The Perfect Fall Morning Breakfast
Thick, fluffy, and chock full of fall flavors, these apple pancakes are heavily influenced by my well-loved buttermilk pancakes. They were carefully developed to have just the right amount of spice (cinnamon!) and the perfect ratio of apple to pancake in every bite (though, if you want to go overboard I highly recommend topping them off with my fried apples!). This recipe comes together quickly and easily and, if you’ve ever struggled with flat, dense, rubbery, or flavorless pancakes, I’ve got you covered with plenty of tips and tricks so you get pancake-house-worthy results. So grab your apples and a few pantry basics and let’s get started!
What You Need
Apples. Essentially any apple will work well here. Because we’re chopping them nice and fine (or even grating them) and the apple pancakes cook for such a relatively brief amount of time, you don’t have to worry about picking an especially firm or soft apple, any kind will do. I do recommend peeling them before using. Sugar. We toss the apples in a small bit of granulated sugar (and ground cinnamon), but for the pancakes I opted for brown sugar. This adds a deeper, more fall-ish flavor to the base of the pancakes. Buttermilk. I tested this recipe with both milk and buttermilk and buttermilk was simply the tastier choice. However, the versions made with milk were still good! Follow my notes in the recipe card if you opt to use this (or any other milk) substitute, though. You’ll need to use a bit less than the amount called for.
SAM’S TIP: Bringing your ingredients to room temperature before beginning is best, but I’ve found this recipe is pretty forgiving and I’ve also made it with cold buttermilk (sometimes I just forget to set it out!). Note that the melted butter will likely begin to curdle and re-solidify as you whisk it into the liquid, this is normal and no reason to panic. This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Apple Pancakes
Prep the apples
I like to dice the apples nice and small, but you could grate them instead. The smaller they are, the better they distribute through your pancakes. Toss them in just a small bit of cinnamon and sugar, this is absolutely essential and where I think a lot of other recipes drop the ball. This infuses the apples with flavor and is part of what makes my apple pancakes so good. I also use this technique in my apple cake.
Make the batter
Pancake batter, whether it’s classic buttermilk, sourdough pancakes, banana pancakes, or these apple pancakes, must always be handled with care. Prep the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine the two and use a spatula to very gently fold the batter together. When it’s about halfway combined, add the apples and continue to fold together. The batter will still look lumpy when it’s ready, and there may even be some small streaks of flour remaining, this is fine and preferable to accidentally over-mixing, which will make your apple pancakes flat, dense, and rubbery! Let the batter sit for at least 5 minutes while you heat your pan, and make sure you can feel the heat radiating from the pan (hold your hand a few inches above the surface — don’t touch it!) before adding the batter (and coat your pan with a bit of oil or butter or cooking spray first). Also, give yourself a little grace and consider the first pancake a test for determining exactly what heat your stovetop needs to be and how soon to flip it, etc.
Cook the apple pancakes
I use a small skillet (it makes it easy to cook one pancake at a time) and use about ½ cup of batter per pancake (this gives me pancakes about 8″ in diameter, of course you can adjust this to make the pancakes as large or small as you’d like).
Then, watch the pancake. It’s ready to flip when the bubbles in the batter begin to burst and the edges begin to appear cooked.
SAM’S TIP: Keep your pancakes warm! Turn your oven on to its lowest setting (below 200F) and place the pancakes in an even layer on a parchment lined baking sheet to keep them warm as you bake them. I do this when I’m making French toast (or my fancier, brioche French toast), too!
Today’s recipe was born of a need to use up the 30 pounds of apples my kids brought home from apple picking last weekend. Let me know if there are any other apple recipes you’d like to see (in the meantime, I’ll be making more apple butter, apple crisp, and applesauce!).
Enjoy!
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