The Big Mistake To Avoid When Making Loaded Pancakes

Pancakes are one of those foods that seem like they should be simple to make, but they're surprisingly easy to mess up. There are so many mistakes you can make when cooking pancakes, and this goes double if you're making the "loaded" kind — otherwise known as pancakes with add-ins such as bacon, blueberries (try our blueberry-buckwheat pancake recipe), or chocolate chips (we have a recipe for this kind of pancake, too). While you might think it's best to save your pancake enhancements to sprinkle over the top while they cook, this is unlikely to end well.

The problem with scattering blueberries, chocolate chips, or any other ingredients atop uncooked pancakes in the pan is that these last-minute additions won't sink into the batter. Instead, they'll sit right where you put them, and when it's time to turn the pancake over, they'll come into contact with the hot pan and promptly burn. Once you ruin one batch, though, there's an easy way to correct your course — just take what's left of the pancake toppings and stir them into the batter.

One pitfall of mixing pancake additions into the batter is that this doesn't allow you to customize the pancakes if you're making them for multiple eaters. For example, some people may want bacon bits while others don't eat pork. In that case, you might think the scatter technique would make it easier to load up the pancakes on an as-needed basis — but only if you don't mind burnt bacon bits. What you can do instead is keep your pancakes perfectly plain, then save all of the extras to make a pancake topping bar.

Aside from the aforementioned bacon bits, berries, and chocolate, there are numerous toppings you could put on your pancakes. These include wet ingredients like jams, jellies, and flavored syrups (fruit, caramel, hot fudge, etc.) as well as whipped cream and ice cream, which are not exactly wet until they melt, but count as at least semi-moist. Other pancake toppers like chopped nuts, colored sprinkles, and cookie or cake crumbs are dry. If you leave the sugar out of the pancake batter, you could opt for more savory toppings such as parmesan cheese and chopped chives, or go all-out and make a pancake burger complete with bacon, cheese, and ketchup.