This thick and fluffy pancake casserole is filled with blueberries and topped with a brown sugar crumble. This is a great way to make pancakes for a crowd, and it’s a great meal prep dish (it reheats beautifully).
This is one of my most popular recipes – and for good reason. This recipe is easy, delicious, and it’s always met with rave reviews. Think of it as a mashup between pancakes and coffee cake.
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Why you’ll love this recipe
Flavor: Buttermilk pancakes with a touch of vanilla, lemon, blueberries, and maple syrup.
Texture: Imagine a super thick and fluffy pancake filled with juicy blueberries and a crunchy crumb topping.
Ease: Although this recipe has several steps, it is super easy. No special equipment or techniques needed.
Feed a crowd: If you don’t feel like standing over the stove flipping individual pancakes for a crowd this is a great alternative. I often make this dish for holiday breakfast/brunch.
Great leftover: Reheat individual servings in the microwave, this casserole reheats beautifully.
Pancake casserole recipe overview
*Full recipe below in recipe card*
Crumb topping:
Combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter. Pop the topping into the fridge while you proceed with the pancake batter.
Pancake batter:
- Combine dry ingredients in one bowl.
- Combine wet ingredients in another bowl.
- Combine wet and dry.
- Be careful not to overmix (it will be lumpy).
Add the batter to a greased 9×13 pan. Top with blueberries and crumb topping.
Bake!
Make ahead options
Can this be made ahead?
I highly recommend serving this right after baking but you can do most of the prep in advance. Note: individual leftovers reheat well in the microwave but I do not bake and reheat the whole dish.
Use this method to prep ahead and you will only have a couple of “hands-on” minutes in the morning:
- Prepare the crumb topping and refrigerate until ready to use (up to 1 day in advance). It will firm up quite a bit as the butter chills in the fridge. Let it sit at room temp for an hour (if you have time), or just use your fingers to break the crumb topping into chunks as you scatter it over the pancake batter.
- Pancake batter: combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda) in a large bowl and tightly cover at room temp overnight.
- Pancake batter: in a large glass measuring cup or bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, milk, lemon zest and vanilla (all of the wet ingredients except the melted butter). Tightly cover and refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning: Preheat the oven, whisk 4 tablespoons melted butter into the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stir well, pour into a prepared casserole dish. Top with blueberries and the refrigerated crumb topping and bake!
Can you use pancake mix?
I have tried swapping the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and leaveners) in place of 2 ½ cups of pancake mix. It did work, but I found that the packaged pancake mix puffed up really high, which made the blueberries and crumb topping sink in. It tasted fine, but I prefer this recipe made the way it is written.
Can you use frozen blueberries?
YES! Swap the fresh blueberries for frozen blueberries (without thawing them). Note: You might need to increase the bake time by a couple minutes, and the blueberry color will bleed into the pancake batter a little more than it does with fresh blueberries. It will still taste fine.
Psst: If you absolutely LOVE blueberries (like my family does), you can top this Pancake Casserole with Blueberry Sauce.
Serving and storage
Serve warm topped with maple syrup. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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Recipe
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancake Casserole
Ingredients
Crumb topping:
- ½ cup flour
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Pancake:
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour, see note
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups buttermilk
- ½ cup milk, I used skim milk
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1-2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cups blueberries
- maple syrup, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Thoroughly grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.
Crumb topping:
- In a medium bowl combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Add melted butter and stir until fully incorporated. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the pancake batter.
Pancake:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, milk, melted butter, lemon zest, and vanilla extract (the butter might clump from the chill of the cold ingredients- that’s ok). Whisk wet ingredients until well combined. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to stir until combined. The batter will be lumpy; do not over mix.
- Pour the batter into the greased baking dish. Sprinkle the blueberries over the top. Remove the crumb topping from the fridge and crumble over the top of the blueberries and batter. Bake for about 35-45 minutes, until puffed and light golden brown (check the center for doneness). Serve warm with maple syrup.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Shelley
My family enjoys this very much. I had frozen some blueberries in the summer and that’s what I used. Easy to prepare! I have made this several times.
Celebrating Sweets
I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Koives
Have made twice. Could probably cut the topping in half as it is quite sweet & makes a lot.
Brea
I’ve had this recipe before and can I just say MY LAWD was it good. Was wondering (since I now eat plant based) if I could swap the milk and buttermilk out for plant milk?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Brea! My concern would be finding the right swap for the buttermilk. The acidity in the buttermilk is what helps to make this fluffy and tender. I don’t know of a plant based substitute for buttermilk…maybe dairy free yogurt thinned with plant milk to get the consistency of buttermilk? If you play around with it let me know how it goes. 🙂
Katherine Paddison
You can make a plant based buttermilk by adding a little vinegar to the plant milk of your choice. I did it in this recipe and probably added 1 or 2 tabelspoons to the 2.5 cups milk. Turned out great 🙂
Katie Prosser
Can you make and bake the casserole ahead of time then reheat when needed? How do you store leftovers?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Katie. If making it ahead you’ll want to store it covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Reheat individual servings in the microwave. Enjoy!
Lacey
Hi there! What about freezing and then reheating?
Celebrating Sweets
I recommend freezing individual portions and reheating in the microwave.
Kim
Streusel topping was great, flavor nice (not too sweet), but the texture of the sponge was really disappointing. Expected something closer in the spectrum to coffee cake texture but ended up doughy, closer to the texture of bread pudding – this was the case even though it was mixed following instructions to the “tee”, including using the size baking pan called for, AND overbaked by 5 minutes (so a total of 50 minutes at 350).
Diana
Could a use almond or coconut flour and coconut sugar in stead of flour and sugar, brown sugar? Or whole wheat flour? Thank you
Celebrating Sweets
The coconut sugar should be fine, but I think you’ll need the structure from wheat flour. You can use whole wheat or white whole wheat, but it will be more dense. A gluten free cup-for-cup flour blend would likely work as well.
Diana
Thank you for your reply, l will let you know how it turns out. Diana
Cheryl
Is the nutritional info for 12 or 15 servings?
Celebrating Sweets
It should be 12 servings. Enjoy!
Sara
Absolutely delicious! I used what I had on hand at the time (fresh cut mixed berries) and the entire family loved it and went back for more. Will definately be making this again. Thanks for the recipe!
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂