Apple Cider Pancakes

These fluffy, flavorful and addictive Apple Cider Pancakes are the perfect use of any fall apples, but I can't resist making them year-round! Loaded with fragrant apple cider cinnamon deliciousness and topped with melt in your mouth cinnamon fried apples and caramel apple cider syrup, they're an irresistible breakfast treat!!

Love apple recipes? Try my apple cake, Irish apple cake, or apple blackberry crumble for some easy desserts that are studded with tender apples!

These truly are the perfect breakfast, certainly fall or autumn themed, but so delicious they warrant a rotation spot on your weekend menu of pancake recipes! Golden, fluffy apple pancakes that are sure to be a family favorite!

This is one of my easy apple pancakes versions to make. I've also included some alternates and substitutions below to help you make these on a whim with what you have on hand at home.

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍎 Choose Your Apples
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Recipe Notes
• 🆚 Apple Cider vs Apple Juice
• 📖 Recipe Card
• 💬 Comments & Reviews

🥘 Ingredients

Apple Cider Pancakes

• All-Purpose Flour
• Sugar
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Nutmeg
• Buttermilk (or buttermilk substitute at room temperature)
• Apple Cider (at room temperature)
• Eggs (beaten, at room temperature)
• Butter (salted, melted, cooled slightly)
• Vanilla Extract

Pan Fried Cinnamon Apples

• Apples (firm, semi-sweet variety)
• Brown Sugar
• Butter
• Ground Cinnamon

Caramel Apple Cider Syrup

• Butter
• Apple Cider
• Brown Sugar

🍎 Choose Your Apples

I like to use Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, or Honeycrisp apples for my baking with semi-sweet apples. This list from Washington State University details which apples are best for storing, cider, baking, and flavor profiles.

Choose your apple variety: you're looking for a semi-sweet yet firm apple. The kind that would be perfect for pies and crisps as well.

🔪 Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the room temperature eggs. Add the room temperature (or heated) buttermilk and apple cider, whisk to combine. Then add the cooled melted butter and whisk again.
3. Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl and combine just enough to achieve a lumpy cake-like batter. Mix the batter as little as possible, literally a few turns of the batter and set aside.
4. Test your cooking surface with a few droplets of cold water to see if it is hot enough to cook your pancakes. The water should skitter across the cooking surface when it is reached your desired temperature.
5. The bubbles that form in your batter should cover the facing side of your pancake and be popping when you flip your pancake. Lift one edge to see how golden the underside is, then flip your pancake before all of the bubbles in the batter have popped.
6. Cook the second side for approximately half as long as the first side.
7. Remove from heat when done and repeat as necessary until all of your pancakes are cooked.

Pan Fried Cinnamon Apples

1. Cut your apples into consistently sized slices so that your pan fried apples cook evenly! I like to thin slice my apples after coring them, then cut each slice into thirds. This way I have a thin slice, but a good size chunk of apple to enjoy.
2. Add the cut apples once the pan is heated and the butter has begun to melt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fork tender or your desired level of tenderness.
3. Heat a small to medium skillet or frying pan to medium heat and melt the butter. *You can substitute water for the butter to reduce calories, if desired.
4. Add brown sugar and cinnamon, stir to coat the fried apples. Your apples are done when the sugar has dissolved and caramelized with the cinnamon and apples.
5. Set aside until ready to serve warm with your apple spice pancakes.

Caramel Apple Cider Syrup

This rich caramel spiced apple cider syrup is the perfect syrup to drizzle over these fabulous pancakes!

1. Start with a small saucepan over medium high heat and melt the butter.
2. Add the apple cider and stir in the brown sugar.
3. Whisk the syrup while you bring it to a low boil, adjusting your heat as necessary to maintain a constant bubble.
4. Continue to whisk for one minute at a low boil, then remove from heat and serve warm.

Of course, if you have maple syrup on hand you can certainly skip the extra step. These easy apple pancakes are wonderful with either my homemade caramel cider syrup or maple syrup!!

💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Recipe Notes

• Use room temperature ingredients. This also helps to speed along your pancakes process and decreases the cooking time needed as your batter is already at room temperature.
• Set your buttermilk and cider out to at least take the chill off from being refrigerated, if there is too little time to reach room temperature. Your liquid ingredients, the buttermilk and cider, can also be combined and heated in the microwave in 30 second increments until warm to the touch.
• Set your eggs in a cup of warm water to bring them to room temperature. Melt your butter then allow it to cool slightly.
• The baking soda reacts immediately, and that reaction time is just enough time to make your perfect pancakes.
• When making pancake batter, usually you want to allow your batter to rest for a minimum of five minutes before cooking your pancakes. For this recipe, because I am using the leavening agents baking powder and baking soda the batter needs to be cooked right away. (Add a drizzle of additional buttermilk or water if needed to thin out your batter, or add a tablespoon of flour at a time to thicken the batter as needed.)
• I always suggest making a test pancake first, this way you can see how far the batter spreads (for even spacing when you make your pancakes) and double check to see if the temperature is right.
• Before combining the wet and dry portions, your frying pan, skillet, or griddle should be preheating to between medium and medium-high heat. Don't use too much oil on the surface, just lightly grease using a paper towel. I suggest oil over butter, as butter burns easily.

How To Get Fluffy Pancakes

The key to fluffy pancakes is by far the easiest 'trick' ever! Don't over mix the batter. Simple. Pancake batter that is left lumpy, rather than whisked until smooth, will give you the desired fluff factor for perfect apple cider pancakes!

🆚 Apple Cider vs Apple Juice

If you're wondering 'Can I Substitute Apple Juice for Apple Cider?' the answer is yes, you certainly can. The flavors are different though!

To explain the difference it's best to describe what each actually is:

Apple Juice is pasteurized and filtered to remove the apple pulp, enabling it to store much longer than apple cider. Typically, apple juice is sweetened more than cider and is lighter in color. Apple juice is also able to be sold from concentrate, which is why you may see water as the number one ingredient.

Apple cider is unfiltered and unpasteurized apple juice from crushed apples. The pulp and the sediment remain in the juice. Typically it has a cloudy appearance and a fair amount of sedimentation on the bottom of the container ( shake before using ).

So to substitute apple juice for apple cider in this or any apple cider recipe, realize that your flavor profile once cooked or baked will likely end up sweeter than when using apple cider.

Other options for substitution are to use apple sauce or grated apples. This may change your pancake consistency slightly, but I do love freshly grated apples in my pancakes!

📖 Recipe Card