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Make Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes
If you ever have leftover cooked sweet potatoes, whether boiled sweet potatoes or roasted sweet potatoes, you can mash them up and make sweet potato pancakes with them. Fluffy, mostly naturally sweetened, and packed with nutrition, these sweet potato pancakes only need a few simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Give these sweet potato pancakes a try for your next weekend brunch or as a fun twist on traditional pancakes.
This sweet potato pancakes recipe only requires about 10 minutes of prep time and 7 minutes of cook time. If you have a large griddle, you can knock them out in no time flat! Don’t let those leftover mashed sweet potatoes go to waste – turn them into a delicious breakfast treat!
Sweet Potato Pancake Ingredients
- Mashed sweet potatoes: This sweet potato pancake recipe was created using leftover mashed sweet potatoes, but you can make it with leftover baked whole sweet potatoes, boiled sweet potatoes or roasted sweet potatoes that you mash. If using whole sweet potatoes, you’ll need 1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes to equal one cup of mashed for the recipe.
- Flour: I’ve only tested this recipe with all-purpose flour. You can use gluten-free flour mix that is made for 1:1 substitute baking and whole wheat flour. You may need to adjust the amount slightly since whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid. Start with using ¾ cup and adding a tablespoon at a time.
- Eggs: 2 eggs or flax eggs.
- Milk: I use whole milk for more protein and richness but you can use any milk you want.
- Melted butter: Just two tablespoons of it is all you need and you can swap with avocado oil or even applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
- Maple syrup and brown sugar: The combination of both sweeteners helps to play off the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes. Feel free to use one or the other only.
- Baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt: To give their fluffy texture and warm flavor.
Popular Additions
- Try it with leftover pumpkin. If you have leftover pumpkin puree, swap it for some or all of the mashed sweet potatoes, and it will still work out well.
- Use up odds and ends. Have leftover dried cranberries or nuts or chocolate chips from your Thanksgiving meal or from other recipes? Toss them in the batter! You can add up to ½ cup of mix-ins to this recipe.
- Add some zest: You can a zest a whole orange, lemon or lime and it will really brighten up the flavor of the sweet potato pancakes.
- Top with your favorites. These sweet potato pancakes taste great topped with maple syrup, whipped cottage cheese, applesauce, Greek yogurt, chopped nuts, sliced bananas or apples, or even a drizzle of melted homemade peanut butter or homemade almond butter.
How to Make Fluffy Sweet Potato Pancakes
My Best Sweet Potato Pancake Tips
- Use more leftover sweet potatoes. Using 1 cup of mashed sweet potatoes results in a fluffy pancake-like texture. However, if you have more than a cup, you can add up to an additional cup to the recipe for a more potato pancake-like texture. The recipe is very forgiving.
- Don’t worry about your mashed sweet potatoes flavor. This recipe is designed to be used with leftover sweet potatoes that skew sweet in their flavor profile. But, if there is a little herb or black pepper in your recipe, don’t worry. They will still come out perfectly.
- Don’t overmix. I can’t stress this enough – overmixing the batter will result in dense pancakes. Mix until just combined, and then stop mixing.
Recipe Help & FAQs
Let any leftover pancakes cool completely before transferring them to an airtight container or ziptop bag and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
To reheat, you can microwave them for about 40-60 seconds, wrapped in a damp paper towel, or heat them in a skillet on the stove until warmed through.
Yes! Sweet potato pancakes also freeze well – just let them cool completely before transferring them to a freezer-safe container or ziptop bag and freezing for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat as mentioned above. Enjoy!
If your pancakes came out dense, it is likely because the batter was overmixed. Mix just until all ingredients are combined, and don’t continue mixing – this will result in a denser texture. Also, while this recipe does not have to be exact on the measurements, if you went to the extreme with the sweet potato or flour measurements, it could also result in a denser texture.
More Pancake Recipes:
- Pumpkin Pancakes
- Classic Pancakes
- Fluffy Banana Pancakes
- Savory Potato Pancakes
- Blueberry Pancakes
- Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
- Chocolate Protein Pancakes
- Flourless Strawberry Pancakes
- Oat Flour Pancakes
- Carrot Cake Pancakes
If you try this Sweet Potato Pancake recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe. I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots, share it on Instagram so we can repost on Stories!
Sweet Potato Pancakes
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup leftover mashed sweet potatoes
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Maple syrup plus more for serving
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Pinch nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons melted butter plus more for cooking
Instructions
- Place mashed sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, brown sugar and maple syrup and whisk until combined.
- Sprinkle flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and nutmeg on top of the sweet potato mixture and stir until smooth. Add melted butter and mix until combined
- Set a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and add a small pat of butter. Once melted, drop ⅓ cup portions of the sweet potato batter onto the preheated skillet. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the pancake, 2 to 4 minutes, then flip and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Repeat process until all of the batter has been used, you should end up with about 8 pancakes.
- Serve warm with maple syrup.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
This was yummy and worked with gluten-free flour!
Yay, I’m so glad!! Thanks for sharing, Kathy!
I echo the comments when I say these were incredible. Absolutely 100% delicious. We ate them straight off the griddle without syrup or any fixin’s and had to make another batch! We are all not fans of sweet potato, but my son wanted to try them, and whoa they knocked our socks off. Found they freeze great and are easy to warm in the toaster for a quick school morning breakfast. Could not be more pleased with this recipe. 5 stars. Thank you!
Wow, thank you so much for your kind words!! So happy your family loved them, Kristen!
These were DELICIOUS. I had leftover mashed sweet potatoes from dinner and these were a perfect way to reuse them. My kids and husband loved them! As a mom on a fitness journey though, just curious. 128 calories for 1 pancake?
Aww, so happy you and your family liked them!! Yes, the nutrition facts are for 1 pancake (using plain, unseasoned mashed sweet potato).
Simple and delicious. The sweet potato pancakes are on repeat!!
Yay! So glad you liked them!!
I followed this recipe but added coconut flour instead of regular flour. The mixture was too thick to make pancakes and they fell apart, even though I tried to continue to add milk to the batter. So instead of making pancakes, I put them in a muffin tin and I’m making sweet potato muffins and added dried cranberries.
Hi Lori! I don’t recommend using coconut flour for this exact reason. I’d love to hear how your batter turned out as muffins though. Dried cranberries sound great!
I was trying to make these gluten free, but they didn’t quite come together as a muffin when baked for 35 minutes. I even tried baking it longer. I wasn’t able to achieve a muffin-like texture. The mixture was still tasty, but did not work as a muffin.
Bummer! So sorry to hear that, Lori. Another reader has had success making these pancakes with buckwheat flour, maybe you could give that a shot?