5 Unusual Cooking Hacks to Rock Your Pancake World

Pancakes are always a good idea. I mean, who would say no to a stack of light and fluffy flapjacks? However, sometimes you get bored with the classic pancake recipes and just want to try something new. New meaning unusual but simple, something that will give your pancakes a new dimension but won’t overwhelm you. Here are three easy hacks that will shake your pancake world. Just a bit.

Check out this guide to make the perfect pancake recipes.

Cook Pancakes in Bacon Fat

On a good day, when the fortune is on your side, you produce perfect golden discs for breakfast. But sometimes, your stack is full with tasteless, rubbery flapjacks. You are probably overlooking the key ingredient in cooking – fat.

We usually use vegetable oil or butter for cooking our pancakes, but there is one secret ingredient that will make your hotcakes taste incredible – bacon grease. So, next time you fry bacon, reserve the excess fat.

Or simply cook your pancakes immediately after finishing with cooking the bacon. Remove the bacon from the frying pan, remove excess grease leaving just a small amount. Then use a cup to pour the batter into the pan and cook the usual way, flipping when the surface begins to bubble. 

The pancakes you get are slightly crispy on the outside and really soft on the inside. Pour warm maple syrup over them (and the bacon you’d just cooked) and dive in!

Use Your Muffin Tin to Bake the Pancake Batter

This hack will reduce the mess in the kitchen to a minimum! Use your muffin tin to make cute, bite-sized pancakes. They look like muffins, but they are soft and fluffy like pancakes – the best of both worlds! The best part is that you can adjust them to your taste with your favorite add-ins - chocolate chips, blueberries, nuts, whatever comes to mind, whether on top of each pancake muffin or stirred into the batter.

Prepare the batter of your favorite pancake recipe and spoon some of it into each hole of the muffin tin, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or greased with butter. Add small handfuls of the selected add-ins and push gently into the batter. Bake for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees F. Piece of (pan)cake!

Use Your Sandwich Maker to Make Pancakes

Pancakes don’t necessarily have to be round disks in order to taste fantastic. Also, sandwich makers don’t have to be used only for making sandwiches. Why should you ditch the old-school method of flapjack preparation? Well, apart from having fun, you will get unusually-looking square or triangle pancakes. More importantly, your pancakes will be perfectly and evenly browned on both sides without flipping!

I recommend this technique for newbie cooks, unskilled flippers, lazy people, and kids. Yes, kids can join you in the kitchen because there are no oil splashes and the mess is minimized. 

Heat the sandwich maker while throwing the batter together. Spray it with a non-stick spray lightly (or grease with butter). Fill the triangles/squares with batter using a scoop or a cup until completely full (but not overfilled). So, one more upside is that you don’t need measuring the batter in order to obtain perfectly-sized pancakes. Close the lid and set the timer to four minutes. Open, remove, add your favorite topping, and devour!

Save Your Apples with Pancake Batter

If you have made a batter dosage for a small army and don’t know what to do with it, here is a simple and quick recipe for you. This recipe is great to save your dying apples no one wants to eat. Thin apple slices coated with pancake batter. The result? Warm, soft apple inside and a light, fluffy pancake on the outside. OMG!

Here is how to make them: Slice apples crosswise into rings with a mandolin slicer. The slices should be about 1/8" thick.  Prepare the batter according to your favorite pancake recipe (I recommend using buttermilk for extra fluffiness). Make sure the batter is not too thick. If it is, add some more buttermilk. The batter should also not be too thin, it should stick to the apple rings. In case it is too runny, add some more flour. Don’t place a bunch of rings at once in the first cooking round. The best way to find out if the batter is optimal is to ‘sacrifice’ the first apple ring. This test ring will probably be ruined, but for a good purpose.

Heat a large frying pan or skillet over medium-low heat and grease lightly (or use that bacon grease I mentioned before). Make sure the pan is not too hot because the outside pancake layer will burn, whereas the inside will remain uncooked. You don’t want that, so once again, the test ring will let you know if you need to adjust the temperature. 

Dip each apple slice into the batter and wait for the excess batter to drip off. Cook the apple rings until golden brown, then flip. Serve immediately with maple syrup.

Shh… You know what else you can dip in pancake batter? Bacon! That way you get a complete meal in no time.

Freeze Your Pancakes

Don’t throw your precious flapjacks away! Freeze them. They will come in handy on a busy weekend morning. You can simply reheat them in the toaster. 

The best pancakes for toasting are those made from darker types of flour, like whole wheat. When you toast them, they get crunchy on the outside but remain soft and fluffy on the inside.

Ensure your hotcakes are cooled to a room temperature before you place them in the freezer. if they are warm, ice crystals will form from the condensation and alter the taste. To make them cool faster, spread them on the counter, flipping each one from time to time.

Provided they are well sealed, your golden disks can stay in the freezer unspoiled for weeks, but it is best if you devour them within a week.

Serve your warm toasted pancakes the classic way – with maple syrup and a pat of butter, or make Nutella sandwiches for your kids.

Disclosure:  This is a contributed post.