The Clever Way To Store Pancake Batter For Quick Flapjacks Any Time

If you're anything like me, you deeply understand the brilliance of breakfast. You're the sort of person who cheers whenever you come across a fast food place that sells all-day breakfast. You love the idea of eating whatever breakfast food you want whenever you want it and believe that breakfast is a whole vibe rather than a strict set of foods that must be eaten within a certain timeframe. But, you're also the sort of person who'd like to spend your time eating breakfast rather than making it. What a conundrum. Fortunately for you, I have a pancake batter hack that's about to change your whole morning routine.

Making pancakes can be time-consuming, and even the recipes you scrounge together with the last of your eggs and boxed pancake mix still take precious minutes out of your day. Instead of scrambling to get fresh pancake batter whipped up when you're barely awake, try meal-prepping batter instead. Just put together your favorite pancake recipe and then pour the batter into ice cube trays. Load with your favorite pancake toppings (blueberries, chocolate chips, and banana slices with walnuts are always winners in my house), and pop the tray in the freezer. That's all there is to it. Now, whenever you want pancakes, you can just pull out your tray, pop out a pancake batter cube, and toss it into a skillet.

There's a bit of an art to making pancakes from frozen batter rather than from fresh. Because you're dealing with a solid chunk of ice, you want to cook your pancakes low and slow. Don't crank that heat up above medium-low, even if it's tempting. If you use high heat, you'll end up with an uneven pancake that won't spread nicely and may end up burning before it's cooked all the way through.

You'll find that your frozen pancake batter won't do much spreading either, so get some nice and chunky ice cube trays. This lets you pack in more batter for a bigger, more satisfying pancake. (Though there's nothing wrong with bite-sized silver dollar-style pancakes, either — they make for easy, tasty snacks.)

Be sure to use a silicone ice cube tray. Otherwise, you'll struggle to get your batter out and may have to wait for it to thaw slightly, which kind of defeats the purpose of a time-saving hack. With a silicone tray, you can just press the cube from below and pop it right into the pan: no muss, no fuss. Now that you've unlocked next-level pancake prep, don't be afraid to experiment with different recipes (this cherry cheesecake pancake one is a go-to of mine) to find your new morning fav.