Ube Pancakes – Soft Fluffy Filipino Pancake Recipe

Ube pancakes are your favourite buttermilk pancakes bursting with the ube flavour you love. Made with ube halaya or ube jam, it’s sweet, soft, fluffy. A delicious way to start the day.

(Prefer waffles over pancakes for breakfast or brunch? Try my recipe for ube waffles — crunchy outside, soft inside, also packed with delicious ube flavour).

These ube pancakes are such a great way to kick off the weekend. They are soft and fluffy and filled with ube flavour.  

They’re freezer-friendly too. You can make a big batch today so you can enjoy ube pancakes the rest of the week. 

Ingredients you need for ube pancakes

You might have seen some recipes for ube pancakes with ube extract, but this ube pancake recipe also has ube halaya or ube jam. It adds a nice earthy and hearty flavour and consistency to the pancakes without making them too heavy.

I make my own ube halaya and it’s easy, delicious and better than the ones from the store. Try it!

In addition, you’ll need:

• All purpose flour
• Brown sugar
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Buttermilk
• Milk
• Large eggs
• Unsalted butter
• Oil for frying

Note that these pancakes are not as purple as other ube treats you might be used to seeing. The insides are more charcoal than purple. 

I thought about adding artificial food colour to make it a prettier violet but since it really adds nothing to the flavour or consistency, I don’t bother.

You can add a little food colour if you like; just make sure to use gel and not liquid so as not to affect the consistency of the pancake batter too much.

Tools you need to make ube Filipino pancakes

A blender is really useful when making ube pancakes. 

No blender? No problem. You can use a large bowl and a whisk to combine your wet ingredients — just make sure to break apart any large chunks of ube jam as much as you can.

In addition to a blender, all you’ll need are:

• Mixing bowls
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Whisk

We don’t have a special pancake griddle and just use a normal non-stick pan. We do have a pancake flipper but any wide flipper or turner will do

How to make ube pancakes

Once you have everything you need, Making ube pancakes is easy.

3 GET PAN READY. Put a medium sized pan on your stove over medium heat. You know it’s ready when small amounts of water sprinkled over it evaporates immediately.

5 COOK. Put a little oil (I like to cook with a combination of butter and oil) on your pan and start dropping your pancake mixture about ⅓ cup at a time. Cook about 3 minutes per side, or until the centre is cooked and the sides are golden brown.

6 ENJOY. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup. 

Just between you and me, you know my favourite way to eat these? With ube butter!

I mix about a teaspoon of ube halaya with a tablespoon of softened butter, slather it on the pancake, then drizzle maple syrup. So good!

Recipe FAQs

How to make fluffy pancakes

Making pancakes is easy but making them fluffy every time takes a little practice. There are two things I always do to make fluffy pancakes:

First, I combine my wet and dry ingredients at the last minute, just when I’m about to fry them.

I know some recipes ask you to chill the batter but I’ve found that resulted to very flat pancakes (almost crepe-like) for me.

Second, I’m careful to not over mix the batter. What we’re looking for is a lumpy batter, not a smooth one.

Again, I know other recipes suggest mixing the batter in a blender but I prefer to do it by hand so I have more control and just use my blender to combine my wet ingredients.

How to make homemade buttermilk

Can’t find buttermilk? Or don’t want to buy a whole carton? No worries; making buttermilk at home is easy.

Just mix a cup of milk and a tablespoon of lemon juice, stir then let sit in room temperature for 30 minutes. That’s it!

Homemade buttermilk doesn’t get quite as thick as the one you buy at the store but I haven’t noticed a significant difference in my pancakes made with homemade buttermilk vs. those made with commercial buttermilk yet. So I don’t hesitate to use it in a pinch.

In any case, if you have leftover buttermilk from this recipe, check out this collection of buttermilk recipes for inspiration on what to do with it!

How to freeze ube pancakes

These pancakes freeze very well.

Once they’re completely cool, put them in a large Ziploc bag (with a piece of parchment paper between each pancake so they don’t stick together) and put the bag in the freezer.

On hectic weekday mornings, just microwave a piece of pancake straight out of the freezer for about 30 seconds and it’s good as new. Still fluffy and still delicious!

Frozen ube pancakes should last up to a month.

Pancake recipes for Thanksgiving or Christmas morning

These ube pancakes are so delicious I don’t hesitate to serve them to company, especially on Thanksgiving or Christmas morning. They’re a joy to eat and sure to brighten everyone’s day!

Here are other pancake recipes you can try:

Pumpkin buttermilk pancakes are light, fluffy and full of the warm, cozy flavours of fall. Sure to become a breakfast favourite.

Whip up a batch of light fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes and start the day with sunshine on a plate! Bright lemon flavour, not too sweet, soft as a cloud.

Happy pancake making!

Did you make ube pancakes? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. If you’re looking for all things ube, check out this delicious collection of the best must-try ube desserts.