18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (2024)

There's nothing quite as enticing as a hot stack of buttery pancakes to lure a person out of bleary-eyed slumber and to the breakfast table. Whether you prefer your pancakes whisper-thin, such as Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Compote, or tall and pillowy, like Japanese Soufflé Pancakes, this collection of our favorite flapjacks has just the recipe to satisfy. Fire up your griddle and keep your maple syrup at the ready.

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Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes with Caramelized Apples

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (1)

For the ultimate pancakes, use fresh ricotta cheese and finely grated lemon zest. A quick sauté of apples with butter, sugar, and cinnamon makes for a topping that's special and seasonal.

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Whole-Wheat Pancakes with Roasted Berries

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (2)

F&W culinary director at large Justin Chapple uses a resealable plastic bag to mix his pancake batter and pipe out perfect pancakes — resulting in one less bowl to wash.

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Light and Fluffy Baked Apple Pancake

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (3)

Golden Delicious apples hold their shape after they're caramelized with sugar and maple syrup, making them a perfect choice for this clever, giant one-pan pancake.

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Blueberry-Banana Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (4)

Television chef Tyler Florence made these pancakes at home one weekend morning with his son Hayden. They're a slight variation on a recipe from his book Tyler Florence Family Meal.

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The Breslin's Ricotta Pancakes with Orange Syrup

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (5)

While these pancakes from 2007 F&W Best New Chef April Bloomfield are delicious on their own, they're exquisite with the soft ricotta topping, crunchy sliced almonds, and ingeniously vibrant (and neon-bright) orange syrup.

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Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (6)

Using polenta in addition to white flour in these pancakes makes them especially satisfying; they're excellent served with a berry compote. Feel free to use as much cinnamon in the batter as you please.

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Kaiserschmarrn with Peaches

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (7)

Kaiserschmarrn is a popular Austrian dessert that can also be eaten for breakfast. It's a light pancake, cut up while it's frying and topped with fruit and powdered sugar.

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Semolina Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (8)

Every morning, cafés in Marrakech serve these crêpes, called begrhir, drizzled with honey or spread with apricot jam. Cooking the crêpes on only one side leaves a lacy network of tiny holes, perfect for catching the sweet toppings; the fine semolina provides a lovely sandy texture.

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Buttermilk Pancakes with Masa Harina

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (9)

"These are the best pancakes you will ever have," Alex Stupak says. They're light, fluffy, and full of corn flavor from the masa harina. The recipe is from his wife, Lauren Resler, pastry chef at the Empellón restaurants.

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Pumpkin Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (10)

Pumpkin butter adds a sweet and spicy flavor and a boost of moisture to these classic buttermilk pancakes. Cooking them over moderately low heat ensures each pancake cooks through and gets a perfect golden color with a lightly crispy bite. Serve with extra pumpkin butter or melted butter and drizzles of maple syrup.

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Quinoa Pancakes with Ricotta and Lemon

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (11)

Nutty whole wheat flour, fluffy ricotta, and tender cooked quinoa add flavor and texture to these light pancakes, due to the clever addition of whipped egg whites. Lemon zest, vanilla, and maple syrup add just enough sweetness to balance the slightly bitter quinoa.

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Brown-Butter Pancakes with Sheet Pan Berry Syrup

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (12)

F&W Cooks contributor Andrea Slonecker channeled her lifelong love of pancakes to take this breakfast basic to a delicious new level. Toasty browned butter infuses the barely sweet batter, which fries up on the griddle into fluffy, lacy-edged flapjacks. To top it off, her super-fast sheet pan fruit syrup comes together in just minutes.

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Sourdough Pancakes with Maple-Molasses Strawberries

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (13)

At Little Goat Diner in Chicago, 2011 F&W Best New Chef Stephanie Izard makes fluffy pancakes using sourdough starter and tops them with oat streusel and fruit. Here, we use molasses-steeped strawberries, making a breakfast that's balanced with sour, sweet, and bitter flavors.

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Candied Sweet Potato Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (14)

This quick-fix recipe is the ideal breakfast for the morning after Thanksgiving — or any time you have leftover candied sweet potatoes on hand. The addition of mashed sweet potatoes gives the pancakes a beautiful color and keeps them extra moist and tender. Since the potatoes are already sweetened, 2020 F&W Best New Chef Douglass Williams cuts back the amount of brown sugar in the batter and plays up the warming cinnamon and clove.

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Japanese Soufflé Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (15)

The secret to high-rise soufflé pancakes is all about speed and temperature: Cold egg whites whip more slowly than room temperature ones, but they form stronger, more uniform bubbles, and whipping them on medium speed incorporates more air. Finally, piping the batter in one swift pass allows you to create more height from the beginning without overcooking each pancake.

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Blue Corn Piñon Pancakes

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (16)

Earthy, savory blue corn brings a vibrant hue to these silver dollar pancakes. Drizzled with sweet, tart, smoky blackberry-piloncillo syrup and dolloped with tangy whipped crema, these pancakes are fruity, not too sweet, and filled with flavor.

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Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Compote

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (17)

Chef Andrew Zimmern prefers Sweden's thin, wheaty pannkakor to fluffy American pancakes. Like crêpes, they can tilt savory or sweet.

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Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Toffee Butter

18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (18)

Honeycomb toffee, honey, and salt add a sweet, crunchy bite to the butter that tops these ricotta hotcakes studded with fresh banana. Using an electric griddle helps maintain an even temperature over the cooking time, resulting in fluffy, moist pancakes.

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18 Timeless Pancake Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is Queen Elizabeth's pancake recipe? ›

Beat two eggs with 4 tablespoons of sugar and about one teacup (or 3/4 of a cup) of milk. Add 4 teacups of flour and mix in another teacup of milk "as required" Mix in 3 teaspoons of cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons of bicarbonate soda (baking soda) Fold in 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

What are the old pancakes called? ›

People began using the word “pancake” during the 15th century, and the word became standard in 19th century America. Previously, people referred to them as Indian cakes, hoe cakes, johnnycakes, journey cakes, buckwheat cakes, griddle cakes, and flapjacks. Early American pancakes were made with buckwheat or cornmeal.

Why are diner pancakes so much better? ›

Restaurants use better quality ingredients

Restaurants tend to use real, farm-fresh eggs and real milk when making their pancakes, which as you might guess, adds to a richer, higher-quality eating experience.

What are purple pancakes made of? ›

These vibrant purple pancakes get their color from a natural source: ube, also known as purple yam. This ingredient is common in Filipino desserts, but can be difficult to find in the United States.

What are British pancakes made of? ›

Method. Put 100g plain flour, 2 large eggs, 300ml milk, 1 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil and a pinch of salt into a bowl or large jug, then whisk to a smooth batter. This should be similar in consistency to single cream. Set aside for 30 mins to rest if you have time, or start cooking straight away.

What is the British pancake tradition? ›

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” (absolved from their sins).

What do Southerners call pancakes? ›

In the South, pancakes are interchangeably called hotcakes, griddlecakes, and flapjacks, though British flapjacks are made with rolled oats cooked in the oven. In the U.S., pancakes are made with flour, eggs, butter, and milk, and cooked on a griddle or frying pan to form leavened flat cakes.

What are blood pancakes? ›

While most recipes use pig or cow blood, any sanguine supply will do. The Sami people of northern Norway use reindeer. In pancakes, blood operates as a handy egg substitute, chipping in protein and binding the milk and flour together. Unlike egg-based pancakes, however, these flapjacks turn dense, savory, and dark.

What's the difference between a pancake and a hotcake? ›

What is a Hotcake? It's a pancake. Our crew Googled it and the definition of a hotcake is in fact “a pancake.” There is, however, a subtle difference on how you prepare a hotcake versus a pancake. Generally, pancakes are wide and have a fluffy texture, whereas the hotcakes tend to be thicker and denser.

Why do IHOP pancakes taste better? ›

While the griddles themselves likely vary from one diner chain to the next, diners are pretty much all working with a waffle iron or griddle that's already hot. IHOP, for instance, requires its pans to be heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and uses Crisco instead of butter to grease it, says Grimm.

Does milk instead of water make pancakes better? ›

1. Use Milk/ Alternative Milk Instead Of Water. Even though the mix may call for water, you can easily substitute that for an alternative milk (I like oat milk). You may have to add a dash more due to the difference in consistency, but it'll taste so much better!

Is it unhealthy to eat pancakes every day? ›

Despite their tasty profile, these comfort foods are often made with refined white flour and topped with butter and syrup, which is essentially pure sugar. This means that pancakes and waffles are high in calories, fat, and sugar, yet lacking in protein and fiber.

Is it better to add milk or water to pancake mix? ›

Pancake lovers' biggest complaint when adding water instead of milk is that the flavor seems to change. Pancakes aren't as richly flavored with water. There are a few ways to improve your batter when you've used water, including: Add extra butter.

What makes pancakes fluffy and rise? ›

Pancakes and waffles typically both contain baking soda, which causes them to rise. As soon as the baking soda is combined with the wet ingredients (which contain an acidic ingredient, like often buttermilk), it starts producing carbon dioxide gas bubbles that cause the batter to rise.

What can you add to pancake mix to make it better? ›

Some mixes already have flavors added to them, but a little more spice never hurt anyone. I like to add a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or vanilla extract to give it more depth in flavor. You can even add a dash of cocoa powder for some chocolate pancakes!

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