Need a nourishing, budget-friendly, real food breakfast for school mornings? Or do you just hate flipping pancakes? We got you covered in this recipe.
First, let’s acknowledge how amazing pancakes are. When you transition from processed food to real food, you might have to say goodbye to a lot of food that was in your regular rotation – sugary cereal, frosted toaster pastries, sticky-sweet fluorescent-colored yogurt.
But with real food, pancakes only get better. No boxed mix means no rancid after taste or soggy, undercooked batter that tastes like baking soda. And real maple syrup is just better. As a kid, I didn’t love real maple syrup because I was used to caramel-colored corn syrup drizzled on my pancakes, but now, there’s nothing better, and my kids don’t know any different.
We love pancakes at our house, and today I want to show you an easy hack that will help you make this real food breakfast even easier.
Sheet Pan Pancakes
On school mornings, when we can’t turn to bowls of cereal or foil-wrapped pastries, we need to get creative with breakfast.
Oatmeal is an easy go-to (check out this yummy overnight Instant Pot recipe), but my kids get tired of oatmeal quickly.
So we found a simple, quick way to make homemade pancakes on busy mornings. All you need is parchment paper, a baking sheet, and an oven!
RELATED: Gluten-free Sheet Pan Oven Pancakes
How to Make Sheet Pan Pancakes
You can use the Sheet Pan Method with any pancake recipe. Seriously. I’m going to share our favorite recipe here (in fact, on my blog, the non-Sheet Pan version is called The Only Pancake Recipe You Need because that’s true), and I’ll give you some tips on how to make it fit your life and your needs.
Essentially, to make sheet pan pancakes, all you do is preheat the oven to 425 F, mix up a pancake batter, pour it onto a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, and bake it for a few minutes.
Then you slice, serve, and enjoy!
Quick Breakfast Recipe to Make with the Kids
Sheet pan pancakes are an easy real food breakfast that kids can make. If your child can read a recipe, measure, and stir, they can make this recipe! Younger kids may need help putting the pan in the oven and removing it.
My kids have been helping make this recipe for years! My 10-year-old son even demonstrated how to make sheet pan pancakes in the video below.
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Sheet Pan Pancakes Hack
In order to prevent sticking, grease your baking sheets really well. Generally speaking, butter works best for this. If you are dairy-free, coconut oil is the next best choice, in my opinion. But sometimes it still sticks.
Parchment paper works great for this recipe (not wax paper – parchment paper). While I typically try to avoid disposables in the kitchen, sometimes parchment paper just does the trick. You can reuse it multiple times, and I store the used ones in the freezer in between pancakes batches.
Here’s a tip! If your parchment paper won’t lie flat, crinkle it up in a ball first, then spread it out.
RELATED: Dairy-Free Breakfast Egg Bake
Your kids CAN make their own healthy breakfast!
Join the Kids Cook Real Food Weekend Challenge: Kids Master Breakfast and imagine your kids making breakfast independently! This challenge contains pro-filmed video lessons you can do at your own pace and finish in one weekend. Perfect for busy families!!
Kid-Friendly Pancake Recipe
My kids love pancakes. They’re delicious, made with real food, and fairly simple to make. Why keep them for weekends or special occasions? Making pancakes on a baking sheet means we can make our kids’ favorite breakfast more often. You can even make a huge batch at the beginning of the week then reheat leftovers in the toaster on school mornings.
Healthy Dairy-free Pancakes
We have dairy sensitivities in our family. Thankfully, it’s fairly easy to make dairy-free pancakes. Simply substitute the milk for your favorite dairy-free milk. We use almond milk because it’s delicious and tends to be the most budget-friendly dairy-free alternative.
However, this recipe calls for yogurt or buttermilk. But don’t worry! You can make this easy dairy-free alternative:
Simply combine dairy-free milk or water with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar. If you used milk, let it sit for 5-10 minutes so the vinegar can break it down a little. This makes a great substitute in many recipes for baked goods!
Sheet Pan Pancakes Variations
Try dropping these into the batter after you pour it onto the baking sheet:
- Chocolate chips
- Cacao nibs
- Fresh or frozen blueberries
- Fresh or frozen chopped strawberries
- Sliced bananas
You can also:
- Substitute ¼ cup of the flour for ½ cup oats for oatmeal pancakes
- If you make sourdough, try this sourdough sheet pan pancake recipe
Dairy-Free Sheet Pan Pancakes Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
These sheet pan pancakes are the easiest way to make pancakes in the morning. Just pop them in the oven!
Ingredients
Instructions
Optional Soaking Step (for whole grain flour):
- The night before making pancakes, combine the milk with the lemon juice or vinegar. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Stir the flour and milk mixture together in a glass bowl. Cover and let it sit overnight on the counter or in the fridge.
The Next Morning:
- Preheat the oven to 425 F. Thoroughly grease 1-2 baking sheets (2 smaller ones or 1 large one. You can use 1 smaller one if you want thicker pancakes) or line them with parchment paper.
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together, being careful not to overmix.
- Pour half of the pancake batter onto each baking sheet in an even layer. If necessary, use a spatula to spread the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
- Serve warm with maple syrup.
Notes
Leftover or Meal Prepping Hack: Freeze leftover pancakes between sheets of parchment paper, foil, or plastic wrap. When ready to reheat, forego the microwave and pop them in the toaster!
Nutrition
- Calories: 248
- Sugar: 6g
- Sodium: 487mg
- Fat: 8g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Carbohydrates: 39g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 7g
- Cholesterol: 55mg
Keywords: one pan, whole wheat, real food, kid-friendly
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More Real Food Breakfasts:
- Simple Allergy-Free Baked Oatmeal
- 5-Ingredient Homemade Breakfast Sausage
- Instant Pot Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal
- Sneaky Veggie Baked Oatmeal
Pancake Recipe Kids Can Make
If you need a simple, practical, real food breakfast for busy mornings, try sheet pan pancakes! If you want to empower your kids to help with breakfast before school or during meal prepping on the weekends, give this recipe a try!
How big of baking pans are you using? I use jelly roll pans for a lot of baking and I’m guessing that’s too big?
Hi Leah, I used 9×12″ baking dishes and it was perfect, so a similar sized baking sheet would work fine. You want it to be about regular pancake thickness.
Have you tried gluten free flour with this recipe? Like the one to one kind.
Hi Denise!
You should be able to make sheet pan pancakes with any kind of pancake batter (except maybe the 2-ingredient kind, made with just bananas and eggs or something – I haven’t tried that). As far as this particular pancake recipe goes, I have not tried it with gluten-free flour. However, I did try it with spelt flour, which is lower-gluten wheat flour, and it worked great! Hope this helps, and let me know if you try it!
Genius idea! Never thought of doing this, but I do hate dragging out the griddle…and cleaning it.
This is a GAME CHANGER!