Fluffy Baked Pancakes
Breakfast just got a whole lot easier with these fluffy baked pancakes. Baking a simple buttermilk pancake batter in the oven is brilliant! And so easy and tasty!
I am not necessarily in the camp that thinks flipping pancakes on a griddle is all that tiresome (am I the only one that thinks it borders on therapeutic sometimes??). But there is definitely something extraordinarily brilliant about spreading pancake batter in a pan and baking it.
It took a few tweaks to get this recipe just right – surprisingly, I couldn’t just slap my favorite buttermilk pancake recipe into a 9X13, bake it and call it good. Too thick. Too cardboardy. Too gummy.*
*These were just some of the results when I tried.
Thankfully for you and for me, it wasn’t exactly rocket science to figure out the right proportion of ingredients to get perfect fluffy baked pancakes.
I definitely wanted these baked pancakes to be on the thin side. I wasn’t looking for pancakes that resembled a towering sheet cake. Thin, fluffy, soft. Not only do they bake quickly, but they are exactly what they seem! A baked pancake, barely sweet, and perfect with fruit, syrup, jam or whatever you like to dollop on your pancakes.
I like using buttermilk in the batter. I’m kind of buttermilk’s biggest fan, if you want to know the truth. It lends a wonderful flavor and texture to the pancakes (baked or griddled). However, you can easily sub in half sour cream/half milk if you don’t have buttermilk.
Like any good pancake or waffle recipe, once the dry ingredients are added, whisk or mix only until just combined and no dry streaks are left over. A few little lumpy bumpies are ok.
Making the Pancakes Whole Grain
This recipe works great with 100% all-purpose flour, but I like to use half all-purpose and half whole wheat. I always use white whole wheat flour – or einkorn or kamut if I’m feeling fancy and generous – for a lighter texture (vs red whole wheat).
You could definitely experiment using 100% whole wheat flour; the baked pancakes will be a little bit more dense and darker in color. But I know some of you will try it, and I love you for that!
Spread the batter into a thin layer in a lightly greased 9X13-inch pan (you can line the bottom with parchment if you like, although it isn’t completely necessary as long as the pan is greased). I have only ever made these fluffy baked pancakes in a metal pan. If you use a glass or ceramic pan, the pancakes will probably bake faster, so keep an eye on that.
If you want to top the batter with fresh berries, now’s the time!
I love using fresh blueberries. There’s just something about blueberries and pancakes together that makes me so very happy. Chocolate chips would also be a very acceptable substitute to berries. Always.
When I use berries, I like to sprinkle the top with about 1-2 tablespoons of coarse sugar (like raw or turbinado sugar). The batter itself isn’t very sweet (there’s only 1 tablespoon sugar in the batter), and I love the little pop of sweetness the coarse sugar adds with the fresh berries.
If I choose not to add berries, I nix the sugar on top. Don’t ask me why. It’s just a feeling.
These pancakes bake for 15-20 minutes until they are puffed throughout and the top springs back lightly to the touch. The berries will be just about ready to burst, if they haven’t already.
After adding blueberries, I actually really love eating the pancake squares plain and simple without traditional pancake toppings. Warm or room temp, they make a delicious breakfast or snack.
My family is all about the butter and syrup, though. And I guess I can’t blame them. Sometimes they even throw a fried egg on top and then drizzle with maple syrup. This occurs with regular pancakes, too. They get the strange habit from their dad.
Blueberries or not, these baked pancakes or so tasty and so ridiculously easy. I don’t know why I’m surprised we love them so much – I mean, they taste like a pancake that’s been baked instead of cooked on a griddle. Not exactly a huge culinary breakthrough here.
But still. It’s quite exciting for this breakfast loving family.
Doubling or Tripling the Recipe
After my post last week on solutions for feeding a crowd, I think these baked pancakes would be a fantastic option for serving breakfast to a ton of people. I’m guessing the recipe could easily be doubled for a half sheet pan.
A couple of those pans could go a long way to knocking out morning hunger pains. Since the batter is quick to make and the pancakes take less than 20 minutes to bake, breakfast is pretty low-hassle, even for a large group.
Other Add-Ins/Toppings
I really feel like this fluffy baked pancakes recipe has unlimited potential when it comes to add-ins, toppings, flavor combos. I’m fairy certain adding mashed bananas or canned pumpkin to the batter would work out pretty darn well if you want to change up the base recipe a little.
And toppings? Just off the top of my head, I can think of: blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips, diced or canned peaches, cinnamon + sugar, dollops of Nutella.
What else? What else? So many options, so little time. I’m excited to hear what you think of these baked pancakes…and what you add to them to amp up the creativity!
One Year Ago: Classic Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two Years Ago: Cuban Sandwiches {Slow Cooker or Instant Pot}
Three Years Ago: Grilled Lemon Chicken Skewers with Yogurt-Hummus Sauce
Four Years Ago: Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs with Root Beer BBQ Sauce
Five Years Ago: Greek Pita Salad
Six Years Ago: Berries on a Cloud {Best Dessert of the Summer!}
Seven Years Ago: Honeydew, Blueberry and Mango Salad with Lime-Ginger Reduction
Eight Years Ago: Caramel Brownies
Fluffy Baked Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk, or half sour cream/half milk
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- ¾ cup (107 g) whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup (107 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Optional Toppings:
- Fresh berries or chocolate chips, etc.
- 1 tablespoon coarse sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9X13-inch baking pan with parchment paper and lightly grease with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. *I’ve only used a metal baking pan for this recipe; if using glass, the pancake may bake faster.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and butter. Add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until just combined and no dry streaks remain (it’s ok if the batter has small lumps).
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan; it will be a thin layer. If desired, top the batter with 1 cup fresh berries (could try frozen, too), and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffy and lightly golden on the edges; the top of the pancake will spring back lightly when gently pressed. Serve warm or at room temperature with butter, syrup, jam or other pancake toppings.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I am planning to make this for a “dinner for breakfast” take-in meal. If there are leftovers. can they be stored and reheated?
Yes
A quick and easy dinner! I used 1/4 cup whipping cream (just to use it up) and for the remaining 1 c, homemade buttermilk (I’m too cheap to buy it). It’s not very filling unless you eat a lot. I definitely wouldn’t be full off of the 1/12 serving size it suggests.
Thank you for coming up with this recipe. It’s a breakfast game-changer. I love to make buttermilk pancakes, but don’ have a griddle so flipping and burning were a challenge.
I stole the cake pan approach from another reviewer. Made a full batch and was able to make a pan with blueberries and one without. Both were divine! Next time I’m doubling so I can add pecans. Or chocolate. Chips depending on the audience
This is a great recipe. The only substitution I had to make was using full-fat plain greek yogurt mixed with milk. The pancake was light but substantial, perfect texture whether a middle of edge piece. The white whole wheat flour adds an incredible deep flavor. Easy to prepare, easy to cook, easy to clean up. A triple crown winner.
I have been looking for a recipe like this one. The pancake is delicious, light and fluffy. I added fresh blueberries- amazing! This recipe could be eaten without syrup it is that delicious.
How would you store? I meal prepped a bunch for my toddler to have over a week.
I would cut into squares, place in freezer ziploc bags and then freeze.
Can you add ricotta? I love ricotta in my pancakes!! It makes them and tender!!!
You could definitely try!
I whipped up these pancakes so fast for my daughter this morning, and they are delicious! They are very fluffy and just the right amount of sweetness. Thank you!
Would it be possible to add flax seed to these?
I bet that would work fine!
So good!! I love the texture the 50-50 flour provides, and how fluffy these are. It’s also very easy to make dairy free- I used the same measurements but with dairy free butter sticks and did the DF buttermilk trick of adding a squeeze of lemon to soy milk and letting it sit for 5 min before using. I topped with both blue berries, brown sugar with melted DF butter. Oh my goodness. Yum! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Winner! I *am* kind of in the guys annoyed flipping pancakes camp. Kids and adults all liked this, though I did 1/2 cup ww and 1 cup ap flour. Thank you!
Hi there. I do not have any whole wheat flour. Can I use just all-purpose flour? And how much of it would I use in total?
Yes, just sub in the same amount of all-purpose flour for the whole wheat flour.
I was so excited to try these, but so disappointed with the results. I used canola oil instead of butter, which I do with regular pancakes, but these were SO very dry. Probably would not make them again. The idea is perfect and they were very simple, but…….
If I understand correctly, you did not follow the recipe and then proceeded to rate it “one star” because it was “dry”. I think the actual problem resides somewhere between the keyboard and the chair.
LOL – It wouldn’t be a legit recipe comment section without it.
My first time making these I had to use olive oil because I was in a pinch and didn’t have any butter (birthday party baking used it all up) but we wanted pancakes and had a busy morning. I loved not flipping pancakes and we got ready for the day while it baked! They turned out good still, I think the fruit and chocolate chips helped and we aren’t picky. The second time I made this recipe, however, I got to use butter and it was even better! 10/10!
These are delicious topped with blueberries! And there is less mess on my stove.
Hi mel…..just made oven pancake with blueberries…awesome …thank you..will be making for Sunday school class…How do you like bosc h mixer….I don’t like the way kitchen aid mixes…your thoughts
I really love the Bosch mixer, Douglas! I have a side by side review here: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/kitchenaid-vs-bosch-stand-mixer/
We love this recipe! I make it dairy-free for my allergic kiddo by using almond milk for the buttermilk and plant butter for the butter. I also substitute half rolled oats for half of the flour. If you soak the oats in the milk for about 5 min, they disappear into the recipe and add some extra whole grains.
As I was gathering the ingredients to make this baked pancake, I thought why not make it mini muffins? So, that’s how I made them today, I have a 6 x 4 mini muffin pan an I used a variety of toppings like choc chip morsels, blueberry, sprinkles and last a bit of maple syrup.. I had to keep an eye on them to make sure I had the time right, I ended up with 48 mini baked pancakes that my kids loved and even my health-nut husband gobbled down! Still want to try the original recipe but maybe next weekend.
Thank Mel!
This was super fluffy and delicious! After his first bite, my 12 year old son said “Oh, wow!” I will definitely be adding this recipe to my breakfast rotation!
I kinda cheated. I have to eat gluten free so I used Pamala’s Baking Mix. I replaced their recommendation of oil with butter but otherwise left their recipe intact. Then I dumped it into a pan and baked according to your directions. They came out great!
I can never figure out things like what the oven temperature should be or how long to bake it so I really appreciate you testing that out for me.
I’m thinking of ways of jazzing them up a bit. I like the ideas I see here. Thank you for posting this.
Hi Mel, we love this recipe. I would like to make a pumpkin version. Any thoughts on how to do that?
I would try adding 1/2 cup to the batter and maybe decrease the buttermilk to 1 cup.
Delicious!!! I used regular milk with 3 TBS of dried buttermilk mixed in, and topped the batter with sliced summer peaches.
My batter wasn’t nearly as thick as yours looks in the photos, but it baked up fluffy and perfect. Honestly better than any pancakes I’ve made!!!
I am curious if anyone has tried to make the batter the night before and then bake in the morning. I want to try making for a camp, but I already get up at 4:30 am and would love to have this ready to just pop in the oven.
Did you try it? I have the same question
I didn’t do it the night before, but it took literally 3 minutes to put the batter together. If you want to save time, pre measure out all the ingredients, put the dry in one bowl and the wet in another. Store overnight, and then mix them together in the morning. Just replace the butter with oil, otherwise it will resolidify overnight.
Loved this! I used a chia egg for the egg, and baked in an 8-inch glass pan for 20 minutes.
It was like cake for breakfast!
We prefer regular pancakes but this is so easy and a major crowd pleaser so we have made this a few times. This most recent time topped it with a strawberry sauce we had leftover from a dessert from a few nights back and it was delicious. It is worth doubling if you have kids that love pancakes because they sure go down easy!
These were fun, but a tiny bit bland. 1/4 tsp salt for 1.5 cups of flour wasn’t quite enough to compare to regular pancakes. I would also add a little more sugar. But otherwise, they were delightful.
I doubled the recipe and baked in an 11×14 pan. I melted some peanut butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds. We dropped it on with a teaspoon and used a fork to feather the pb through the batter. Then we sprinkled with chocolate chips.
I used red whole wheat flour with the all purpose. I’m not sure what difference it made without trying it the other way.
I cooked at 400f for 18 minutes.
They were very fluffy like pancakes, but a lot less time is needed.
I’ll be doing this again for sure!
Instead of whole wheat flour could I just use all purpose flour instead? I don’t have any of that kind.
Yes, for sure.
This recipe is so good. No standing over the stove flipping pancakes? But I still get to satisfy my craving? Sold. I added a bit of vanilla and an extra teaspoon of sugar to the batter just because some of the comments said it was a bit bland. I had no buttermilk so I used sour cream and milk. I dotted the top with fresh raspberries and blueberries. It turned out amaaaaaaazinng, so fluffy and tasty. Definitely don’t forget the butter and syrup. This is going to be a staple in our house for now on.
Hi, can i use honey instead of sugar?wanna make these for my baby..
I think so!
Looking through comments as I’m about to try this recipe! I was told babies under 1 should not have honey due to concerns for botulism. Run it by your pediatrician!
Excited to make this recipe for my baby!
Cooking it would solve the botulism issue – it’s just raw honey that is a concern. So using honey in the recipe ok, drizzling it over finished product would be the concern for babies
Has anyone tried this in round cake pans? I want to make them for Easter morning and using rounds you can make a cute bunny I know my kids would love!
We half the recipe and bake in a 9” round pan. We still use 1 egg. It’s perfect for 2 people.
I’m Abigail I’m 10, and I love trying new recipes. I made this recipe for a surprise breakfast, my whole family loved it! My brothers are still snacking on it, thanks!
Abigail! You are amazing! Way to go! Glad you loved this recipe (and your brothers, too). 🙂
I have made these twice already! My husband was never a pancake fan, but gobbled this up…..usually after his supper!! I had mine for breakfast, snack or at tea time.Loved the delicate crunch of the sprinkled sugar on top. Just barely sweet on it’s own, or drizzled in maple syrup. Perfectly easy to make with no mess, and no wait. Thanks for sharing!
What oven temperature to bake these enticing pancakes on?
400 degrees.
My mother always made baked pancakes, and instead of fruit she would cook up 12 link sausages, then snuggle them in the batter — 6 on each side of the half-cookie sheet. A quick cut down the middle, then five cuts so each rectangle contained a sausage. Is there anything better than savory and sweet together? Going to make them for Christmas morning!
My family wasn’t too convinced when they saw this, but then they were fighting over the remains. I hate making pancakes (more of a waffle girl), but this was perfect.