do you think about it?
Big thumbs up on these! Perfection again! I have both large and small-hole grating disks for my old Cuisinart food processor, so I was able to breeze through that step. SIDEBAR WARNING DEB! Favorite topic of mine: Superiority of 1980’s appliances over today’s- have 22 year-old Maytag washer & dryer, going strong. Have a 1980’s hand-made Swiss espresso machine I got off Craigslist, magnifico! 80’s Krups juicer, 80’s Braun hand mixer, ditto. My Cuisinart is from the same era, solid as a rock. All the newer stuff’s made in China, whether you pay $10 or $100, it’s all crap!
To grace-
You can copy paste the recipe and the picture into a word document, then you can reduce the size of the picture so it won’t take up so much space ink, etc.
Alexia – I didn’t squeeze the water out of the carrots but I wish I had. I think it might have helped to cook them better – I cooked them on a fairly low heat but even after they were overcooked on both sides the inside was still very mushy. But they were still delicious!
For those wondering about whole-wheat flour, I made them tonight with 1/2 cup AP and 1/2 cup whole wheat, and they were a hit with my family. I think I’ll try them next time with all whole wheat. I don’t anticipate any problems with it. The carrots are front-and-center here, not the flour, after all.
p.s. I highly recommend using the leftover cream cheese topping on strawberries for dessert. (Not that you NEED dessert when you have dessert-for-breakfast-for-dinner, but if you were so inclined…)
Love nutmeg!! These look so good!
YUMMERS!! Love Joy and her simple and yummy creations. I recently made carrot cake oatmeal and never looked back. So delicious :D
This looks lush!! Must try!
It’s breakfast for dinner time!
My hubby got frustrated with the fine-grating by hand after a bit (well, one carrot) and decided to coarsely grate with food processor, then pulse with chopping blade- Voila! Perfection in seconds. :)
I tossed in some unsweetened, shredded coconut – a must for my carrot cake! The batter seemed to wet, but isn’t at all. I agree – small size is the way to go b/c these are so tender… and absolutely wonderful. Many thanks for inspiring us!
Yum! Yum! And more yum! Can’t wait to try these out!
Yum!! Love the sound of these (and anything else carrot cake themed) as well as the suggestions of other great pancake articles to try out (single lady pancake? HERE I COME!). Guess its time for me to finally buy a box grater! Wish you could do a carrot cake recipe that resembled my Grandmother’s… I would die of happiness!
Laura Manning
Freeman School of Business
I made these yesterday. We have given up sweets (not for lent, just for health) and these seemed like a good way to cheat with out, you know, cheating. I don’t have a box grater with fancy different sized holes. I have a microplane zester and a handheld grater with medium/big sized holes. I choose the grater because I thought the microplane would = madness. I like pancakes, but they shouldn’t be a multi-day project is all I’m sayin’. I also only had the baby snacking carrots which were so much fun to grate one at a time. The skin on my finger joints is pretty torn up.
Long story short (too late!) these were tasty. I will definitely make them again, but I might have to buy a new grater.
And bigger carrots.
PS I also had trouble cooking them all the way through, which is not a problem I normally have with pancakes. I cooked them in a cast iron skillet at the lowest temperature my stove allows. Maybe I was making them too big. Next time!
I bet you could grate the carrots a bit more coarsely, then gently saute them with some butter and lemon juice while you mix the dry ingredients. That would cut down on the work some – especially since I hate grating!
Think I’ll make these for breakfast tomorrow – hubby and I both love carrot cake.
My favorite line on this has always been Michael Kelly’s, despite my disagreeing with him about everything else: “A muffin the size of a softball is not breakfast. It is dessert; you are eating cake at 8 a.m.”
That said, this makes me want to bloody my knuckles on a grater because that last picture literally made my mouth water. I wish it were like Willy Wonka’s food TV so that I could reach up to my computer screen and grab that forkful.
Joy’s book is on my list, but these pancakes might have to be added though I don’t have a single day or night free until at least next weekend. They look lovely!
Do you think a double recipe (or a triple) could be baked in a well greased jelly roll pan to be served at a brunch? I could cut squares- rather than have to fry them batch by batch. Or could I freeze them, fried, and then heat them in the oven to crisp up.
Any advice is welcome. I need a new side dish for a brunch. I am getting tired of Kugel.
Leslie — I haven’t tried it but if you did, I’d love to hear how it comes out. It would be a great adaptation to keep in mind.
I love carrot cake and these pancakes almost sounds too good to be true. I am definitely trying these out next!
I made these the day you posted the recipe and I’m hooked! The balance of flavors between the carrots and spices was spot on, and I love how hearty they were. I happened to have golden raisins and chopped hazlenuts so I did include them and I think they added a lot (the raisins did, at least). My toddler loved them like Jabob did and called out “Moah! Moah!”
I made these with whole wheat pastry flour, and they were very good. I do agree that they are a little mushy in the middle. Must be the added moisture from the carrots. These are very low cal, for anyone who cares (I eked out 9, and calculated 87 calories each). I know that’s not why we come here, but it’s nice to know they’re good and good for you!
Thoughts when I read this post/recipe:
YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES.
That was all :)
Man, I guess I’ll have to continue my dessert for breakfast trend, as these look too good not to try at least once. I’ll try to wait until Sunday… maybe.
These look utterly mouth watering. I do believe this could be a winner for breakfast this week..thank you
My boyfriend is a carrot cake junkie, and I love carrot anything. I’m going to have to make these immediately!
Ahhh damn I’m making these!!
I’m not much of a pancake eater, mostly because when I want to eat pancakes, what I really want to do is eat 500 pancakes. But these have me sold. Of course, it have also been the hilarity of your struggles with the breakfast cake / dessert cake divide :)
mmm! I made carrot cake a few days ago, and i’m still in the mood for more carrot infused recipes – these look terrific! btw – if you’re interested in winning chobani greek yogurt, maybe you should stop over to my blog and enter the contest.
If your book tour takes you to Virginia Beach you must go to the Jewish Mother! Can’t vouch for the authenticity of the food, but it’s a delightful little place, and the only reason I knew what blintzes were before moving to New York.
UGH. just ate wayyy too many of these :)
Came to read the recipe, happened to follow the link to see your little guy happy with the finished product–and how adorable is he? I remember that age, and I marvel you get anything done, since it is so easy to dote on such precious-ness.
Mine are 16 and 13 now, and sweet, but not like that age. Sigh.
Really looking forward to the cookbook!
After staring longingly at the pictures and dreaming of this recipe, I finally JUST made these, and they are delicious!!! Not too sweet, not too heavy, and the topping is unreal…simply divine!
I so hope you read this comment. I don’t know which food processor you have but, I own a Cuisinart..the plain jane white one and you can buy an add-on set of discs that include..wait for it..”a Medium Square Julienne Disc, Thick Slicing Disc (6-mm.) and a Fine Grater Disc”..a Fine grater disc..I have been contemplating this set for a while. I hope it’s the kind that’ll fit your FP but, look around on their website.
Nice to have my two favorite blogs being so interconnected in one post. :)
Oy, these sound lovely. My husband is a fan of super-thin pancakes – is there a way to thin these slightly, perhaps with another egg or additional buttermilk, without destroying their integrity?
Hi Jamie — More buttermilk should do it.
Anu — Thank you. I hadn’t realized there were extra discs for purchase! I know I’ll use them a lot.
sound yummy!! here’s my secret for the carrots: juice carrots in a juicer and take out the shredded carrots from the “trash” section of juicer. so you get pancakes w/fresh juice! doesn’t get any better…..
Seems like pancakes are all the buzz the past couple days. But these are unique and look soooo delicious!
4:30 p.m.: I will make these as written. They will be for dinner, unapologetically.
5:00 p.m.: Just realized—no buttermilk and no time to go to the store. Whole milk will be fine.
5:15 p.m.: The 5-year-old decides to take a bath and wants her hair washed. I forget the brown sugar.
5:30 p.m.: Spouse invites the 3-year-old to come outside for barn chores. Shoes go on wrong feet; convincing him they’re on the wrong feet takes a bit of time. Who needs freshly grated nutmeg? The powdered stuff is right here.
5:33 p.m.: The 3-year-old comes back in and decides that *he* wants to take a bath. @*&! I squeeze three pancakes in the skillet at a time.
5:45 p.m.: Everyone is suddenly screaming that they’re hungry. No one is getting any frosting. Straight cream cheese all around.
5:50 p.m.: Suddenly no one is anywhere near the dinner table. I scarf down two while they’re hot. They’ll be sorry.
6:00 p.m.: Finally, everyone is here, relatively dry, and mostly dressed.
6:02 p.m.: Pancakes are gone. Everyone wails that I should have made a double batch. Spouse says he didn’t even want the sugar and suggests various savory versions. What is wrong with him?
Maybe next time I’ll do them right. With sugar. And frosting. And buttermilk. And fresh nutmeg. (When the kids are in college.) Bottom line: They were fantastic anyway. Thanks!
Regina — Hilarious. You must be hanging out at my place!
These just got a “Whoa! These are really good!” from my two pickiest eaters (6 and 4 years old). They’ve officially entered the weekend pancake rotation.
Almost gave up on these with the first grated knuckle but persevered and they were so worth it!! Thanks, Deb!
I just made these with my little brother. He doesn’t like vegetables, but strangely enough loves carrot cake (over other cakes, I mean). I do, too but I’m frustrated by how sweet it is and how bad for you it can be (though positively delicious!). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this recipe only used two tablespoons of brown sugar and I just made sure that he didn’t overdose on the cream-cheese mixture when eating it. I also used slightly less than two cups of finely grated carrots and I think if I had done more it would have been too much. It would also be good for those who like a stronger taste to spice up the cream-cheese (let’s be honest here, we’ll acknowledge it’s frosting :D). They were totally delicious, and I felt like they had SOME nutritional value, which is an ace in my book.
ALSO, I LOVE Joy. I’m going to her book signing in New York, I’ve always wondered if you guys looked at each other’s sites…
I always find ways to include veggies into my diet but had never thought that it could be in my breakfast :) What a way to include health food carrots into your breakfast.The only obstacle is having buttermilk at any time in the fridge, so I usually opt for the buttermilk powder that stays in the fridge for months, for any recipe that calls for not a lot of buttermilk :)
So so delicious!! Easy to make and mouthwateringly divine. Thank you!!
oh devil woman – you and joy – now pancakes will never be the same! Thanks!
A friend and I just made these today and they are wonderful!!! Thank you! We did make an adjustment to the topping though, to make it a little more healthy and, in my opinion, even more delicious! We just added 2 Tablespoons of Agave and 1 Tablespoon of Maple Syrup to the 4 oz of cream cheese. It was sweet and perfectly complimented the pancakes!
I’m wondering if I can use the pulp left over from juicing carrots instead of grating the carrots?
I used organic Greek yoghurt instead of buttermilk. They were delicious.
I made these yesterday without the frosting, and they were awesome. I used the food processor to grate the carrots and then followed a another’s suggestion to pop the grated carrots in the microwave for about 1 minute. It worked really well, and the carrots kept the pancakes so moist inside. Thanks for the recipe!
I made a few substitutions (going out of town tomorrow and trying to clean out the fridge) that worked out fine – that’s the beauty of pancakes, right? So flexible! But I want everyone to know that you can use a food processor! I grated the carrots using the grating disk, and then chopped them up using the regular blade and they turned out quite fine. I haven’t made the recipe by hand, so I don’t know if the result was exactly the same, but I was happy! The topping also comes together quite nicely in the fp – mine has a small bowl that goes inside the larger bowl, and this worked like a charm!
I love carrot cake. I would be appalled if breakfast can get any better than this. I will try it as soon as possible. Feel free to check my results in my blog pretty soon!
Deb: I couldn’t wait any long and HAD to make these today – but made them into waffles and added dried apricots (both requests of my boyfriend). They were excellent! I’ll be posting them soon! Thanks for the recipe (and thanks to JOY!).
These were fantastic! Like you, we couldn’t believe how healthy they were. The texture was really wonderful — soft and moist — and the “frosting” was the perfect complement. (Also, I used the biggest carrot I have ever seen to make these — 3/4 lb. on its own!)
Hey Deb. Just wanted to say how much I love the coloring- orange and turquoise. Excellent choice. I think using fabric is a brilliant idea.
My buried cream cheese was sprouting interesting spores…
So I used a very creamy goat cheese- also excellent!
Been experimenting with this coconut sugar I picked up.
So good in pancakes! Sometimes (= every time) I sort of lose my patience to de clump the coconut sugar lumps and the result is like eating tiny caramel pockets of bliss.
On a totally different tangent- I’m starting a serious problem those green beans and fried almond salad.
Ha… Just made carrot cake yesterday for my son’s birthday, so I’ll wait a couple of days and then make these. They sound perfect and low in added sugar, too.
Made these this morning for a family breakfast… Amazing!!
Made these over the weekend. I swapped in 1/2 regular whole wheat flour – they were delish! I had trouble getting them to cook all the way through. Cook ’em on the first side for a good 2 minutes longer then you normally cook pancakes. Whatever. At the end of the day, just slather on the cream cheese frosting and who cares if the center is a little damp. The flavors here are wonderful!
YUM! What a great excuse for me to have desert for breakfast ;)
Laurie Colwin wrote something about how much children like fritters, and I think these qualify, no? I made them for dinner this weekend (minus topping), with meatballs and a salad of roasted veggies and potatoes, and they were quite a hit with the four-year-old. If anyone is interested I made them dairy- and egg-free (because of allergies)–earth balance, egg replacer, soy milk curdled with a bit of cider vinegar–and they were fine.
WOW, these were good. After hand-grating for quite a while, I finished that part in the Vitamix. Worked well! Delicious breakfast!
Just made these with goat cheese instead of cream cheese for the topping — really wonderful!
What a great idea. I am always looking for new ways to serve up my absolute favorite dish – pancakes. Thanks for the idea. Maybe zucchini would be good too.
I just made these. holy cow, they were good. and my children told me they wouldn’t eat it and requested cheerios instead…asked for seconds. can’t wait to make them again. Grating the carrots wasn’t nearly the terrible task I thought it was going to be
READERS BEWARE. These pancakes were TERRIBLE. Yes, they sound wonderful, and I’ve had great luck with other Smitten recipes. However, these are a DUD. They never cooked through, despite changing the temperature, varying the amount of flour, and even cooking a batch until burnt. The insides remain goopy. Spare yourself the annoyance of all the grating. Trust me.
Genius! I can’t wait to try out this recipe!!!!
xo Kayla
I suppose one person’s “deliciously tender” is another person’s “underdone.” These had a wonderful flavor, but I like my baked/bready goods firm, and these felt like the batter didn’t finish cooking, while the carrots (very finely grated) mostly remained little stringy chewy bits. Cooking these for almost 5 minutes per side on low, and then letting them “bake” a little bit longer in an oven closer to 250 helped, but not enough for me to make these again. I normally love carrot cake, next time I’ll stick to carrot muffins with less sugar.
Thank you very much for this recipe. My carrot-addicted son wouldn’t even try these and my carrot-shunning daughter gobbled them up and can’t wait for me to make them again.I added some coconut to make them more carrot-cakey and mace since I’m out of nutmeg. I’ll probably use only a dash of mace next time as it crowded out the other spices. The cream cheese stuff was lumpy so I think I needed to let it get warmer before beginning to beat it. Oh, and the leftovers fared much better than regular pancakes would in the fridge.
Bill Cosby would be proud
These are divine!
Next time I’m baking the batter..
Just made these for my fiancé and three year old. They came out perfect! We were not, however, impressed by the cream cheese frostIng. But maple syrup on these? Oh yeah….
I was prepared to dislike these, but made them for my 3 and 9 year old girls and spouse. EVERYONE (including me) could not get enough of them! The topping was key, though next time I will put a little less sugar in it. I adapted this to be gluten free by using an all purpose GF baking flour and two tablespoons of corn starch. Worked great!
wow those look simply amazing! I might just have to try this!
My hubby made these for me last night, and they were delicious! The frosting was fabulous, especially the part I was forced to lick off of the spoon. :-)
Made this last night, but didn’t have any carrots so I made it with organic zucchini. Sounded like a good idea until I made the first one and the insides were super wet. They tasted great though! I added about 3/4c of flour and the texture improved a little, but still not perfect.
Learned a good lesson and this was a delicious recipe, but don’t think I will sub carrot for zucchini again.
Thanks for the recipe!
These were amazing!!! I made ours gluten free by substituting King Arthurs gluten free flour blend + 1/4 teaspoon of xanthum gum and I added 1 extra egg. I also substituted plain whole milk yogurt for the buttermilk because I didn’t have the latter. I thought they were amazing, but better yet, my 6 year old devoured them (without syrup or the cream cheese glaze!).
These look spectacular. I also need to adjust a little for gluten but I plan on keeping the rest of the recipe as-is. I was just getting so sick of breakfast so this will be a wonderful treat around here.
I couldn’t get these out of my head, but am admittedly not much of a breakfast person. So I made them savory and had them for dinner and they were fabulous! A little extra salt, cumin, coriander, chili flakes instead of the sugar et al. and topped with plain yogurt, my carnivorous husband actually high-fived me. Also, thank you for the introduction to Joy the Baker!
Made them and they were heavenly! Made a few adjustments… whole wheat flour, touch of molasses, and a little more spice. I’d add sweetened shredded coconut next time… but all in all… Pure delight! Thank you!!!!
Oh Thanks Ashley- comment above…. Savory is my next move!
These were delicious. Ours came out perfectly, and the carrots lent great moisture to the finished product. My husband makes pancakes every Saturday for going on two yrs now, so I know a bit about pancakes, and these are in the tops of the many recipes he has tried. The key was making them small, as Deb advised, and grating the carrots small so they were cooked through, also as Deb advised.
The only substitution we made was to use super-strained yogurt (labneh, yogurt cheese) in place of cream cheese to cut own on calories/fat, and bc we had it in the house. Arguably a bit runnier, we didn’t need to add milk to “thin” but otherwise not much difference.
These today, soft boiled eggs with your soldiers and asparagus tomorrow…Deb, you’re a legend in our house. :-)
I made these this morning, with half ap flour/half whole wheat flour, and 1/3 less fat cream cheese. They were outstanding! Breakfast totally wins!
p.s. I love your blog, I never thought I could make food with so much flavor. Thank you!
These were super good. My little toddler liked them, too, although he wasn’t big on the cream cheese topping (he preferred syrup). But that just meant more topping for me. :)
I made these yesterday, and two adults and four kids (11, 7, 6 and 4) polished off all but one pancake from a double batch. They cooked through just fine for me if I kept the heat low enough so that they were golden on the bottom when the edges were just starting to get that dry, set look, and bubbles in the middle no longer filled in when popped. I loved the cream cheese topping, but I loved it even better with a little buttermilk syrup drizzled on top of a dollop of cream cheese topping. Here’s the buttermilk syrup recipe I use:
Buttermilk Syrup
2 C sugar
2 C buttermilk
1 C butter
1/4 C light Karo syrup
1 t baking soda
2 t vanilla
Put all ingredients other than vanilla in a large (at least 6 qt, and 8 qt would be even better–this stuff greatly increases in volume as it boils) pot, and bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set timer for 7 minutes, and keep stirring. When the timer goes off, remove from heat, stir as foaming subsides, then stir in vanilla. Serve warm over everything–waffles, pancakes, french toast, ice cream, etc. etc.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us. Looks really delicious.. wanna try them soon.
I love seeing the Joy the Baker Cookbook photo bomb in there!
I have to say I was dubious. While I love carrot cake, I wasn’t sure about these. The picture didn’t even look appetizing. But I trusted you and like you said, it isn’t even bad for you! They were awesome! Just make sure to take your time with low heat so the middle is cooked through. Thanks so much for another winner!!
DELICIOUS. I have celiac, and am alway on the look out for “standard” recipes that I can convery to Gluten Free. I subbed 1/2 cup buckwheat flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour, and 1/4 cup brown rice flour for the 1 cup AP flour, and added 1/2 tsp xantham gum.
My husband cant tell the difference. so yum!
i didn’t have powdered sugar so i used brown sugar instead for the topping, it came out color beige, but still delicious! I now see the wisdom in grating the carrots the night before, since otherwise this can take forever.. basically breakfast turned into lunch today.. but it was definitely worth the wait, really tasty! Thanks!!!
Oh yum! Seriously the best pancakes ever. My wife’s cousins made it for us when we went to visit them in Nova Scotia. They said they got the recipe here and sent us the link. You’ve got a broad and yummy reach. Nice job!
Fantastic! I have everything but the buttermilk sitting at home shouting, “use me, bitch! Use me!” My better half just decided to cut wheat out of his diet. You think if I used a gluten-free flour mine would still come out as tasty as yours look?
they have a fine shreddimg attachment you can bif you have a cuisinart
The photos made me craved for carrot cake taste pancakes last night. This morning I made my carrot cake pancake for my breakfast. Burp! Super delicious! :). My best friend Anthony got attracted with my carrot cake pancakes in a Black Bamboo Serving Plate. He was tempted to taste them, then sat down to eat all of them! :D
Just thought you might like to know – I decided to make pancakes for dinner tonight and, while I was figuring out which kind to make (we have several favorites), I had a revelation: these pancakes have both a protein topping (hello cream cheese!) AND they’re made out of vegetables. Winner, winner, carrot pancake dinner!
i LOVE carrots. this is definitely going into the repertoire – thank you!
True, they never quite firmed up in the middle like traditional pancakes (or actual carrot cake!) but they were delicious and brightened up our Easter breakfast. Do yourself a favor and grate the carrots the night before.
Delicious! I topped mine with maple syrup whipped mascarpone instead of the cream cheese, so good. The sugar stiffens the cheese up pretty quickly, but it’ll melt right away on the pancakes.
Also, I suggest serving them with bloody marys, all your vegetables in one breakfast-the best Sunday ever.
Carrot is rich in vitamin A. I always wonder how I can consume it more often accept of cooking soup. This is a great idea and it looks so good. :)
I made these on a WEEKDAY last week before going to work (pregnancy had me up early… and I will also blame the little one for the insanity of getting all my measuring cups out at 7 am lol.) These were beyond worth it. I made half a batch and topped with maple syrup. Next time I will make all of them, and will definitely try the cream cheese topping. Thanks for posting, Deb!
DERRICIOUS pancakes! My man cycles 30 miles a day, and these hit the spot for a decadent breakfast, even before a ride! I love how these are similar to my go to pancake recipe without butter added, and with carrots(!) these were fantastic. I used 3/4C milk + 3 tbsp vinegar substitute for buttermilk, pinching pennies and I always have the ingredients on hand. So glad I could throw some in the freezer too, with only two of us serving the whole plate would have been rather gluttonous! I can’t wait to make these again in a larger batch to store for early mornings. Thanks for the goodness!
I’m making these tomorrow! We have a juicer that I use regularly, and I save the pulp left over from the carrots. This is the perfect use for the pulp! YAAY! Healthy juice for breakfast and yummy pancakes for lunch! The kids will be thrilled.
Oooh YES. This is like my dream come true breakfast. LOVE.
I wasn’t sure if I should squeeze the grated carrots or not, so I just quickly pressed them. Next time I will make sure they are very dry, as I found the pancakes to be a tad mushy on the inside. They tasted fantastic though, I’ll be looking forward to experimenting more with this recipe. Thanks!
Wow! These were unreal! I made them for me and my husband on a Friday morning when we were both off from work (after a crazy week of hardly seeing each other). Let’s just say we both could have used a cigarette…..and neither of us smoke ;) They’re that good!
Pancakes can surely be food. Not just cake – but real food :)
I made these delicious and very easy-to-make potato-pumkin pancakes the other day for dinner, and they were great! :) Serve them with a nice fresh salad, some meat on the grill (for those meat-lovers), and whole-grain bread, and you are good to go :)
http://madforgalleriet.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/kartoffelgraeskarpandekager/
(sorry, it’s in Danish, but try Google translate)
Supermarkets carry bagged preshredded carrots, which I what I use in carrot cake, and I’m betting this will work in these. Never mind breakfast–I think these are going to be dinner some night at our house since we’re a “breakfast for dinner” kind of household!
I’m totally in love with pancakes.. I’m discovering it’s possible to make them with a lot of ingredients.. thanks for the recipe with carrota, they wil be a good appetizer
Quick question: can you make the batter the night before? It would be easier just to cook them before brunch rather than mixing the batter as well.
Deb, you never let me down. I made these for dinner last night and they were delicious (though I had to mess around with heat level and cooking time a bit), and we had no cream cheese so we spread creme fraiche on them instead. Also tasty plain and with a drizzle of maple syrup. Of course, my two-year-old’s verdict was “don’t like it pancake! eat somethin’ else?” Sigh.
This morning I made the leftovers into waffles, but I couldn’t get them to the crisp fluffiness I require in a waffle. I guess the recipe probably requires some modifications to work well in a waffle iron.
Thanks for the great recipe!! Since I had a ton (5 lbs) of leftover baby carrots, I couldn’t hand grate them. I used my giant pain in the rear food processor and grated them. I then put the chopper blade in and gave it a couple of whirrs. They cooked through fine and turned out GREAT! (kids scarfed them down!) (i also used a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour) Thank you for another fantastic recipe.
I was morally opposed to this recipe a mere 10 minutes ago, having previously seen it elsewhere. Thanks to your (very reasonable) rationalizations, and the feeling that it must have been inspiration when I bought carrots and then came to your site looking for ideas for our weekly breakfast-for-dinner, I am making these for dinner tomorrow. I can’t wait.
I had planned on making these for Easter brunch but they got bumped for your raspberry ricotta scones. Which, by the way, I am addicted to. So, I decided to make them this morning because the buttermilk has been staring me down all week and I didn’t want to waste it. I used low-fat buttermilk and half whole wheat flour and they turned out fantastic! Yes, they were a challenge to get cooked all the way through, but they have made my list of breakfast fav’s. My kids even ate them sans topping!
Could this be done with sweet rice flour instead of AP? Trying to do the GF thing, but I do have rice flour! :) Thanks!
2 web blogs that i visit weekly.
both in one post
love it.
Well, that’s next dessert sorted! I mean breakfast. Breakfast.
I made these this week and they really did taste like carrot cake. It’s hard to find buttermilk here in Bogotá so I used Kumiss, tasted pretty good! Thanks for the recipe.
We tried these this morning. They were good, but were a bit of a time investment; maybe more than we were ready for.
**If you’re going to grate carrots, save your knuckles and try this lady’s trick:
http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/2012/05/grating-carrots-without-grating-your.html
I tried it for the carrot pancakes, and no scrapes! I’ll be putting it to the test when I try my hand at making carrot halwa!
Hello Deb! I was totally smitten with Joy’s carrot cake pancakes when I saw them in her book, and when I saw them on your blog I knew I had to make them immediately. Grating carrots by hand requires way more energy before breakfast than I possess, though, so I came up with another solution. I grated the carrots in my food processor using the grating blade, then I replaced that blade with the regular blade and pulsed it a few times. Ta da! Finely grated carrots with minimal work. I blogged about it here: http://cookieandkate.com/2012/carrot-cake-pancakes/
Thank you for that extra little nudge to try these pancakes, I’ve been eating them all week!
I made these last night and after testing one pancake, I added another teaspoon of brown sugar. I’m thinking they were not sweet enough because it wasn’t proper brown sugar like muscavado which is like gold in Egypt.
They came out super light and delicious and I immediately shared the blog on Facebook with anyone who could care less lol!
Thanks for a healthy snack/breakfast! x
Did anyone else have a problem with these not cooking all the way? I don’t have a cast iron griddle or pan, but I wouldn’t think that would be a problem.. I cooked them on a lower heat after having issues with the first few, and cooked several mInuted on both sides, still gummy in the middle…no idea what the issue is. I’m going to try baking them in the oven to see if they do better.
I did this tonight for Breakfast for Dinner and my husband proclaimed that it may be one of my Top 3 of all time, and that’s saying something because he’s fairly obsessed with my cooking. I used whole wheat pastry flour and did a rough chop on the carrots then put them through the Vitamix (which if I wasn’t already happy married, I’d marry). The consistency was perfect though my cakes took anywhere from 3-4 minutes per side (in a cast iron skillet over medium heat). We both could seriously eat them again tomorrow. (And I should probably go to bed soon because the extra “frosting” is in the fridge and I may just go eat it all with a spoon.)
Are these anything like potato pancakes? I love them, but have never been much of a carrot guy. Do these taste strongly of carrots?
Ryan — No. They’re closer to carrot cake, in pancake form.
I really want to like these. I made them twice, once with regular milk/greek yogurt, once with almond. They taste delicious but take FOREVER to cook. 2 minutes each side? try more like 10 minutes. Even so they were squishy in the middle. Last time I gave up after we had eaten our fill and had a few extra for the freezer (its just me and a 3 year old) and tried the rest in our muffin maker. They still tasted delicious but the outside was overcooked with the middle ‘just’ done. I’m going to try the extra in the oven with a lowish temp for what I’m guessing will be forever.
I really like them but I’m not standing over a hot stove for an hour.
I just made these for dinner and were delicious. Even I have a processor which doesn’t grate finely. I went ahead and grated it in the processor and then processed it once more with the normal processor blade.
I live in the Caribbean and Carrot Pancakes are commonly served as a side dish with your entree so I decided to scrap the topping. I am so excited to try them today because for years I have been trying to put my paws on an amazing carrot pancake recipe.I first had them at a new years eve party and the person who made them refused to give me their recipe and I can guarantee you that this recipe is a hundred times better than the one I had at the party so now I am so anxious to rub it in her face! :D
AMAZING. I’ve had this bookmarked for a while, but – like another reader – am training for a marathon and decided these were an appropriate carb-y reward. I added maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, omitted the ground ginger (didn’t have it on hand), and used 3/4 cup 1% milk + a dollop of Greek yogurt. Came out wonderfully. I did find that, when cooking these on a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, I didn’t need the butter (in fact, mine turned out better dry this way). But, I did agree with your comment on the amount of batter dropped in the pan – making them really small was the only way to get an even cook, as I learned the hard way based on my first round. I wonder if those having trouble with getting them to cook through are making them too large? Anyway, awesome…and, naturally, the cream cheese frosting is really what these are all about anyway. Thanks for another awesome recipe!
Didn’t turn out so well for me. A little too wet even with extra time in the pan.
I did use 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup plain yogurt instead of butter milk.
Ah, delicious! But i Wonder, what is buttermilk, exactly? And what can i replace it with?
Hi Marie — Buttermilk is a byproduct of butter-making, but it’s sold in the US in quarts at most grocery stores. The commerical stuff tastes like thin yogurt or a tangy milk. You can make your own equivalent like this.
Thank you!! I made these yesterday with just plain whole milk and a knob of melted butter and they were really good, but i will absolutely try them with buttermilk!
My boyfriend is a HUGE fan of carrot cake, so this was a perfect breakfast treat for him this weekend! Only modifications were to use brown sugar in place of powdered sugar in the cream cheese spread (I ran out of powdered sugar)…which worked very well! I toasted the nuts and found them to be a great addition to the pancakes. Perfectly spiced, no flavor dominates. Fluffy and substantial (filling) without being heavy and dense. Yum!
My Mum and I made these for our brunch today. We had the same problem a few other readers have had – they would not cook through, no matter what we tried! We tried the pan on a medium heat, as recommended, first and then higher heats, lower heats and eventually the oven. The pancakes would not cook in the middle – even when the outsides were almost blackened!
We eventually settled for cooking them in the pan for 5-7 mins a side, medium heat, (flipping once sides looked set and bubbles formed on top) then transferring them to a baking tray in the oven for another 5-10 mins. The taste was nice, the spicing was lovely, but the texture was way too mushy inside. The mix was not cooked, although how it could not be cooked after all that time is beyond me! It was not just the carrot wasn’t cooked. The batter was raw in the centre.
Seeing that other readers had the same problem, I wonder if it’s to do with 2 cups of grated carrot being a hard measurement to be exact with? We used about 400g of carrots. We didn’t sub anything, just left the walnuts out.
On a happier note, we LOVED the cream cheese frosting, although we used home-made vanilla sugar rather than powdered sugar. That is one part of this recipe we will use on a lot of other dishes!
Delicious using 1) carrots grated with fine grater attachment on my ancient Kitchenaid Mixer, and 2) 2 tablespoons canola oil in batter rather than 3 tablespoons butter in frying pan. Cream cheese topping is great.
What a delicious treat! I did not have any trouble getting them to cook through in the center. These little beauties were set and ready to eat in less than 5 minutes a piece, and with the cream cheese drizzle – yum!
Just made these for my boyfriend for our anniversary. I loved how they weren’t quite as sweet as an actual carrot cake. Using just a little bit of batter for each was definitely a good call.
O.M.G!!! This has got to be the most moist pancakes recipe I’ve ever tried. And with carrots on top?! I’m in heaven…They were simply divine!
I made these awesome pancakes twice–the first time, exactly according to SK (delicious!), and the second time, I (yes, I admit!) decreased the carrots, increased the sugar, and served the pancakes in a stack with the cream cheese spread in between each layer at a birthday brunch for a guest of honor who adores carrot cake!
Hey
I made these pancakes and they were an absolute hit! So much so that I now eat them on a weekly basis!
http://lalangostaymi.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/carrot-cake-pancakes.html
Thanks so much SK x
I woke up this morning with a desperate desire for pancakes but a relatively firm resolution to not eat something stupidly unhealthy for breakfast (it is, after all, only Wednesday). So I tinkered a bit: replaced 2/3 of the white flour with whole wheat and oat flour, whipped the egg white separately to be sure they wouldn’t get too heavy, and made the topping out of Greek yogurt instead of the cream cheese. Good gracious. Thanks for such a fun recipe to riff off of, they were awesome! I’m sure the original cream cheesy version is mindblowing, but for a humble Wednesday I am more than satisfied when my delicious 4-pancake breakfast clocks in at under 300 calories. Next time I might try a little applesauce in the batter for extra sweetness.
I have not read the 292 previous comments, because that’s a lot, so forgive me if this suggestions has already been put out there.
For anyone who juices at home, this recipe is a great way to use up your extra carrot pulp. Not making pancakes the same day you make carrot juice? No problem. Freeze your carrot pulp.
Thanks for the new recipe. I LOVE pancakes.
Loved them! Only used 3/4 c. flour and I think it really helped them to be a little less thick and cook through more thoroughly. Also pushed the batter down and spread it as thin as I could on the pan to prevent them from being too thick.
I used a food processor for the carrots but was still able to get them fine enough :)
Hi Deb, I’m so excited to try these today! I realized that I don’t have any confectioner’s sugar, but I DO have raw, local honey! I’m going to use that in my topping instead. I think it should be fine, since it doesn’t need a frosting consistency. Don’t you think?
Meg — I think it will be fine.
Ooooooh, this is such a great recipe. I agree, grating the carrots is a drag but so worth it as it’s the only carrot I’ve beeen able to get my almost 2 year old to eat practically since I stopped spoon feeding him purees! Win! Your cottage cheese pancakes are just great, too. My whole family loves them. Thanks!
I just made these this morning for a last-Sunday-morning-breakfast-before-the-school-year treat. (And to use up some carrots I turned into carrot sticks in the fridge, but that turned out to not have much flavor.)
I made a few changes, to accommodate my pantry, and to avoid a trip to the corner store from my 5th floor walk-up. I used coconut milk (homemade light – dilute one can of full fat coconut milk with 2 cans of water) and agave as a sweetener, and omitted the nuts and dried fruit. They came out quite nicely. Thanks, Deb!
Everything with carrot is my favorite. I adore carrot cake and I am sure that this will be my favorite breakfast. I can hardly wait to taste this. Thanks for great recipe!
Carrots…yuck. Let me tell you about growing up with carrots circa 1956…and before and after. Carrots were boiled….and boiled and oh yeah…boiled. With all we had…blocks of WHITE margarine. They then came with little colour packets you had to play baseball with to meld. And yep glopped on boiled carrots. I could stomach them raw. barely. I did not eat carrots (hey I am a big girl..I don’t have to) until I was in my late 20’s when my daughter asked for some. I finally learned to add brown sugar and burn (cook dark) in fry pan. Now all this leads to above recipe……I MADE IT….I ATE IT….IT’S GREAT!!!!
You are right, the grater on the food processor does make it too big but after you have grated them, just put the lower blade on and pulse until they are just right. Saves a lot of time and energy. I also substituted soy milk instead of buttermilk and coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. We ate them with a little soy sour cream and some all fruit jam on top, it was great.
I have a nine-year-old son with autism. It’s very hard to get him to try anything new. He saw carrot pancakes in a commercial and asked me to make some for him. I chose your recipe and eliminated the nuts (he has a nut allergy) and the raisins. He ate 4 1/2 pancakes. Thanks for the recipe we will definitely use it again.
EXCELLENT! We were craving carrot cake and this definitely hit the spot! We added a few TBLs of ground flax seed to the batter and didn’t have any cream cheese so we substituted greek yogurt. Thanks for sharing!
I especially appreciate the advice to “definitely not try to figure out whether it would taste good on banana bread, or an oatmeal muffin, or a… spoon.” That was most helpful– look at all that time and energy I saved! ;-)
I had carrot pancakes with a peanut sauce as a starter in Ecuador. Fantastic!
These were super yummy, but still too mushy on the inside. I put them in a 300 degree oven to finish cooking, so we were still able to enjoy (my kids thought it was heaven… *frosting* for breakfast? :). I’d love to figure out the consistency issue, though. Did anyone have success squeezing the water out of the carrots? Other? We did use 1/2 whole wheat and a bit of skim since we ran out of whole, but everything else was a match.
Wow! My little four year olds DEVOURED these and that’s without that incredibly delicious-sounding cream cheese topping (I forgot to take it out of the fridge to come to room temperature). We used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour, they were still fluffy and light. The next time we’ll try all whole wheat. Thank you for sharing this delicious and nutritious recipe!
These are still a go-to Saturday morning treat. So, so good.
QUICK ANWER PLEASE! I want to make these for Father’s Day next weekend. Would the recipe benefit from blanching the shredded carrots and draining well in a towel? Please…. thank you! Jo
Jo — I don’t think there is any need for it, unless you prefer your carrots on the mushy side.
Yikes, these did not turn out well at all. Tried lower heat, higher heat, resting in the oven at 200, 250, etc, but they just NEVER cooked in the middle. Raw, goopy, and just generally gross. I see numerous other commenters had the same issue–wonder how some people got them to turn out well?!
These just popped up in my FB feed. I absolutely love carrot cake, I’d eat it for breakfast, brunch, lunch and diner. So this a perfect excuse to make these forbreakfast!
PS Is that your cookbook at the background in the second photo?
Clara — No, that is the book this is from, Joy the Baker’s. I stayed far away from the cover of my book. :)
These were just too delicious for words…thank thank you for sharing…I have had Joy’s book for ages but somehow forgot about it…now will have to study it in far more details :)
I made these for friends recently. I unexpectedly had to make them gluten free using the coconut flour that was on hand. Nothing like trying a new-to-me recipe with an unfamiliar ingredient substitution. ;-) The flavor was good, but the pancakes were dry. I added probably another 3/4 cup of buttermilk to (unsuccessfully) lighten up the batter. Everyone raved about them anyway. I definitely want to try again with regular flour or even a gluten-free all-purpose flour.
I’ve been dying to show you how cute ours turned out!!! Here is a link to a twitter pic…I made these pancakes w several different folks, and we decorated them accordingly. (Also, please note: NEKO CASE FLIPPED OUT AND TWEETED ABOUT THESE PANCAKES!)
my tweet: https://twitter.com/laurenmpayne/status/702400913567252480
NEKO CASE’s tweet: https://twitter.com/nekocase/status/695473579555692544
Thank you for yet another delicious way to get some veggies into my toddler while keeping everyone happy :) Between these and the zucchini bread pancakes… weekend happiness and some semblance of a kinda-sorta-balanced toddler diet. Subbed a little more than half whole-wheat flour for AP in both recipes without noticing any texture/dryness issues.
I have now made both these and the zucchini bread pancakes. Both had nice flavor, but were rather wet and gooey, even after extra time on the griddle. I definitely prefer a drier, fluffy pancake – all the better to soak up maple syrup, so perhaps we just have different pancake styles. I grated the carrots as instructed, and they were cooked perfectly – like in carrot cake, hardly even noticeable. I used a flax egg and non-dairy milk plus lemon juice to make a vegan buttermilk. When I combined all of the ingredients, the amount of carrot (I did use two PACKED cups) compared to the amount of batter was astonishing – I thought they were more fritter like than pancake like. The batter was not pourable, and I had to smooth it out using the back of a spoon once I scooped it onto the griddle, it did not spread out itself. Definitely at least 5 minutes a side, and like I said, still rather mushy and dense instead of fluffy, towering, and light like I like. Would love to hear suggestions on how to improve them!
Lauren,
I had the exact same issue – gooey, wet pancakes. I thought it was because I mixed up the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls the night before and the carrots released extra moisture, but after reading your review, I think these are just wet pancakes.
I just made these and they were awesome! I definitely do not have the patience to grate carrots on the small holes of a box grater, so I cut the carrots into 2″ chunks and then put them in the food processor with the regular S blade and ran it until the carrots looked like the picture. Worked great! Tender, moist, carroty
Hey there! I tried this recipe this weekend exactly as written and I had a little bit of trouble! Everything was going well and it smelled amazing…..but the pancakes themselves refused to cook through! I’m not kidding I left these pancakes on the griddle for well over 15 minutes and they were still completely mushy on the inside. Is that what it’s supposed to be?
It seemed like i had created some kind of inhuman substance that just refused to cook through no matter how long I left it in the pan. Just a warning: these turned into quite the time commitment!
This worked with grated leftover roasted beets. On a similar note, wouldn’t pre-cooked food processor grated carrots solve the crunchy carrot problem? I’ve grated pounds of carrots to make these pancakes. I don’t mind the grating; I hate the bloody knuckles and red tinted pancakes more suited to vampire consumption than people.
My ten month old absolutely inhaled these. I couldn’t get them cut and into his mouth fast enough. I skipped the topping and we had them with maple syrup, it was great!
So tasty! For anyone else who hates to hand-grate: I made these pancakes today, and grated the carrots with my food processor’s grating blade. Then I piled all the carrots into a bowl, put a plate on top as a lid, and cooked them in the microwave for about 5 minutes until they weren’t very crunchy when I ate a little clump of grates. (In 1-min increments because I didn’t want to overcook them.) Then I spread them out on the plate too let them cool while I got the other ingredients ready. They were still a little hot when I was ready to mix, so I poured the buttermilk over them to cool them off before I put the eggs in. Came out great! Unrelated: I used very sweet farmer’s market carrots and cut the sugar in half. I might even leave it out entirely next time.
When I make cream cheese for a cake, I usually double the recipe and stick half in the freezer. Cream cheese frosting freezes amazingly well. That way, the next time I want to bake cinnamon rolls or now, carrot cake pancakes, I’m already halfway there. It is wonderful to not have to make the frosting too sometimes. And for this recipe, you could just take a few tablespoons off the top and breakfast would be that much easier.
Could you make the batter and/or cream cheese topping the night before? Limited on time the morning I want to make these! (For my bf’s bday before work)
Yes the cream cheese topping. For the batter, I’d keep the wet and dry separate until 10 minutes before you make it.
Help Deb! My toddler won’t eat the grated carrots. Could i cook/purée these instead? Would adding more “wetness” throw off anything else in the recipe? Thanks!
I would finely chop them, but I wouldn’t cook them … for this recipe. If you want to start with a cooked carrot puree, I might start with a banana pancake instead, using the puree instead of banana, and see how it goes.
These look delicious! I’m looking for a bake-ahead-in-bulk option for weekday breakfasts. Do you think these would freeze and reheat well? Thanks!
I didn’t pack the carrot cups, added the specified half cup of buttermilk and then splashed in a bit more. Mine came out really fluffy and not gooey or wet at all. I do wish I had made the frosting though… or maybe just made the actual carrot cake I was craving :) Excellent recipe though.
I’m sad for the people who had bad luck with this recipe. We used GF flour (daughter with celiac) and they turned out delicious!
Have you tried using this batter to make waffles? I made my pancakes using the recipe with only 1/2 cup buttermilk and I ended up with dense, somehow undercooked pancakes. Not fluffy at all. :( So I was wondering whether they might work as waffles.
I forgot to mention that I mixed the wet and dry ingredients, then left the batter in the fridge for about 1,5 hours.
No, but I think it’s a great idea. Let me know if you try it! Re, dense, these definitely are heavy, as carrot cake usually is. If undercooked, warm them in the oven until they set in the center.
Your update about using the food processor to grate the carrots is precisely why I love this blog. You tell it like it is with an irreverent perfect sense of humour. Currently in hospital, but making a list (and checking it twice) of new recipes for healthy meal planning—and to bring to zaida—when I get out.
I freeze the thick, fluffy pancakes and reheat as needed. Can I do the same with these?
Many thanks!
Heather
We had half a ton of carrots harvested last week from the garden, so it was an opportune time to finally try these with the huge ones that had split! Tweaks for nutrition and to fit what we had in the house: 1) half whole wheat and half chickpea flour instead of AP; 2) we only had a little bit of whipped cream cheese in the house and no regular, so I mixed that with a bit of maple syrup to make a sort of spread to put on top. Also, more walnuts. Delicious and will totally make again the next time we happen to have a ton of carrots in the house. Completely justifiable breakfast for dinner, especially with the chickpea flour! I substitute it often in recipes that don’t require gluten (like yeast breads) or unmolding (it tends to stick easily in muffin tins, etc.)
Okay, I’ve already made zucchini bread pancakes and zucchini fritters this week, so these are up next. I have got to know, what is the secret to cooking multiple pancakes in one pan?! I have two cast iron skillets that I deploy and my pancakes (and fritters) cook most evenly when I only do one per pan, but that takes forever! I’ve been trying to preheat the pans for longer than usual but it doesn’t seem to help. I usually use only 1/4 cup or less of batter per pancake. Does my stove just suck? (It’s gas but came with the house and I think it wasn’t fancy even in its prime.) Also, is that some kind of fancy electric skillet in the new photos? I must know. Signed, Tired of Cooking Only Two Pancakes At A Time.
Rotate them, like turning knobs, in the pan. I have gas burners and they’re way hotter in the middle, so I don’t really have a choice.
Made these today, and am SO glad I did! I did not read any comments or reviews prior to making them, or I might have been frightened away. I used 2 packed cups of finely grated carrots, 3/4c buttermilk, and did everything else exactly as written. When I mixed the batter together it did look like it might end up being a carrot fritter as one person mentioned, and I worried to myself that it would never cook through. Wrong! They were completely cooked in minutes, not mushy at all, and were certainly the texture of pancakes. Everyone loved them and I can’t wait to make them again. Hooray for veggies at the breakfast table! Thank you, Deb!
I love your recipes and your instagram posting. but it is very difficult to print them out. Am I missing something?
There is a print icon that leads to a print template at the bottom of each recipe, where it says “DO MORE:” You can also click CTRL + P from any recipe post and it will take you to a streamlined print template. We will definitely make it easier to find when we next redesign.
I was wondering if these could be made flourless, or with an alternative flour like almond or coconut? Also, what about subbing the buttermilk with dairy free options? These look delicious but I hope they will still be as good with a few tweaks.
I love the consistency and the savory taste of the pancake. And with a dollop of the cream cheese topping on top it adds just a hint of sweet. Love it.
I am fully aware this question pushes this out of the pancake realm and into cake instead… What are your thoughts on baking these in a sheet pan? We have become obsessed with a sheet pan pancake recipe where you heat up the pan in the oven with butter so it’s hot and greased like a griddle, and then just bake the batter. It’s made me less willing to stand over a griddle for individual pancakes, so I’m curious if this would work? I usually do it at 425 for ~15 min with the recipe I have (from NYT Cooking).
I saw that recipe but haven’t tried it so I’m not sure how it would work here — but let us know!
Just made these and they are woooooonderfuuuuulllll! Perfecty spiced even without the frosting – cheated and used some left over vanilla frosting I had on had and the kids went bananas!!!!
Well, I made these with whole wheat flour (quarantine find!) and 2 orange carrots/1 purple heirloom carrot. Due to the purple carrot, these pancakes looked like beef burgers cooking in the pan – very funny for me! However the flavor/texture was awesome and my 10 mo old LOVED them – so win win! Whole grain veggie pancakes!
Wow, I just made these for a lockdown lunch and they are absolutely delicious! I didn’t make the cream cheese topping as I’m one of those odd people who don’t like it, but they were perfectly sweet enough without it. And as a bonus, my kitchen smells amazing
Also, definitely don’t spread the cream cheese topping on a chocolate chip pizza :)
Made these this morning – DELISH. I added the raisins – I think you need them to change up the consistency and add a punch of sweet. Used Neufchatel cheese for the frosting to cut calories a bit and also fantastic. Will definitely make these again!!
These were so delicious! Especially the topping. I made with walnuts and raisins and definitely will make again!
Just heard you talking about this on Cherry Bombe this week and decided to give it a whirl. Holy heck, these were delicious for breakfast today! I veganized it with a flax meal egg and soy milk w/ apple cider vinegar for the buttermilk (I ended up using 3/4 cup) and added the raisins and walnuts. They cooked up fine, not mushy or too wet at all. We devoured them with warm maple syrup since I didn’t have any vegan cream cheese on hand. These will definitely go into the rotation!! Now to try the zucchini bread pancakes next!
Question on measurement–should the 2 cups of grated carrots be packed pretty densely?
Yes. I mean, you don’t need to hammer them in but I’d press gently so it’s full.
I heard the Cherry Bomb Podcast from May 8th yesterday May 15 while I was walking around Forest Park (St. Louis, MO) and your description of your Carrot Cake pancakes opened my curiosity tbh with you. SO I decided to give it a try..
They turned out F A N T A S T I C L Y – D E L I C I O U S!!!
Love the recipe and your instructions are SO accurate. This would definitely be a great addition to my recipe collection. Thank you! =)
Julissa G. – Personal Chef, St. Louis, MO
I just finished making this, with a couple of changes. The night before, I cooked the 3/4 pound of carrots (a la The Silver Palate’s Carrot Cake recipe), drained them, mashed them with a potato masher, and stored them in the fridge. I also mixed up the dry ingredients the night before. We’re a waffle family — I have no patience for flipping pancakes! So, I added 1 Tbsp of canola oil to the batter and cooked them in the waffle iron. I cooked them at the highest heat setting the waffle iron has for 3.5 minutes each, making sure to oil both parts of the iron between each waffle. These were great! Thank you so much!
I’ve been reading your blog and using your recipes for more than a decade now, and I do not comment nearly as often as I should, probably. But I practically consider you an old blog friend, at this point, though we’ve never met. And after how good these were…
Deb. These are PHENOMENAL. I know this is a really old post but I made these tonight, trying to use up stuff in the fridge and cupboards before we move from Germany back to the US in a few weeks, and they were SO GOOD. Every member of the family loved them, and they were so much lighter than I was expecting in the best possible way. They were forgiving, too–I cooked a couple of them a bit too long and they got extra brown, and were still amazing. Thank you for this recipe, and for all the recipes I love and have been making for years! <3
I would love to make these for our monthly team meeting at work. However, the meeting starts at 7 AM! Do you have any experience or ideas to make them the day before? Best way to reheat? Or is it even possible?
You could reheat them in a toaster oven. Or full-sized oven. They. keep well.
carrots pancakes with cream cheese, it’s really delicious!!!
i need this recipe.
But, why you use vanilla extract ?
I *hope* to make them, soon. Ya know, after Covid quarantine ends, work resumes and I can return to my very own kitchen (instead of being the “houseguest modeling good behavior.”)
I made your buttermilk pancakes today and they are easy to make and delicious!
Thanks for introducing me to Joy the Baker!
I have so many carrots to use up. So–I am going to try this for tomorrow’s breakfast, but since it’s just my husband and me, I’ll need to half the recipe. Easy enough except I can’t cut the egg in half. Maybe I could leave it alone and cut back a bit on the buttermilk, especially since your original recipe had more liquid?
Made these last weekend and they were a huge hit. I didn’t have cream cheese on hand, so I served them with sour cream mixed with a dash of vanilla and some confectioners’ sugar. Crazy good – thank you!
I know it’s an old post, but thank you for this recipe! My incredibly picky 5 year old with autism loves these pancakes more than regular buttermilk pancakes – it’s been wonderful to have another option to get him to eat carrots. He stole one from the plate about 30 seconds after taking off the griddle. :)
For those wondering, YES these work in the oven! I thinned mine out with closer to 3/4 cup “buttermilk” (sour cream and water). I browned butter in the sheet pan while preheating the oven to 425. Then did 6 equally sized 4 in or so dollops because that’s what fit. Baked for 6 min, flipped (adding more butter underneath where I was flipping to), baked 5 min. For the second batch I did 5 min each side. Worked brilliantly. I may never make pancakes kn the stove top again.
Would these work with a flax egg? Does the egg just function as a binder?
Woke up this morning, opened instagram, decided to make these! They’re good – no issues with being done. I used a food processor for the carrots and would use a box grater next time since the carrots retained a bit of chew.
Subbed half gluten free flour and used almond milk + a squeeze of lemon in place of the buttermilk (1/2 cup), no issues!
Would you share the low sided pan you’re using for these?
It’s this one but there might be a more current model.
This sound amazing! I am not a big fan of pancakes have you try the recipe to make waffles? Any suggestion to modifying it for that?
Seeing some comments about wet pancakes – mine were not at all. I used half of the carrots and 2/3 cup milk with some apple cider vinegar. It’s possible i was a little over on the baking powder and soda – I usually do that. I let the batter rest a few minutes and cooked on a 300 degree griddle for at least 3-4 minutes per side. They batter was pourable, spread out fine and they rise to over an inch high. They are are very cakelike. Yum with cream cheese and honey!!
Delicious – served topped w applesauce and yogurt (I hate cream cheese frosting). I halved the sugar to 1 Tbs and it was still on the sweet side. Our buttermilk is very thick, so added about 1/4 milk too.
Hi Deb,
Great recipe; we’ve made it many times. I just tried it in my waffle iron and it worked quite well with these modifications: I added one tab veg oil to the batter, and I also squeezed some of the water out of the carrots.
Would it be possible to get this in weights? Thank you!
Ok, so, I know this recipe is from 2012, but I just happened to find it a few days ago and I decided it’d be a perfect Sunday breakfast, so I waited until today to make these GLORIOUS pancakes. Wow! So easy to make and delicious. My husband *loves* carrot cake so I surprised him (lucky guy lol). We both enjoyed them very much. Easy enough for a lazy weekend breakfast or brunch, but special enough to impress company. Thanks so much!
Made these this morning. Big hit! Pancakes were 10/10. We could have made half the frosting– but it was so great to have it. Yum yum! Thanks!
Thanks for a great idea! I modified a bit (used WW flour), and made a maple syrup/sour cream blend instead of the cream cheese frosting. I did microwave my carrots a couple minutes since they were on the large size.
Made these this morning and YOWZA yummy!!! Used pecans and dried cranberries in place of walnuts and raisins and hand grated the carrots, cooked in a regular old pan (no cast iron or griddle) on medium heat for about 5 or 6 minutes per side and they came out beautifully. I do think that portion size is key, I used a heaped 2 tbsp, measure which I found to be plenty. Thank you for helping me use up some of my (tasty) glut of farmer’s market carrots.
I made these to use up a 5 lb. bag of carrots that was about to go bad and was absolutely shocked at how delicious they taste!
I made them into waffles and skipped the cream cheese topping in favor of almond butter and jam– a flavor match made in heaven, especially on waffles (although I’m sure the cream cheese topping would have been divine).
Oh, and I’m falling in love with this blog, by the way. Thank you so much for sharing all these wonderful recipes (especially this one)!
Stuck the cooked pancakes into a 250F oven as soon as I pullled them – perfect. I got 10 out of this batch and I’m easily going to eat half. For what it’s worth, I started with 14 oz carrots, grating them by hand on the small holes of a box grater, and eyeballed two cups in the end. I believe I used around 10 oz – and since I used Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk, I had to thin the batter a bit with water and a tiny bit of white vinegar. These are a winner – just so delicious!
Could I use an almond flour instead of white flour?
These sound great but I never have buttermilk on hand. Can I use something else? Would it be possible to use milk with vinegar?
will this recipe work with GF flour?
Can you do it with regular milk rather than buttermilk which I never have on hand.
With the least amount of milk they are quite cakey not so much pancakey. Easy to flip as they stick to gather well, I will try with more buttermilk next time,
Without the frosting they are not that sweet which is good
Made these this morning – was a definite success. Even the child who detests all vegetables willingly ate these! Great choice on a rainy cold California morning. Luckily it looks like the weather is going to improve dramatically by the time you are here for the book tour!
Just made these. Delicious!!! Thank you as always for you stellar guidance.
Thank you once again Deb for this awesome recipe! I made these and they turned out just perfectly. I halved the recipe and used GF flour (just regular supermarket blend GF) and loved the cream cheese topping – a lovely Easter treat!
I’m sorry to say that coconut oil is not healthy. Probably other vegetable oils can be substituted for it in this and other recipes. https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/08/04/saturated-fats-why-all-the-hubbub-over-coconuts
How would these do in a Belgian Waffle Iron?