Healthy Apple Pancakes – High Protein Low Calorie
These healthy apple pancakes are inspired by my grandpa’s Polish recipe for fried apple pancakes. I, of course, had to tweak it to make them a healthier and higher protein option. And I succeeded BIG TIME! They are soft and moist. The flavor is out of this world! And only 3 main ingredients that do not include any flour, butter, oil or sugar!
To see detailed instructions, check the above pancake video.
How many calories do apple pancakes have?
One apple pancake has 78 calories and 5 grams of protein. This recipe yields about 9 pancakes.
What is the healthiest way to eat pancakes?
The toppings are the key to make sure that these apple pancakes are a healthy breakfast
- Greek yogurt is a great option instead using a whipping cream
- Sugar free syrup – I like a mix of Mrs. Butterworth and Skinny Syrups (any flavor you like)
- Berries are the best fruit – high in flavor and very low in calories
This way you can eat these pancakes every single day. It is a low calorie and high protein breakfast that will keep you full and satisfied.
What do you need to make healthy apple pancakes
- Old fashioned oats – you can buy oat flour or grind oats yourself which is a cheaper option.
- Eggs
- Yogurt – I like to use Sugar free vanilla yogurt like Chobani. You can also use non fat Greek yogurt like Fage and add some monkfruit sweetener to sweeten the pancakes
- Apples – any apples you like
- Vanilla extract
- Zest of half a lemon – turns out to be very important as it adds tons of flavor. Try it – you will be amazed!
How to make healthy apple pancakes
Prepare dry ingredients by grinding oats in a food processor. Alternatively, you can buy oat flour. Add baking powder.
Prepare wet ingredients. In a large bowl, crack 2 eggs and add 3 tablespoons of egg whites.
Add sugar free vanilla yogurt, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined.
Grate one large apple (about 8 – 9 ounces).
Mix all ingredients.
Preheat a large non stick pan on a medium high heat. Make sure the heat is not too high – the pancakes can burn quickly when on a high heat.
There is no need to use any butter or oil – they won’t stick to a non stick pan (unless it is scratched or burnt). If you like to use butter for flavor, you can lightly smear it over the pan: see the video on how I do it.
Apply pancake batter to a heated pan. It takes about 2 – 3 minutes per side. When you start seeing that the edges start setting and little bubbles form on top of the pancakes, they are ready to be flipped.
Note that the consistency of the pancakes is very moist. If you prefer your pancakes to be more dense and drier, use more oats than recipe requests or reduce the amount of yogurt you are using.
Healthy Apple Pancakes
Ingredients
Method
- Prepare dry ingredients by grinding oats in a food processor. Alternatively, you can buy oat flour. Add baking powder.
- Prepare wet ingredients. In a large bowl, crack 2 eggs and add 3 table spoons of egg whites.
- Add sugar free vanilla yogurt, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Mix well.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Grate one large apple (about 9 ounces)
- Mix all ingredients
- Preheat a large non stick pan on a medium high heat. Make sure the heat is not to high – the pancakes can burn quickly when the heat is too high.
- There is no need to use any butter or oil – they won't stick to a non stick pan (unless it is scratched or burnt).
- Apply pancake batter to a heated pan. It takes about 2 – 3 minutes per side. When you start seeing that the edges start setting and little bubbles form on top of the pancakes, they are ready to be flipped.
Notes
*Links in this blog post are affiliate links, which means at no extra cost to you, I will make a small commission if you click them and make a qualifying purchase*
I think this is so yummy and healthy pancakes i will really try this recipe of yours thanks..:)
let me know how they turn out
I finally got a chance to make these tonight, fantastic !!
My husband is diabetic and I have Hoshimotos (thyroid disease). This recipe is perfect for both of us. No fats no salt, no gluten. I added a teaspoon of cinnamon which tasted great 👍🏻. Mine were kind of flat, not so fluffy like your pictures. 🤷🏻. I will for sure make these again 👍🏻👍🏻
If they come out flat, try to adjust the amount of oats, was your batter runnier than the one in the video? If so, add a bit more oats
Ok, made these again tonight. I bought fresh baking powder, I know that helped. Still not as fluffy as yours but much better. My batter was quite thick, I needed to spread the scoops of batter with a spatula . My husband and I love the flavors. I used a level dry measure 8 oz. of the ground oats,. I ground it fine in my Ninja blender. So I’m going to keep at it. A great recipe. Perfect with pork sausages. 🥞🥞
Maybe the oats are a bit different than mine (consistency wise). I suggest you add less oats, stir and keep on adding until you reach the consistency similar to that in video and see if they get fluffier. I appreciate your feedback very much 🙂
The easy way to get them fluffier for me has been to pile up a bit of batter (not spread by force, let it come to size by itself) cover the pan (and add a bit of water at side of pan) to steam for 1min, then pile up a bit more and repeat until ready to flip. It does require heat to not be too high (around 3 minutes per side to cook) but it works really well. Though my batter consistency is similar to the video.
Done this both with Apple and recently a Banana instead of Apple and both came out excellent.
These are delish! I made a few modifications to fit my “calorie budget” and what I had, including subbing a 3rd full egg for the whites and adding 2 TB butter. Great texture, flavor, etc. Served them with my mom’s pineapple sauce which is just canned crush pineapple cooked down with a little cornstarch slurry added at the end. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing:) that pineapple sauce sounds great! I have been thinking to use pineapple in my coconut cake. Cook it down to sweeten it a bit. Do you think that fresh pineapple would work as well?
Very good récités. Thank you.
thank you:)
Used all 3 eggs & about 1 1/4 C. oats – turned out perfect for a delightful dinner using fresh blueberries & blackberries for the fruit topping and a few slices of ham to accompany. Also added about 2 T of Chia seeds to the batter to make them even healthier!
sounds like a great meal, thank you for sharing 😉
I like how your website doesn’t have tons of advertisements. The recipes seems great too! Pancakes with apple, yum.
thank you
I made used recipe this morning and they turned out just great! Light, moist and tasty!
They were very easy to make. Looking forward to making these healthy pancakes for my grandgiirls.
Thanks!
I am glad you liked it 🙂 Thank you for your feedback 👌
Do I need to use the egg whites at all? Or can I just use 3 eggs instead?
you don’t need the egg whites, 3 eggs are fine. I am only using egg whites to save calories and add more protein, but they are needed
Awesome! I made some adjustments. I didn’t have yogurt and I don’t buy them. So I pureed 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and it turned out to be very creamy like yogurt. I cut in 1/2 of your recipe because I don’t want too many pancakes. I have some leftover for tomorrow morning breakfast. I just had the pancakes for my lunch.
sounds great! I love the creativity with cottage cheese! that’s is a great substitute😊
Just made these. Very good.. used 3 eggs.
Calculated to be 1 point with weight watchers.
that’s awesome! Thank you for sharing
Thanks for the Weight Watchers point.
You’re welcome:)
So many ads….ridiculous!!
Would out bran work as an alt? Gave 5 stars as it sounds delish but haven’t tried yet; no oat flour and no food processor. Am guessing they would be too dense using bran?
not sure with bran, never used it. You can try and add less, stir, see how the batter behaves and keep on adding to reach similar consistency to that in the video. You can also use almond flour or coconut. And if you do have oats, you can soak them in wet ingredients (Eggs, egg whites, yogurt) and wait a bit and then add the rest. Let me know how the changes turn out
Can you ground up steel cut oats instead of old fashion? Will that work?
It is worth a try. I wonder if you get less flour out of the same weight?
re “cup old fashioned oats (grinded)”.
That should be “ground”, not “grinded”. As in “ground beef, ground spices, ground coffee”.
lolol thank you so much 🙂
Apologies for the rude spelling/language police, there’s one in every crowd.
Can I be embarrassed and apologize for the rude people ? Thanks for the recipe, I grinded my oats today. 🙂
:):):) No worries at all 🙂 I take that as an opportunity to correct my errors 😉
Made this for my children’s breakfast this morning and they loved them. Added cinnamon. The strawberry sauce in the video started to burn (was able to salvage most) despite having on low temp. Not sure what i did wrong there. Either way they enjoyed these healthy pancakes. Wondering how they would hold up to the baked pancake trend. Any tips for that?
they would be great if you bake them in the oven. The strawberry sauce cooks very quickly. You have to play with the temperature and adjust if needed, keeping an eye on it and stirring from time to time. First times are always the hardest, the more you make it the better it will get.
Made them for breakfast this morning. They are fast and easy to make. I used only 2 large eggs and they turned out perfectly fluffy. However for my taste a touch of salt and cinnamon would make them more flavourful. Thank you this recipe is a keeper.
thank you for taking the time to drop a comment;)
Love, love these pancakes. Thanks for the recipe. Yet I’m a loss as to why you would accompany this *healthy* breakfast with (sugar-free!) pure, unadulterated liquid crap like Mrs. Butterworth syrup (is that still considered a food?). Please consider saying hello sometime to maple syrup or just a sugar-free fruit spread! Other than that, wonderful recipe! Thanks!
I am happy you like the pancakes :). I love maple syrup and have it at home, my family enjoys it with the pancakes. I, on the other hand, am ok with the liquid crap lol. It is not great like maple syrup but it has barely any calories and it adds sweetness. It is a very controversial food, so it seems. And I also kept going back and forth whether it is unhealthy or not. At this point, I don’t see any evidence that it is harmful, all the studies (after careful review) fail to prove causation, they only show correlation. And I have never experienced any adverse effects of the substance myself. However, I reserve the right to change my mind 🙂 as I often do. If you do not tend to overeat and can enjoy the real amazing maple syrup, it is absolutely a better option, there is no argument there. When you go thru my recipes and see the artificial sweeteners, feel free to replace them with either maple syrup or honey
Can these frozen for easy meal prep?
I have never tried so I cannot be sure, but I think you should be able to
Hi – i would love to make these, curious if I use plain yogurt how to adjust? Vanilla extract and some cinnamon?
You do not have to adjust the amount of yogurt, the only thing you may want to adjust is the sweetness. I suggest you make it with yogurt of your choice and see if you need to adjust the sweetness at all
Do you have to peel the apples or would the skin break down enough when you cook them?
I only peeled them because it was hard to grade them with skin on. The skin caused the apples release too much juice while grading. You can leave the skin on if you don’t mind that
Hi
I got the ingredients today for pancakes
Can I not use egg white and just the eggs
Also can I store extra cooked in foil to rehear
Thank you
Hi, yes for the egg, I use egg whites to have a lower calorie and higher protein recipe, but it is not necessary, you can just use another egg instead. And yes for reheating as well, I usually store leftovers in glass container with a lid, and I put them in the fridge. I like to reheat them in a toaster:), it sounds weird but I prefer the texture.
Really good, a keeper.
I grated the apples (with the skin because I like it and also I’m lazy), squeezed out most of the juices and mixed that with a bit of peanut powder to make a ‘syrup’ for pouring on top of the pancakes. It’s not really healthy (apple juice is basically sugar water) but I can pretend it is and it tasted good.
better sugar water from apple juice than actual sugar water😉 I am glad you liked them