Homemade pancakes can be just as fresh and fun as they were when you were a kid. Check out our easy pancake recipes for your next pancake dinner or Mardi Gras night.
Whether you want to stir in chocolate chips or blueberries, there’s no limit to the fun pancake recipes you can serve. Remember that Crepes and Puffed Pancake count just as much as a short stack.
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A stack of fluffy pancakes, topped with butter and drizzled with maple syrup is ultimate comfort food. It’s cheap, too, since basic homemade pancakes are very affordable to make.
Making pancakes for dinner is super easy, especially when life is busy. Breakfast for Dinner is one our family’s fall-back recipes. It was often a meal I would make for everyone when we were paying off debt and working to get our financial house in order.
These easy pancakes recipes offer you all kinds of options on a budget!
Why Do This
It’s easy. Pancakes for dinner is a simple, easy meal plan that you can put on repeat.
It’s delicious! Pancakes are ultimate comfort food at breakfast, so why not have them for dinner, too?
It’s traditional for certain occasions. One of the particular traditions of the middle ages was to abstain from eating eggs and butter during Lent, the weeks leading up to Easter. So as to not let anything go to waste, people would use up what they had on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, what has become known as Pancake Tuesday. Pancakes are one of our favorite Mardi Gras foods.
Ingredients
You can whip up a batch of flapjacks with a pancake mix, but it’s just as easy to make them from scratch!
Keep these ingredients on hand for a delicious pancake dinner:
flour – You can use all-purpose flour as well as whole wheat flour pastry flour. If you’ve got buckwheat flour on hand, buckwheat pancakes are great as well.
leavening – Typically, you’ll need some type of leavening, such as baking soda or baking powder. If you have sourdough starter, that can also be used to make Sourdough Pancakes.
salt and sugar – Most pancake recipes call for a bit of salt and sugar. Both can help with taste and texture.
eggs – You can make Eggless Pancakes, but many recipes will call for eggs or at the very least a flaxseed egg substitute.
milk – You’ll want milk, either dairy or plant-based is fine. For buttermilk pancakes, you’ll want liquid or powdered buttermilk.
oil or butter – A little oil or butter will make your pancakes delicious. Serve it with extra butter on top.
maple syrup or other toppings – I’ve certainly eaten plain pancakes out of hand while I’m running around chasing kids, but sitting down to a short stack layered with butter and syrup or fresh fruit and whipped cream is the ultimate. Scroll down for some pancake toppings ideas.
Tips for Success
Consider these tips to prep a perfect pancake dinner:
- To add more protein: While it lends itself toward a heavy carbo load, a pancake dinner doesn’t have to be junky. Try buckwheat or whole wheat if you’d like to use a whole grain. Use yogurt or ricotta cheese to beef up the protein content. Top it with fresh fruit instead of syrups.
- To make fluffy pancakes: While crepe batter can and should be made in advance, pancake batter is best baked shortly after it’s mixed to maximize the chemical reactions from the baking powder and baking soda present in the batter.
- To avoid wasting batter: If you aren’t going to cook all your pancake batter, freeze it in ice cube trays right away.
- To make pancakes ahead of time: You can make a baking mix for pancakes in advance, though. Simply assemble the dry ingredients in a bowl, jar, or bag. Keep it dry until you’re ready to mix it up.
- To make vegan pancakes: You can use flax-seed meal instead of eggs. You can also try swapping some applesauce for oil or melted butter. We’ve done both these accommodations for vegan eaters. My gluten-free, vegan eaters love these Buckwheat Pancakes.
- To make pancakes more interesting: One of the great things about pancakes is that they’re pretty versatile. Experiment with adding different flavors with fresh fruit (diced or pureed), spices (think cinnamon or nutmeg), or even flavored extracts. The possibilities are endless. Get creative and see what winning combinations you can create.
Best Equipment
Since I’ve spent the last 20+ years making pancakes for eight on a regular basis, I’ve made a few of them in my time. Here are some of the tools that have served me best:
- nonstick, electric griddle – helpful so you can make 8 pancakes at a time.
- Pyrex measuring bowl – the 8-cup size is great for mixing a batch of pancakes; the spout makes for easy pouring onto the griddle.
- Danish dough whisk – you know how pancake batter clumps up in a traditional whisk? Not so with a dough whisk. It’s fantastic for mixing up the batter just enough.
- pancake turner or spatula – I’ve always called it a “spatula”, but apparently, the appropriate term is “pancake turner”. I recommend a sturdy, one-piece job that’s safe for nonstick surfaces. The ones that are plastic/silicone/metal tend to have little gaps where dishwater can hide. Gross.
- a small pitcher – a small pitcher is fun to have on hand to serve warm maple syrup from. I just bought myself this Le Creuset model. It’s the only piece of Le Creuset I can afford. LOL!
FAQs
Good pancakes are going to be fluffy and lightly browned. This means that the batter has the right balance of baking soda and baking powder. Too much baking soda will create overly brown pancakes, too little will give you pale pancakes. Mix the batter and bake the pancakes right away, waiting for the batter to bubble and for the bubbles to pop before flipping.
Basic pancake ingredients include flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, butter, milk, and eggs.
Pancake Day, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Traditionally, lenten fasting included abstaining from eggs and butter, so a number of foods became traditional to eat on Shrove Tuesday, lest they go to waste.
Recommended Recipes
Pancake Recipes
Making pancakes from scratch is super easy. If you’ve never done it before, know that you can ditch the boxed mix. These easy Pancake Recipes will make you a star!
Pancake Toppings
You can dress up any simple pancake dinner with some fun toppings. Obviously, butter and maple syrup are traditional, but don’t forget these other options:
- fresh fruit
- whipped cream
- powdered sugar
- Nutella
- chocolate chips
Tell us what you think!
We love to hear your experiences with Good Cheap Eats. Click the STARS on the recipe card or leave a STARRED comment to let us know what you think of the recipe.
This post was originally published on February 28, 2014. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Vicky
I have never heard of having pancakes for Fat Tuesday but it works well for me today! We had a bad ice storm Sun/Mon and our county is out of salt so they haven’t plowed or salted the roads at all. I am from the north, so this is unheard of for me!! I am stuck inside with few groceries and no dinner plan (that doesn’t involve getting provisions). 😉 So, pancakes it is. Yum!
Tiffany R
We will be having pancakes on Tuesday, my kids look forward to Shrove Tuesday every year! I think I am going to try the multi-grain pancakes, they sounds delish!