How To Season Your Pancake Batter For Irresistible Flavor

There are many reasons to love store-bought pancake mix. The ready-to-make mix offers all the pre-measured dry ingredients required to make a batter, such as flour and baking powder, which considerably expedites the prep time. However, some critics who favor making light and fluffy pancakes from scratch argue that store-bought batters sacrifice flavor and quality for convenience, and while most people may not notice the difference between the two, adding in some other spices from your kitchen cupboards can help elevate a standard boxed mix into a culinary delight.

First, you'll want to combine the boxed mix with an egg as well as a liquid such as water or buttermilk to create a batter. Once these ingredients turn into a homogenous mixture, incorporate preferred seasonings like cinnamon or vanilla into the batter before cooking to ensure the spices are evenly spread throughout. Also, remember to let your spiced box batter rest for a few minutes, as the biggest mistake that kills fluffy pancakes comes from not letting the leaveners actually activate. During plating, you may also sprinkle in some spices on top to give your pancakes that further wow factor.

While just a little salt and sugar can go a long way when making perfect pancakes, the blank slate nature of a boxed batter makes it the perfect candidate to incorporate in a variety of commonly used baking spices — think cinnamon, cocoa, or vanilla flapjacks as an example. These are just some of the most commonly found spices in pantries, which makes them ideal when you want a quick, yet tastier breakfast dish. Start small with a sprinkle of the seasonings and work your way up to taste.

The sky is truly the limit when it comes to putting your own twist on pancakes. For example, pumpkin spice and peppermint can be used to make the perfect autumn and winter pancakes, respectively. For more out-there combinations, try integrating gingerbread, snickerdoodle, or chai spice mixes into your flapjack batter. Any way you spice them up, your pancakes will benefit from this extra flavor combination.

Spices are not the only things you can use to enhance your store-bought pancake mix. Fruits and small baking confections such as chocolate chips or shredded coconut can shake up the uniform texture of flapjacks for more desired taste. Apple slices can be combined with cinnamon and nutmeg to create the perfect apple pie pancakes, for example, and chocolate chips can be added into a cocoa-infused boxed batter to make something akin to chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.

More importantly, feel free to get creative when adding in toppings to your batter. Nuts, sprinkles, and pureed fruits are all viable choices when it comes to personalizing your flapjacks once they are cooked. Just don't forget to add in your favorite choice from the spice rack to bring out the flavor even further — whether they're seasoned simply or lavishly, the end result will be wildly better.