I’ve always loved having freshly made pancakes with syrup in the morning. Pancakes are such a huge part of breakfasts in many countries across the world; that’s no surprise, considering how delicious and easy they are to make.
There’s no strict formula for making pancakes. In fact you’re free to get creative with your pancakes – put whatever topping you like on your stack of freshly made pancakes.
Because of how hungry and excited you were to have pancakes, you may have made much more than you can finish at once. However, you may not want to let a great batch of fresh pancakes go to waste. So what do you do in this situation?
Can you freeze pancakes? Yes, you can freeze pancakes. Pancakes can be preserved safely for up to 3 months in the freezer. With this knowledge, you can even prepare a fresh batch of delicious pancakes for the sole purpose of freezing till a later date.
Having a large batch of pancakes preserved will ensure that you’re supplied with stress-free breakfast for quite some time – all you’ll need to do is reheat the frozen pancakes whenever you’re ready to eat them.
There are some things you should know about freezing pancakes. These things will help you get the best results out of long-term preservation through freezing. For instance, it is not advisable to freeze your pancakes together. If you do that, you’ll have different pancakes stuck together after a while in the freezer, and you’ll have a tough time reheating the pancakes nicely.
Freezing Pancakes
Freezing pancakes is not a difficult process. However, you must follow the correct steps if you want the best results. If you’ve been wondering whether or not it’s safe to preserve pancakes through freezing, now you’re sure of the answer. Since you can effectively freeze pancakes for quite some time, feel free to make a larger batch when next you’re preparing pancakes.
Just like I mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t freeze your pancakes together. You’ll need a baking sheet that you can spread and space out each pancake on. The baking sheet goes into your freezer and remains there till all the pancakes are perfectly frozen.
How to Freeze Pancakes
After successfully freezing large batches of pancakes, I have put together a few easy steps that I effectively follow whenever I want to freeze my pancakes. These steps are:
- After preparing the fresh batch of tasty pancakes, allow them to cool down to room temperature. You are not supposed to put any food in the freezer while it is still hot. The presence of hot food in the freezer can potentially raise the freezer’s temperature and periodically cause other food items in the freezer to thaw and refreeze repeatedly.
- After the pancakes have cooled properly, grab your baking sheet. Remember that we do not want the pancakes sticking together after they go in the freezer. So to avoid that, it is best to space out each individual pancake from each other. Spread the pancakes flat on their sides and put them with the baking sheet in the freezer – make sure the baking sheet was previously lined with some wax paper. The wax paper is intended to keep the frozen pancakes from sticking to the baking sheet.
- Leave the lined baking sheet with the pancakes to freeze for about 2 hours. Check to see if the pancakes are properly frozen and you can take them out if you like what you see. Go ahead to transfer the frozen pancakes from the baking sheet into resealable freezer-safe bags.
- Remove as much air as possible from the freezer-safe bags before finally sealing them and write the current date with a marker on each of the freezer-safe bags.
You can always take out portions of the frozen pancakes that you can finish at once whenever you’re to eat breakfast or just have a quick snack. The frozen pancakes can be quickly reheated in a few minutes to restore their tastiness and overall qualities.
You should know that frozen pancakes will be freshest within the first month of freezing. Although freezing preserves their life for up to 3 months, pancakes won’t be as fresh as when you first made them after 3 months of freezing. It is best to eat your frozen pancakes early if you want the best quality out of them.
How to Reheat Frozen Pancakes
Reheating pancakes is a straightforward process. When the time comes to remove the frozen pancakes from the freezer and have a tasty breakfast, get your microwave oven ready.
- Reheating Pancakes in the Microwave – Set the microwave to high and place the pancakes in for about 1 minute; after a minute check to see if the pancakes are heated to your taste. If they aren’t, flip them on their sides and heat for another 30 seconds.
- Reheating Pancakes in the Oven – If you don’t want to use the microwave option, you can also reheat your frozen pancakes in an oven. The oven is especially good for when you have a large batch of frozen pancakes to reheat. The first thing you should do is to preheat your oven to 350⁰F. Take out the number of pancakes you wish to reheat from inside the freezer and spread them out on a sheet pan. Go ahead to wrap the pancakes in the sheet pan with aluminum foil. The aluminum foil prevents the oven’s heat from excessively drying the pancakes. You can leave the pancakes to heat in the oven for about 11 minutes.
- Reheating Pancakes in the Toaster – The last method that I’ve used severally to reheat my frozen pancakes is by using a toaster. Although toasting isn’t as great as the microwave or the oven, it still delivers good results. You’ll need to reheat by batch when you’re using a toaster, so take your time. Also make sure you keep an eye on the pancakes in the toaster so that they don’t burn or get too dry.