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!
Tamara
Absolutely delicious! This casserole was a big hit on Christmas morning. It reheated very well the next day- it tasted just as good, if not better! AND it looked exactly like your pictures. Will be making this dish again along with others from your blog!!
Celebrating Sweets
Thank you! I’m so happy to hear that. Happy holidays!
linda
How did you reheat it? I want to bake the entire casserole the day before and reheat it in the morning. I would guess in the oven maybe lightly covered with foil?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Linda. I typically reheat slices as needed, I have never reheated the whole dish. I would guess a low oven covered with foil should work. You might even sprinkle it with a little water if it appears to get dry while it is heating. Enjoy!
Carol Manty
Why do people comment that it looks good or that they like,the picture? Am always interested in people’s experience with the recipe but have to wade through all these gratuitous comments!!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Carol. I welcome all types of comments. As the recipe creator and photographer I appreciate any feedback that my readers give me. These comments give me an idea of what recipes are appealing to a wide audience and they help me plan my content going forward.
Frankie
Has anyone tried adding cream cheese to this recipe? Or have any ideas on how it would work. I had a french toast cream cheese recipe I tried but it was too soggy for me, I love this recipe and so does my family and wanted to try to incorporate cream cheese
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Frankie. I have not tried that, so I can’t say the best way to go about it. You could try putting some small pieces of creamy cheese on top along with the crumble and blueberries, but I’m not sure if it would melt and make it look sloppy. If you try it, let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Shelise
This recipe was delicious! I didn’t have lemons on hand so I didn’t add the zest, but it was still very good and definitely beats standing in front of a skillet making them individually! Thanks for sharing.
Celebrating Sweets
I’m so happy to hear that you liked it! Thanks for stopping by.
Lavanya Peter
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it. Brunch is my favorite party to host and i am always looking for a new recipie to keep it fresh. I love serving lemon curd and blueberries on my pancakes to give it a bit of a tart twist. I love the combination of sweet fruit and lwmon curd. Do you think there would be someoway to incorporate that into this? Maybe even stick to the recipie and serve with lemon curd ? I am envisioning a lemon blueberry cheesecake like pancake. Any ideas?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! You could try adding lemon curd into the pancake batter (maybe 1/4 cup)? I’m not sure how to get a cheesecake texture, as adding a cheesecake filling might make this too wet. You could melt some cream cheese and whisk in some powdered sugar and then drizzle the cooked casserole with the sweetened cream cheese. Best of luck playing around with this. Enjoy!
Kelcie
Hello!
I’m curious if this can be made without blueberries or if there will need to be tweaks done to the recipe when omitting them?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Kelcie. You can leave out the blueberries, without making any other changes. I have made it that way before, and although it is better with the blueberries (in my opinion), it is still fine without them. If you want to increase the vanilla extract or lemon zest a touch, you can. Enjoy!
Debbie
Do you think substituting fresh banana’s and leaving out and the lemon zest would work? Kind of a take on your banana foster French toast? I’m not a huge fan of blueberries, so I’m trying to think of an alternative to the blueberries. Or maybe leave out the blueberries and serve with a fresh strawberries or raspberries. Thanks for your thoughts.
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Debbie. I have made this without blueberries, and it felt like it was missing something. So, yes, if you skip the blueberries, serving it with another fresh berry would be a nice alternative. You could definitely also try subbing sliced bananas (and leaving out the lemon zest), and maybe swapping the granulated sugar for brown sugar to get closer to the banana foster flavor? I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by.
Penelope
I made this with 2 c pancake mix, 1 cup coconut milk, juice & zest of a lemon & vanilla. No eggs. Used 8×8 pan. Frozen blueberries and roughly 1/2 the topping recipe. It was easy and delicious
Celebrating Sweets
Great! Thanks for sharing your changes. I’m glad you liked it!
Katie
This looks amazing. I tried to skim through the comments but my 12 mo old and 3 year old are making it near impossible 🙂
Do you know if I could assemble the whole thing the night before and then pop it into the oven the next morning? Would it still work?
Thanks!
Katie
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Katie. Do not fully assemble it the night before, the baking powder and baking soda needed to be added to the wet ingredients right before baking. You can do quite a bit of prep the night before: make the crumb topping and refrigerate it, mix up the dry ingredients and leave them at room temp, assemble wet ingredients and leave them in the fridge. In the morning, combine the wet and dry ingredients and you’re good to go! Enjoy!
Autumn
I want to make for a work Pot luck but wont have any way to keep it warm or reheat? Ideas?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Autumn. It definitely needs to be served warm. You can try baking it, cutting squares and placing them in a slow cooker on “keep warm”. Enjoy!