Unholy Recipes to Celebrate Pancake Tuesday
Closing out Carnival means one thing for some revelers: Pancakes. They come in many forms and flavors so we picked out some of favorite (read: indulgent) recipes to celebrate Pancake Tuesday.
Right now, people around the world are celebrating the end of Carnival season — the period between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday when you can overindulge in your favorite excesses before surrendering your worst (and favorite) habits for a period of reflection and enlightenment that lasts until Easter. In the United States, we know the day before Ash Wednesday as Mardi Gras, when people flood New Orleans for one last party for Fat Tuesday, but they celebrate a bit differently across the pond. In the United Kingdom, Fat Tuesday celebrations are a bit more subdued than they are in New Orleans. Instead of parades and king cake, British Christians end the celebration with pancakes, and refer to it not as Fat Tuesday but Pancake Tuesday (or Shrove Tuesday). In honor of the tradition, we picked out some of our most indulgent pancake recipes for you to try before you trade fun for self-examination.
Japanese Souffle Pancakes
These Japanese pancakes are similar to traditional American pancakes, but they're clearly thicker (or taller) and they're about the width of silver dollar pancakes (mini pancakes), but they are very different in texture than American pancakes. After all, "souffle" is in the recipe title, so you can't expect these to be like your typical weekend griddle cakes, but you can expect them to be extra fluffy pancakes. What gets them so high (and jiggly, as they're commonly described) is egg whites. They're whipped and folded into the batter which only calls for six Tablespoons of flour so they're not as dense or starchy as the American version.
German Pancakes
German pancakes are very similar to Dutch babies or popovers fried in the oven. The batter is, basically, a crepe batter that you whir in a blender before pouring it into a hot baking dish or pan filled with melted butter. The hot butter helps the wet ingredients fry from all angles, and the cake then puffs up to make a giant golden brown pancake. If you're cooking breakfast for the family, this is a lot less work than traditional American pancakes.
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
If you really want to make the most of Pancake Tuesday by eating cinnamon wrapped in a pancake and drizzled in cream cheese-flavored sugar, this might be the recipe for you. In case you're wondering, no, this blogger did not make ultra-thin cinnamon rolls to be fried in a skillet, but they are most definitely homemade pancakes. What she did to replicate the shape and appearance of cinnamon rolls was make a cinnamon and sugar paste that she piped onto a regular pancake as it cooked in the skillet. Cute, creative, and tasty, which is how we like our recipes.
Bananas Foster Pancakes
This is probably the most appropriate pancake recipe for Pancake/Fat Tuesday. Not only are they a vehicle for delivering indulgence first thing in the morning, but they're inspired by a dessert that originated in New Orleans. It's a fairly easy recipe for banana pancakes, but what makes it unique is the topping. Instead of maple syrup, it calls for brown sugar and butter melted together and mixed with rum and cinnamon before adding in sliced bananas — it's the difference excellent pancakes and AMAZING pancakes.
Nutella-Stuffed Pancakes
If you're as nuts about Nutella as we are, this recipe is magical — not only in that it's Nutella wrapped in pancake, but also in its clever execution. In a Nut(ella) shell, this blogger spreads a layer of hazelnut cream in the shape of a pancake on parchment paper and then freezes it. Once it's solid, the disk is removed and placed on pancake batter in the skillet. Another scoop of batter is then poured on top to make it appear as if the cakes were stuffed — just like you'll be when you're done with these pancakes.
Cream Cheese Pancakes
If you follow a keto diet, you can stick to it AND indulge in Pancake Tuesday with these cream cheese pancakes. Because they're keto, this recipe uses no flour. Instead of all-purpose flour, this blogger tosses eggs, cream cheese, and baking powder in a blender for the batter. She then blends in vanilla extract, cinnamon, and stevia to flavor it. The keto devotees who have made it and reviewed it on Yummly say it's a delicious alternative to regular pancakes.
Fat Tuesday Bacon Pancakes
These pancakes were specifically designed for Fat Tuesday and they're appropriate for the holiday in more than just the recipe title. Bacon is probably the most indulgent of meats, so eating it on the most indulgent of days make sense. It's among the best pancake recipes because it magically combines sweet and savory in one griddle cake by pouring pancake batter over cooking bacon. It's a dangerously delicious way to end Carnival and begin the Great Fast.
Jalapeño Cornmeal Pancakes
Jalapeño Cornmeal Pancakes by We are not Martha
From sweet and savory to sweet and spicy! But this recipe has a few surprises. It definitely covers many textures, flavors, and colors so if you haven't found an all-in-one recipe to please everyone's taste in your house, this recipe deserves a closer look. On top of the blue cornmeal and sugar to make up the cakes, it also calls for jalapeños, parmesan cheese, and scallions. To top it, there's an orange marmalade syrup that also mixes in jalapeños and scallions. This registers as "WHOA" on the flavor-combination scale.
Raspberry Skillet Pancake
Why make a stack of pancakes for the family when you can make one giant one? That's all you do with this recipe. The batter is poured into a castiron skillet and then topped with fruit. The finished product looks similar to a clafoutis but the batter doesn't have as many eggs, so this skillet pancake won't be quite as dessert-like.
Churro Pancakes
These pancakes are inspired by the delicous cinnamon-and-sugar donut known as a churro. This recipe is very easy to make (it uses a pancake mix to keep things quick and easy), and the generous layer of cinnamon and sugar is an excellent alternative to the sometimes overused (though lovely) maple syrup.
Easy Oatmeal Pancakes
Easy Oatmeal Pancakes by Savory Spin
Not only are these easy oatmeal pancakes good looking, but they're also gluten-free and dairy free. While you might be expecting the consistency to be something like an oatmeal cookie or baked oatmeal, they're pretty close to regular pancakes. This blogger made oat flour by pulsing rolled oats in a blender, but if you don't have time, oat flour is becoming more common so you can probably pick some up at your grocery store.
Hungry for more?
Of course there are thousands of pancake recipes — if there's another way to make pancakes that you're looking for, it's probably on Yummly.