It’s so hard to shop for baking ingredients these days that the only constant thing in my cupboard is a lone box of instant pancake mix. And it’s making me want to cry. Don’t get me wrong, I love pancakes. But honestly, I’ve eaten pancakes for breakfast (and merienda) way more times this quarantine than I’ve ever had my whole life—no kidding.
And since I’m desperate not to eat pancakes anytime soon, I did some experiments with my pancake mix and realized there’s a lot of other things you can do with it. Quick disclaimer though: I’m not a chef nor a baker so there might be some inconsistencies with my recipes.
Leftover jam cake
I had an almost empty jar of strawberry jam that’s been sitting in my fridge for a whole week. And I wasn’t sure what to do with it (I can’t just throw it away for some reason) until I came across Spoon University’s leftover jam cake recipe. Basically, I just mixed my pancake batter with the leftover strawberry jam and popped it in the oven.
Chocolate crinkles
I added some water, cocoa powder, unsalted butter and egg to the pancake mix and whisked until it reached a dough-like consistency. I then shaped them into tiny balls, coated them in powdered sugar and baked for 15 minutes.
Apple rings
This might be my most favorite out of all I’ve experimented with because it was the easiest. It only took me a solid five minutes to prepare.
I sliced an apple into rings by taking the core out, dipped them in pancake batter, then fried them. You can either sprinkle your apple rings with sugar and cinnamon or dip them in melted chocolate.
Pancake battered chicken nuggets
I was watching recipe videos on YouTube when I saw Tasty’s take on pancake battered chicken nuggets. Coincidentally, there was a bowl of chicken breasts in my freezer (yes, even the poor chicken breasts weren’t able to escape these hands).
I added a pinch of salt, pepper and paprika to the pancake mix, poured some water and whisked until smooth. I then dipped the chicken breasts in the batter before deep frying them.
Crepes
I’ll be honest. It took a lot of tries before I was able to make a decent crepe. I almost gave up at some point but my momma raised no quitter. Plus, it’s really easy to make if we’re going to exclude the flipping part. And it only needed four ingredients: water, butter, egg and pancake mix.
After over ten tries—thirteen to be exact—I was finally able to make a crepe without holes and tears. But just in case you’re wondering if I’m going to do it again: No.
Header photo courtesy of freepik
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Writer: KLEO CATIENZA
