We all love eating delicious homemade pancakes that fill our taste buds with hearty joy. Whether you eat pancakes in the morning or during lunch, they will always be a very filling and fluffy breakfast option that is fun to eat and serve.
However, you don’t always have to eat your pancakes the traditional way, which is by making those simple dollar pancakes topped off with maple syrup. Like with many other breakfast foods, there are more than a dozen ways to eat a pancake. Since homemade pancakes are made by whipping up a batter and then cooking it, it leaves a lot of room for creative potential during the mixing process.
There are many ways to create and eat pancakes. You can mix fresh berries and vegetables in the batter or add them as toppings to the finished product. Or you can make your pancakes into a sundae with ice cream, sprinkles, and syrup. Also, why not make them healthier by infusing almond flour and rolled oats? The possibilities are endless!
In this article, I will present to you seven different ways you can spice up your pancakes. Keep in mind that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of ways to give your pancakes a unique twist in flavor and nutrition!
Top your pancakes off with ice cream and chocolate syrup.
This is an irresistible hybrid of a breakfast and a dessert. By putting ice cream directly on top of the pancake, it will start to melt and spread to all sides of the pancake. Then, you can add chocolate or caramel syrup to make a visual statement. It tastes great!
You can alternatively put some ice cream on the sides in scoops so that you make an ice cream ring around the pancakes. Top it off with marshmallows or sprinkles if you like and dig in!
Infuse your pancakes with cinnamon and pumpkin.
Cinnamon and pumpkin go great together in many baking recipes. It’s no surprise that they also work well in a wheat-based breakfast like homemade pancakes.
Mix in cinnamon spice and pumpkin puree in the batter to serve as the base for your creamy, orange pancakes. You may add additional cinnamon as a topping when the pancakes are made. Nutmeg and ground cloves also work well, and all of these ingredients don’t clash, which makes them suitable to use.
It is perfect for those chilly autumn mornings or as a Thanksgiving treat.
You can also mix oats in your pumpkin pancakes as well! Check out this recipe from Cookie and Kate if you are interested in making your own pumpkin oat pancakes.
Color your pancakes green with spinach, pink with strawberries, or blue with blueberries.
Forget artificial food colorings and additives-mixing in fresh produce is the healthiest way to go. You can make a rainbow of different individual pancakes if you have the time and patience to make them.
By mashing certain fruits and vegetables in the batter, you can change the pancake’s color while also adding a healthy source of antioxidants and fiber to your pancakes. Blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, peaches, spinach, and even grapes all work well as mix-ins to your pancakes. Blend these fruits and veggies first before adding them to the batter for best results.
If you really want to be creative with the pancakes’ color, try using the pureed versions of your preferred fruits. Purees bring out the texture and color of the pancakes better, and also eliminates the annoyance of having fruit skin in your batter. This is similar to the last idea where pumpkin puree was the best mix-in for pumpkin pancakes.
If you are interested in learning how to make spinach pancakes, check out this recipe from Spabettie. They tell you everything you need to know about it!
Add protein to your pancakes by mixing in protein powder, oats, or flax seeds.
Protein pancakes are one of the easiest ways you can add a high amount of carbohydrates and protein to your morning diet. The most common mix-in for protein pancakes is whey protein powder, but egg whites, nut butter, oats, and flax seeds work just fine too.
If you need a guide on how to infuse your pancakes with protein, this recipe for protein pancakes will be your best friend.
Use other natural flours instead of all-purpose flour.
While all-purpose flour has its place in baking recipes, it may not always be the best choice for you. AP flour, the flour primarily used for pancakes, contains gluten and may be starchy.
Starchy foods can have a negative impact on your gut, which is why many people report feeling stomachaches and constipation after consuming pancakes. There are also gluten-sensitive people who cannot have AP flour in its normal state, which is important to consider.
Why not replace the flour used in your batter with other, healthier flours? Almond flour, coconut flour, cassava flour, and even buckwheat flour can all serve as viable replacements to AP flour in many pancake recipes. They can be substituted in a 1:1 ratio with AP flour and can be mixed quite easily.
Cassava flour and coconut flour tend to taste sweeter than other flours, so keep that in mind if you plan on using them. Almond flour and buckwheat flour tend to make homemade pancakes more crispy, but require more baking powder/soda to be fluffy. They are worth experimenting, with almond flour being the most popular substitute for pancakes!
Make a birthday cake with pancakes.
It is possible to make a layer cake with pancakes. This process takes time, but it involves stacking multiple cake layers on each other, with homemade pancakes inserted in between them. This process can be difficult as it requires many ingredients, but you can always buy premade pancakes and cakes from a store and simply combine them. It is a highly experimental confectionary dessert and can be customized the same way you would customize an ordinary cake.
The sky is the limit with creative cake customization. Pancake layer cakes look cool when cut, as it exposes the unique segments inside. It combines the fluffy texture of homemade pancakes with the sweet and chewy cake interior.
Make your pancake into a soufflé.
This is how you make your pancakes Japanese style. This type of pancake is a block of fluffy pancake goodness, quite tall but not too wide. The size is variable-you can make a small bite-size soufflé pancake or a bigger one.
Originating in Tokyo, this airy and jiggly custom pancake looks and feels similar to flan, but uses beaten egg whites as a primary ingredient. The egg whites are used to whip up the size superficially like an angel food cake, which is then mixed into the batter. It looks sort of like a soda can thanks to its cylindrical shape! You can top it off with maple syrup and powdered sugar just like a normal pancake.
Want to learn how to make soufflé pancakes? Lemon Blossoms has a super easy guide on soufflé pancakes for your convenience. Check it out!
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