Pancake Ideas With a Twist

You can’t really beat a classic pancake with a sprinkling of sugar and a splash of lemon juice. There’s a reason this combination is enjoyed by millions on Shrove Tuesday (February 28th), it just works perfectly.

However, if you like to experiment in the kitchen, you might want to try and mix up your Pancake Day offering by featuring your crepes with some slightly different toppings or make them with a few new ingredients.

There’s nothing wrong with trying something new – although might want the sugar and lemon on standby just in case – so it’s worth thinking about what else you can do with this great food.

As far as we’re concerned, pancakes are definitely for life and not just for Shrove Tuesday, so here’s a few ways you could spruce them up and enjoy them more often:

Rather than your usual batter recipe and crepe-style pancake, you can make yours a bit healthier and pack them full of natural sweetness. Simply making pancakes out of oats and banana – which will result in a thicker American-style pancake – means you reduce your calories and still get a delicious treat.

All you need to do is blend some oats, bananas, a pinch of salt and some baking powder into a smooth paste before cooking and flipping your pancake so both sides are a lovely golden brown. This is the perfect option for breakfast.

Who said that your pancakes need to be sweet? Savoury pancakes are a really great option and mean you can have two pancake courses on Shrove Tuesday. Chorizo and cheese work really well with plain pancakes, adding plenty of flavour and a bit of spice.

Slice up your chorizo and fry with a little oil in your pan before plating up and putting in a warm oven. You can then cook your pancakes in the same pan so they infuse with the lovely smoky chorizo flavour. Finish them up by laying some chorizo slices on them, sprinkling some mature grated cheese and rolling them up.

While pancakes are a firm favourite among the kids, you can make them adult-only by opting for a slightly boozy theme. Pina colada elements work really well with pancakes, whether you put coconut in the actual pancake or not.

You can keep it simple by making your standard crepes and topping with pineapple – this can be raw or slightly caramelised by cooking slices with a splash of rum – cream combined with a bit of sugar and desiccated coconut and adding a dash of rum sauce or straight rum if you prefer.

If you’ve got a bit of time on your hands you might want to create a bit of a spectacle by making a crepe cake. These are piles of pancakes stacked neatly on top of each other with delicious fillings in between each one. They look amazing but can take a bit of time, especially as you need each pancake to cool before stacking it up to avoid your filling from melting.

You can make almost any kind of crepe cake, from chocolate to raspberry or caramel, allowing you to tailor the filling to your family’s taste. Just be sure to keep your pancakes plain, as teaming flavoured crepes with a flavoured filling can be a bit much.

Want to serve up something more interesting than your typical round pancakes? Toppings can only do so much when it comes to freshening up your pancake offering, but changing the way they look could help you engage your kids and make the process of cooking pancakes a lot more fun.

You can use your batter to make almost any shape – so long as you’re quick – but animals are a great bet. This is why we’ve made it easier for you to create fun designs with our new animal pancake pans. Just follow the outline on the base of the pan and create owl or penguin shaped pancakes!

All you need to do is pour your batter into the squeezy bottle, get your pan nice and hot before following the pattern, filling in the gaps and giving it a flip. You can then top your cute animal pancakes with whatever you fancy.

Let us know how you’ll be eating your pancakes this Shrove Tuesday.