
Having a child with severe food allergies is stressful on foodie-focused days. This little post contains 9 amazing free-from pancake recipes to help you stay zen on the flipping day!
As you know my son suffers from severe food allergies causing anaphylaxis, you will probably have gathered by now that he LOVES pancakes. We enjoy them every weekend, not just on the official day of pancakes, a.k.a Shrove Tuesday. What this means is that our recipes are tried and tested, as we’ve been honing them to perfection over the last ten years.
We live in a lovely community and enjoy sharing pancakes with neighbours and relatives. This means that they have been taste-tested by people who eat conventional pancakes too. They come back for more, so rest assured these pancakes all are worthy of being made and scoffed even if you don’t have food allergies! I like to say that the recipes on free2bake are safe for folks with severe food allergies, whilst still tasting absolutely great!
The number of people affected by allergies is huge. Over 150 million people have allergies in Europe, the most common chronic disease (EAACI, 2014). In the last decade, the cases of food allergies have doubled and the number of hospitalisations caused by severe allergic reactions has increased 7-fold (EAACI, 2015). And the expectation is that the number of people suffering with allergy is only headed in one direction. Allergy is a chronic disease that is expected to affect more than 50% of all Europeans in 10 years’ time (EAACI, 2011)
It’s really important to me that awareness is raised regarding food allergy, especially anaphylaxis which has hospitalised my son four times in his eleven years. There is a lot of misunderstanding surrounding it, and sadly it has become a bit of a fashion; there are many people claiming allergy when it is really an intolerance or a life-style choice. I have met parents who’ve informed me that their children are “allergic to dairy too, they can only have it at the weekend” That is not allergy! That’s a lifestyle choice. It used to be infuriating – now I try to stay zen and just smile at them and explain that my son will go into anaphylactic shock whatever the day!
This fashion trend has a knock-on effect on people living with severe food allergies and anaphylaxis. For example when my son was in Reception at his little country infant school, years back, they were angry when I said he couldn’t participate in their Shrove Tuesday pancake fest, as egg and dairy would cause him to go into anaphylactic shock. I was told that I was excluding him from school life and making him stand out as different to the rest of the pupils. They didn’t understand what anaphylaxis was and that we had no choice in the matter. Sadly for him, he was different as eggs & dairy caused anaphylaxis. The school were unwilling to use our “safe” recipes as they insisted that pancakes had to have egg and dairy in them.
Thus I think in life it’s really important to be inclusive and cater for everyone, even those with “weekday-only-allergies” ;)! So to enable others to provide safe pancakes for friends and families who live with severe food allergies and anaphylaxis here are some awesome pancake recipes which we love and have honed to perfection over the last ten years, as we eat pancakes every weekend not just once a year. If you are catering for someone with severe food allergies for the first time I recommend you check out my post on just that – as it’s always best to be be equipped with knowledge and information to empower and enable you to be as safe as possible.
All of these recipes are gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free & soya-free, they are also mostly nut-free as coconut is classed as a seed not a nut. In spite of all that they are free-from they are absolutely ram-packed full of fantastic flavour and YUM!
All of the titles of the pancakes are hyper-linked to the recipe cards or you can scroll down and discover the full recipes below. I hope that you find a recipe your children will love, so that they can enjoy being part of a fun, foodie day in a safe and scrummy way!

perfect free-from traditional pancakes
Perfect free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soy,nuts & refined-sugar traditional English pancakes 🙂 I kid you not! Inspite of all that is absent from these pancakes they are the perfect traditional English pancake. Not only are they free from all the allergens they have the bonus of the wonderful ground flaxseed in them. Super easy to make and scrummy to eat – top them with the old school favourite lemon & sugar for that classic English pancake!

apple & oat scotch pancakes
These scrummy little pancakes are packed full of apple, cinnamon spice & all things nice for your bod. They are free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soya & nuts but chockablock full of fantastic flavour and yum. These little pancakes will keep you fuelled for the day, and taste just as good cool as fresh from the pan!

fiery ginger & banana pancakes
We love spices in our kitchen and these little banana scotch pancakes pack a punch! Aars is a huge fan of ginger, hence the overload, you may look at the recipe and decide to reduce the amount of ginger. It’s all about making something your children will love to eat! These pancakes are free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soya, nuts & refined sugar. We love ours with some spread & pure maple syrup.

blueberry pancakes
These blueberry pancakes are a special treat for me, I can rarely indulge as Aars has had a severe allergy to blueberries all his life. They are always worth the wait and are absolutely beautiful, bursting with fresh blueberry flavour and juice. These are free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soy, nuts & refined sugar. We love these beautiful blueberry pancakes with fresh strawberries and a little drizzle of pure maple syrup.

chubby puffy pancakes
These were named by Aars, who loves watching make these wonderful little free-from pancakes as they puff up like little pillows in the pan. They are basically a dairy-free version of the American butter-milk pancake. Their vital ingredient is the coconut yoghurt, and they are free-from gluten, eggs, soya, nuts, refined-sugar as well as milk. You can add fresh fruit or maple syrup or more coconut yogurt to serve them!

spiced fruit pancakes
These are the current top-of-the-pancake-pile in our home at the mo! Aars had some before school this morning, he (and we) absolutely LOVE these fruit-filled, gorgeously spiced, chunky pancakes. They are a great way to start any day – be it lazy or energetic! Free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soy, nuts and refined sugar they are wonderful for your bod whilst tasting fantastic too!

apple & baklava pancakes
These are a little more complicated than the previous pancakes listed! Not as simple but if you are willing to add the baklava twist, go for it! I love these pancakes, as I love nuts and North African spices. They are free-from gluten, eggs, dairy and soya, but have tree nuts and refined sugar in them. If you wanted the flavour but not the fuss you could aways just sprinkle the baklava spiced nuts on once they’ve finished cooking!

banana & choc-chip pancakes
These are Aars official fave pancakes, but like the baklava pancakes above they are a little more complex to make. They are also the richest recipe on this list, especially when topped with bananas and drizzles of his amazing chocolate sauce. So he rarely has them, nor remembers to request them! They are free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soya, nuts and refined sugar!

savoury sweet potato pancakes
These are wonderful savoury pancakes, if you want to have a pancake meal on pancake day. These little sweet potato beauties are really versatile and go brilliantly with Mexian, North African or Asian accompaniments. Rammed full of sweet potato and copious amounts of fresh corriander leaves & stalks these pancakes are an ultimate comfort food. Free-from gluten, eggs, dairy, soy, nuts and refined sugar everyone can enjoy them.
Here are all the recipe cards for your convenience! I hope that you find a recipe your children will love, so that they can enjoy being part of a fun, foodie day in a safe and scrummy way!
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