I'm a big fan of homemade mixes for camping food, and this protein packed Gingerbread Pancake Mix is always a seasonal hit. Low carb, too!

Now that I’ve finally gotten around to posting my recipe for Pumpkin Pancake Mix, I can go ahead and post my protein-packed Gingerbread Pancake Mix recipe!

Felt kind of weird to be posting what’s essentially a Christmas pancake recipe, before posting one that’s a fall / Thanksgiving type recipe!

Anyway, we finally got around to taking appropriately styled photos of this recipe during our Christmas camping trip to MacGregor Point Provincial Park Winter Camping. I just feel that something as holiday as Gingerbread Pancakes kind of NEEDS a snowy backdrop, right?

Anyway, while we go through a fair amount of these mixes during our winter camping trips, it’s also a recipe that we often make at home.

I don’t even remember the last time I had traditional pancakes, once I got into making them with protein powder. I have a hard time getting enough protein into my diet, so packing a fair amount of it into a plate of pancakes is pretty convenient, you know?

The fact that those pancakes are actually fantastic, as well as being gluten free and low carb? SCORE!

That said, if you’re not on a keto diet yourself, these don’t HAVE to be made low carb - you can use regular brown sugar if you like.

Personally, I’m a fan of Brown Allulose. It tastes just like normal brown sugar, and doesn’t have any of the weird aftertastes that many alternate sweeteners do.

A bit annoying in that I have to order it from the states and have use a mail forwarder (Shippsy) to get it across the border, but honestly? Super worth it.

Anyway, let’s look at what you’ll need to make my Gingerbread Protein Pancake Mix, and to use the mixes:

Ingredients

When making this Protein Gingerbread Pancake Mix recipe, I tend to look at the ingredients in 2 sets: The base mix, and the ingredients needed to use the mix, and make the actual pancakes:

The Dry Gingerbread Pancake Mix

I try to keep to relatively healthy eating while camping - as much as I can, anyway! - so I designed this pancake mix recipe to be low carb, gluten free, and high protein.

The mix is made with mostly simple ingredients:

Super Fine Almond Flour
Vanilla Flavored Whey Protein Powder
Brown Sugar (Or Brown Sugar Substitute, like Brown Allulose)
Coconut Flour
Baking Powder
Ground Ginger
Ground Cinnamon
Allspice
Ground Cloves

A few things to note:

1. Almond meal is NOT the same as super fine almond flour. It’s not as finely processed, and will not let you get the texture of regular pancakes if you use it.

2. Use a protein powder that you actually like the flavour of - don’t cheap out because it’s “just pancakes”.

We use Revolution Nutrition's High Whey Vanilla Cake protein powder, and LOVE IT. 10/10, highly recommend.

That said, this recipe should work well with any vanilla protein powder mix - you may just need to tinker with the liquid amount you add, as some will absorb moisture a bit differently than others.

Once you make your first batch, you should have a good feel for how much liquid yours will need, to get the batter consistency you like.

As written, this makes a thick batter, and fluffy pancakes.

3. If you’re wanting to keep these pancakes keto, use something like Swerve Brown Sugar Substitute or Brown Allulose (which I use).

To Use A Mix:

You only need 2 ingredients to use these mixes: Large eggs, and milk.

If you’d like, you can add some oil - it’s a great way to get some extra healthy fats in!

In terms of the milk, you can use whatever you like. Regular 2% milk is fine, I tend to default to Unsweetened Almond Milk.

Oat milk, Cashew Milk, Flax Milk, and Macadamia Milk are all great options.

Even if you don’t need a plant based milk, I find that these all just taste better than dairy milk, especially when making something like these gingerbread pancakes, or baked goods in general.

As a bonus, many of the non-dairy milk alternatives are available in shelf-stable tetra packs! These are very convenient when fridge space is hard to come by.

If you are trying to work some extra oil in, you can add some MCT Oil, Liquid Coconut Oil, or Avocado Oil.

I generally don’t bother - the texture is great without it, it’s really only about meeting your macros, if needed!

You do, however, need some sort of oil to coat your pan. I use nonstick spray, but a bit of vegetable oil works, if you prefer.

Equipment

As far as equipment goes, all you’ll need are some

1. Ziplock baggies - 1 sandwich size for each mix, larger ones to store individual mixes in!

2. A Sharpie marker - for labelling the mixes.

3 - Whatever you need to make and cook your pancakes. In my case, that’s a collapsible bowl or a pot, a fork to stir the batter, my Cuisinart Griddler, and a couple silicone spatulas.

As with RVs... your mileage may vary! 🙂

We’ve also cooked these over a campfire, in a large nonstick pan.

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How to Make Gingerbread Pancake Mix

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Make the Mixes

Open as many sandwich bags as you’ll need for making mixes. The recipe is for 1 bag, each bag serves 2 people.

One ingredient at a time, measure each dry ingredient into each of the bags. I’ll do the almond flour first, in each bag, then the protein powder, etc - assembly line!

Once all of the ingredients are measured into the bags, push all of the excess air out of a bag and seal it. Repeat with remaining bags.

Note: Gingerbread pancake mix should be used by the earliest expiry date of all the ingredients you use. This is usually either the protein powder or almond flour.

To Use Gingerbread Pancake Mix:

Empty a bag of gingerbread protein pancake mix into a small mixing bowl.

Add the wet ingredients - the almond milk, eggs, and oil - to the bowl of gingerbread pancake mix. Stir until well combined and smooth. Set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, spray with nonstick spray. (Or heat your skillet over a low-medium fire!)

Use a ¼ cup measure to pour batter out into 3 small pancakes. (You can do all 6 at once, if using a larger surface, like my Cuisinart Griddler.)

Allow to cook until the underside is nicely golden brown, and small bubbles are breaking at the surface.

Carefully flip each pancake and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until golden brown on the second side, and JUST cooked through. Note: Overcooking can lead to dry pancakes!

Serve the gingerbread protein pancakes with your favorite toppings - butter, sugar free syrup, whipped cream, nutmeg, etc - or just plain.

Leftover pancakes can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple days.