Need an easy freezer friendly breakfast that your kids will love?
Pancake muffins were all the rage in the internet world a few years ago. You saw them everywhere. They were on blogs, Pinterest, magazines, and more.
I can totally see why they were so popular. They are a quick and easy kid friendly breakfast that can be made ahead and kept in the fridge or freezer.
I started making them a few years ago and have been making them ever since. We still eat regular pancakes and my oven pancakes, but pancake muffins are great for keeping in the freezing.
A few weeks ago I stocked my freezer with pancake muffins. I actually made a triple batch of pancake batter and made them into various pancake muffins and decided to take some quick pictures to share with you how I made them.
If your house is anything like mine than easy make ahead breakfasts are a necessity.
My kids are all on different schedules this year. One leaves very early in the morning, one has college classes late in the day, and my son often starts one or two subjects of homeschooling before he comes down for breakfast.
Basically breakfast has become a come and go type of meal at our house. Everyone eats when they want and what they want.
My goal is to have easy things on hand that they can just grab quickly. Yogurt, granola, boiled eggs, and things like pancake muffins all work great for easy breakfasts for kids or adults.
One of the things that I love about pancake muffins is that they are easy to change up with whatever add ins you want. They work with just about any pancake batter.
You can use regular pancake batter, gluten free pancake batter, a healthier type of pancake batter, and more. I have links to my favorite pancake batters below. Once you have your batter made you can stir in whatever you want.
You can make them plain. You can stir in blueberries.
You can stir in cooked bacon or sausage. For a maple bacon or maple sausage version add a few tablespoons of maple syrup to the batter.
Chocolate chips are another favorite add in. My kids love them.
You can make pancake muffins in a regular muffin tin or a mini one depending on what size that you want.
I bake them and let them cool and then I freeze them in zip top type freezer bags. My kids then take them out of the freezer and microwave them to heat them up.
They often just eat them as is like you would a muffin. If they have time they dip them in maple syrup or put jam on them.
No matter how you make them I think you will love them! If you haven’t tried pancake muffins you need to.
My Favorite Pancake Batter Recipes:
- Whole Wheat Pancakes– This is an old terrible picture, but a great recipe. This was my favorite pancake recipe and I made it for years before going gluten free.
- Gluten Free Pancakes
- Sourdough Pancakes
- Gluten Free Sourdough Pancakes
Need more easy breakfast ideas? You might like these:
Pancakes muffins are an easy make ahead breakfast that kids love.
- pancake batter made according to directions- Any recipe that uses 2 cups flour or 2 cups dry mix will work. Use your favorite recipe. Directions for gf pancake muffins below.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Grease muffin tin. Both a regular muffin tin and a mini muffin tin work.
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Pour batter into greased muffin cups filling each cup 3/4 full.
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Bake large pancake muffins 16-18 minutes or until done. Bake mini pancake muffins for 12-14 minutes or until done.
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Let sit for 2 minutes before removing from pan.
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Serve with syrup or cool completely and freeze.
I love to cook and bake, and my family loves to eat. Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures is all about sharing my love of cooking, recipes, tips, and ideas of how I combine this cooking passion with a busy life. [
I made a double batch of pancake muffins last night after seeing this post. I doubled a super simple recipe: 2 cups self rising flour, 4 T. sugar combined with a mix of 1 1/2 cup regular milk+4 T. melted real butter.and 1 egg. I used one regular 12- muffin tin and one silicone Wilton muffin thing to make the muffins. The silicone worked so great! Loved that the best.
I made one batch blueberry and one plain, and sprinkled all tops with cinnamon sugar. Bagged and in the freezer!
Thanks for this great idea (which I had never heard of)! Love this idea and I can think of tons of variations with fruits I have on hand.
I didn’t dip mine in syrup this morning, but will be doing that when I’m not on the run. So deliciious! I would think for kids, this would be a super fun way to have breakfast. Dunking is always fun. Isn’t it?
THANKS, LYNN! You never disappoint!
I am so glad that you enjoyed them! I love sharing recipes like this that make cooking easier, but also allow you to change it up and make it your own. There are so many fun ways that you can change up pancake muffins, so I hope you have fun experimenting. Thanks for sharing what you did for yours. Have a great day!
Love pancake muffins, and appreciate hearing that you have successfully used any pancake recipe (using 2 cups flour/dry mix is perfect). Most recipes I have come across make a special batter just for pancake muffins. I like to have King Arthur Flour’s whole grain pancake mix on hand, which is what I used to make these today. Was able to get 48 mini muffins using 2 cups mix.
I think this would be a fun packable school lunch – just an occasional treat, especially if served with fruit and yogurt or smoothie. My kids typically take their lunch rather than buy school cafeteria lunch, but they like to buy lunch from time to time. The popular choice is breakfast for lunch, which is usually mini pancakes. I let them buy it sometimes, but hate the thought of the mini pancakes from a package and artificial syrup. :/ These muffins would be a good alternative!
On another note, just want to say hi as a first time commenter, Hi! 🙂 I found you via Jessica Fisher’s site. I think it was the baked oatmeal – have now made your recipe many times, definitely a family fav. I’ll have to leave some comments there too. Thanks for posting recipes and ideas for us! Also enjoying your book recommendations!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the pancake muffins. I agree that many of the recipes are for a specific batter, but I have tried many batters and they all work great. I love the idea of using them for school lunches. That would be a fun treat for kids. And I love Jessica’s site! I am so glad you found me that way. Jessica and I have been blogging friends for years. Her site and recipes are great! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know how much you enjoyed these.