Last Updated on May 27, 2026 by Deliciously Organic Editor
A stack of light, fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes is a wonderful way to start the day! I made these with Bob’s Red Mill Paleo flour and they came out beautifully. I found their flour blend last year and will grab it on occasion when I want to adapt a recipe, but am unsure of the exact quantities. I’ve used their flour blend for dozens of recipes and it truly is a 1:1 substitution for other flours!
I do realize the Paleo flour is a bit on the pricey side, so I don’t use it very often. But, if you only use grain-free flours every once in a while and you don’t want to purchase multiple flours, then this is a great option. I’m not affiliated with Bob’s Red Mill, but I do love to promote a good product when I find one!
This recipe is super simple, can be whisked together in about 10 minutes and topped with lemon, berries, maple syrup, jam, jelly, or whatever you fancy!
PrintLemon Ricotta Pancakes (Gluten-Free)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Makes about 12-14 pancakes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Frying
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1 cup Paleo flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or maple sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
- 1 1/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup whole milk (I used raw)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 2-3 tablespoons ghee, coconut oil or palm shortening for frying
- Lemon wedges, butter and maple syrup, for serving
Instructions
- Place the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer and whisk for 5 minutes on medium-high speed. Meanwhile, whisk together Paleo flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, ricotta, milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- Take about 1 cup of the whipped egg whites and whisk it into the ricotta mixture. Then, combine the ricotta mixture with the flour mixture. Add the remaining whipped egg whites and fold until combined.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute, Melt 1-2 teaspoons of the ghee (or whichever oil you are using) in the pan and swirl the pan to coat. Spoon small portions of the pancake mixture into the pan and fry until bottom sides are golden brown. Using a spatula, flip each pancake and cook until second side is golden brown. Serve with lemon wedges, butter, and maple syrup.
- Note: I only test my recipes with Bob’s Red Mill almond and coconut flours. I’ve found that other almond and coconut flours lend different textures and can change the recipe drastically. Please keep this in mind if you use a different brand of flours.
Hi- where do the egg yolks come in? Or are they not incorporated?
Oops! I forgot to add them into the instructions. I just made the edit. Thanks for pointing that out! 🙂
Great! Can’t wait to try them! I love so many of your recipes!
Can these be frozen for another time?
Yes! I like to reheat them in the oven.
I made these with Arrowhead Mills Organic all purpose gluten free flour and it worked great! So fluffy! I should have made them smaller. My bad. I was too hungry when I was cooking! Definitely a keeper recipe! Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
What brand of whole milk ricotta cheese did you use ?
I used one from your local health food store, but any good organic ricotta will do!
Is there a substitute for ricotta cheese?
Yum!!! Made these this morning and they were delicious!! I subbed whole wheat pastry flour for the paleo blend, maple syrup for the coconut/maple sugar and served with fresh blueberries. We always have leftover pancakes, but this morning every single one was eaten. Even my picky toddlers kept asking for more. Thank you so much for the yummy recipe!!!
So glad you enjoyed them!
How could I turn this Lemon Ricotta pancake recipe into a waffle recipe for Easter Brunch? Add flour? :o)
I havne’t tested that, so I’m not really sure, but adding some flour would probably be a good idea!
Theses pancakes are AMAZING! I can see myself repeating them every weekend. Thank you thank you!
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
What would you recommend to make these egg-free (dealing with a sensitivity right now)? My kids would love to have pancakes again, and these sound delicious!
I couldn’t get the consistency right? Mine were too runny and very difficult to flip. Any tips? I used the almond flour/ coconut flour combo mentioned, and even with an extra tbs of coconut flour it was still too runny.
Add some arrowroot starch to thicken 🙂
Do you have any idea how many carbs per serving? I have Type 1 Diabetes.
I don’t have nutritional values for recipes on my site, but you’re welcome to plug this recipe into an app to get the values.
These were a disaster. I am an experienced cook, including experience with “fussy” grain-free flours and these were runny and totally falling apart.
I’ve tested this recipe many times and they’ve always come out perfectly, so I’m not sure what happened.
This recipe turned out great! It was a hit, and I’ll definitely be making it again. Thanks so much!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I had the exact same problem. Followed the recipe to the ‘T’ and they just fall apart. I have a lot of experience with gluten free flour and pancakes and it didn’t make any difference what temperature I cooked them (slow or fast). Even if I wait until the top was dry and then flip it still falls apart.
Such a shame because the ingredients and taste of ricotta & lemon was good but the enjoyment of cooking them was horrible and the resulting mash left over was not edible.
The only way to make it hold together was to add flour. However because I am on a gluten free diet I used a tiny amount of buckwheat flour and this held them together but unfortunately the lemon & ricotta flavour was no longer as prominent. At least this way I could salvage some of the ingredients though.
Did you use the Paleo flour or the combo of coconut and almond flour? If the combo, what brand did you use? I always test my recipes with Bob’s Red Mill for consistency.
I decided to make these pancakes for breakfast today. I didn’t have paleo flour, so I used the substitution, as given in the recipe, of 1 cup almond flour plus 2 Tbsp coconut flour. Since we don’t drink cow milk, I used full fat goat milk. I followed the recipe exactly, except for the substitution of goat milk. The batter before the addition of the whipped egg whites and dry ingredients was VERY runny. The pancakes turned out crumbly, didn’t hold together and fell apart when flipping them over. I used the pieces, but it didn’t look very appetizing on the plate. What could I have done? Should I have used more of either almond or coconut flour?
I am now hesitant to use other recipes, because I really don’t want to waste expensive ingredients.
I haven’t tried it with goat milk, so I’m not sure if that can make a difference. What brand of flours did you use? I’ve noticed that coconut flour, in particular, will behave different depending on the brand. I always test everything with Bob’s Red Mill.
Hi Carrie,
Thank you for your answer to my question above. I have since tried the pancakes again and added 2 Tbsp of psyllium husk and 1 Tbsp of arrowroot flour. This time the pancakes turned out perfect. I’m sure you are right about the coconut flour, but I have a large bag that I purchased at Costco and don’t want to waste.
I guess I’ll just have to tinker a bit in future:-)
Rose
I tried this recipe twice and each time it was a disaster. Today my husband did them and it’s even worse. Following the exact recipe step by step. The pancakes are crumbly and fallowing apart. They don’t even resemble pancakes, definitely far away from what’s in the pics. I make pancakes very often and never had this issues. Not recommending this recipe…waste of time and ingredients.
I’m not sure why you had issues with this recipe. I made these for breakfast this morning and they turned out perfectly.
This was a biggest disaster ever – both consistency and flavour wise. Waste of the ingredients and time (coming from a big healty food fan).
I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you. I made this recipe a few weeks ago and it worked perfectly. Did you make any subs? What brand of flour did you use?