If you’re looking for a breakfast that’s simple to make, fun to eat, and guaranteed to bring everyone to the table, these baked puff pancakes are a perfect choice. Made with basic pantry ingredients, they bake up light, puffy, and golden brown, creating a breakfast that feels a little special without requiring much effort.
We are a hot breakfast family… pretty much every single morning, all year long.
I rotate the same handful of basic recipes every week (pancakes, French toast, waffles, omelets, oatmeal, quiche, and muffins), mixing them up with different flavors, ingredients, and textures to keep it somewhat fresh.
Pancakes are always a favorite… and this recipe for muffin tin puff pancakes is a fun one for special occasions (or just a random Tuesday morning).
We Love Puff Pancakes
Obviously, they taste great… otherwise I wouldn’t keep them in the rotation.
It’s also fun to create a “puff pancake buffet” where everyone can do their own toppings.
However, my favorite thing about puff pancakes is that I can easily bake 48 or more in the oven at the same time, while I make eggs and sausage on the stovetop.
If you’re short on time, you can even mix up the batter the night before… which means you can have breakfast on the table in less than 20 minutes!
And if you want to occupy small children, turn the oven light on and let them watch as the pancakes puff up while baking (my toddlers would literally pull up a chair and sit in front of the oven door.) 🥰
Ingredients for Puff Pancakes
- 1 c. all-purpose flour (whole grain flour doesn’t work well)
- 1 c. milk
- 1/4 c. melted butter or oil
- 6 eggs
- a pinch of salt
- optional toppings (see below)
Topping Ideas
Here are a few optional topping ideas to get you thinking… but almost anything tastes great with these pancakes!
- butter and maple syrup
- powdered sugar
- chocolate chips and bananas
- any type of fresh fruit
- canned pie filling
- any type of jam
- apple or pumpkin butter
- whipped cream
- chocolate or caramel sauce
- sprinkles
How to Make Puff Pancakes
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Grease two regular-size 12-cup muffin tins and set aside.
3. In a 4 c. measuring cup (or medium-size bowl), combine flour, milk, butter, eggs, and salt.
4. Stir until well combined (the batter will be very thin).
5. Pour batter into regular muffin cups until they are 1/2 full. (You do not want to use mini muffin cups).
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes (they will get very “puffy”).
7. Remove pancakes from the pans, top with optional toppings, eat, and enjoy!
Puff Pancakes Quick Tips
Save time in the mornings by mixing up the batter the night before and storing it in the fridge. The “puff” comes from all those eggs, not from baking soda or powder, so you don’t need to worry about baking right after mixing.
It’s easiest to mix up the batter in a pourable container. Since the batter is so runny, it’s hard to “scoop” it into muffin tins. Pouring is easier and much less messy.
Make more batter than you think you’ll need — these pancakes are very light, so it’s easy to eat several in one sitting. My family of 6 can easily eat 3 dozen or more.
Puff Pancakes taste great as leftovers, just not quite as puffy. We reheat them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
They get VERY puffy in the oven, so depending on how closely your oven racks are located, you might want to remove the rack above where the Puff Pancakes are baking.
Muffin Tin Puff Pancakes
If you're looking for a breakfast that's simple to make, fun to eat, and guaranteed to bring everyone to the table, these baked puff pancakes are a perfect choice.
Ingredients
- 1 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 c. milk
- 1/4 c. melted butter or oil
- 6 eggs
- a pinch of salt
- fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, or other toppings (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Grease two regular-size 12-cup muffin tins and set aside.
- In a 4 c. measuring cup (or medium-size bowl), combine flour, milk, butter, eggs, and salt.
- Stir until well combined (the batter will be very thin).
- Pour batter into muffin cups until they are 1/2 full.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove pancakes from the pans, top with optional toppings, eat, and enjoy!
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Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
4 pancakesAmount Per Serving Calories 692Total Fat 25gSaturated Fat 10gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 764mgSodium 389mgCarbohydrates 74gFiber 2gSugar 1gProtein 39g
Nutritional information is approximate and does not account for additional ingredients or added toppings.
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Chris says
I used to make something similar when my son was growing up, in a 9 x 13 pan. Since it would rise in the oven and then collapse, I called them volcano pancakes. 🙂
Andrea says
yes, they definitely collapse after coming out of the oven. That’s a good name for them 🙂
Cindy says
We made ‘breakfast for dinner’ with this recipe. It’s close to my favorite Dutch pancake which has cooked apples, butter and cinnamon on the bottom. It’s cooked in a skillet, then the batter is placed on top and it is put in the oven. After cooking the dish is flipped upside down. Yum!
Tonight i made your muffin tin recipe exactly as the recipe states. One pan was with paper muffin cups which I sprayed with non-stick spray. The second pan was silicone muffin cups- also sprayed with non-stick spray. It was an interesting accidental science experiment. The muffins in the paper cups rose up wonderfully. The muffins in the silicone cups were flat and were poppped up from the muffin cup- almost as if pressure built up under the batter and it needed to vent. Both tasted great. All were consumed quickly. But I won’t use silicone muffin cups again. Thanks for the receipe.
Andrea says
thanks for sharing Cindy! glad my recipes worked for you (minus the silicone pan issues!)
I’ve never been a fan of silicone pans for baking, but there is apparently a good market for them as they are sold almost everywhere!
JoDi says
I’ve never seen anything like these before, but they look delicious!
Miranda says
I love this idea! Do you think silicone baking cups would work instead of greasing the pan? I’m looking for less clean up. Or would that not get the same result? Thanks for all your inspiration!!
Joless says
Traditionally (we love tradition in the UK!) one needed a heavy metal pan (large or muffin) to hold the heat and get it all nice and smoking hot before you put the batter in so it puffs up immediately, ergo silicon wouldn’t work for that, but I have never tried it so….
Michelle says
I make these but have never thought about doing it in a muffin tin! I will do this soon! Peaches are my favorite topper.
Andrea says
we like peaches too — but strawberries or chocolate + bananas are our favorite!
Ladybug says
Wasn’t able to print this recipe…..any suggestions??
Andrea says
I just checked and the link was broken. It’s working now 🙂
Nikki says
I’m curious…how much your homemade pancake mix for this recipe differs from a pre made/store bought pancake mix? Have you tried pre made/store bought pancake mixes for this recipe? If so how well do they compare to each other?
Andrea says
I’m honestly not sure — it’s probably been 6-8 years since I made pancakes from a box. From what I can remember, “from a box pancakes” are quite light and somewhat dry. These pancakes are very heavy, dense, and moist. There are 6 eggs — which is a lot, so they are filling.
Joless says
That’s a Yorkshire Pud recipe 🙂 Try pre-heating the fat in the pan first to get much better puffiness. Careful as you fill them! In the UK we serve them with roast dinners and gravy. Yum 🙂 We also used to eat them at home with golden syrup poured over if there were (rarely) any left over.
Seconding Toad-in-the-Hole. It’s very tasty. Just stick some pork sausages (not hot-dogs) into a pan and cook for maybe 10 mins, to get some colour on them and then pour over the batter (best in a large pan). Cook ’til puffed and golden.
Sarah says
Ha so funny – this post is flushing out the Brit readers! Thirding the toad-in-the-hole here, and we never have leftovers either. My dad used to have left over Yorkshire pudding for breakfast as a treat before school on a Monday morning, drenched in sugar.
Check out the Delia Smith recipe for a trusted version, always works and is perfect for winter evenings.
I’ll give it a try for breakfast with fruit, thanks for the idea!
Andrea says
interesting — I’ll have to try this. Our kids LOVE sausage!
Susie says
Never thought to bake them in muffin pans! Yummy!
Shannon says
Hi Andrea!
This looks yummy and easy! I noticed that in the picture with the ingredients there is a bag of sugar but I didn’t see any sugar listed in the ingredient list for the recipe. Did the sugar just photobomb your picture or is there supposed to be sugar in the recipe? 😉
Thank you!
Andrea says
Well, I never noticed that! Sorry!
I think I was intending to put powdered sugar in the picture to show that you could dust them with powdered sugar after they are done baking. Woops!
That said, I’m sure a little sugar couldn’t hurt them at all 🙂
Shannon says
Thanks! I just want to make sure that I make them correctly! I’m sure some powdered sugar and maybe a few chocolate chips would be my favorite way to eat them! 🙂
Chris says
Yum. We like those too. We bake the batter all together in a big pan and call them volcano pancakes. (Taste of Home called them that). That is such a cute picture of Nora watching the oven. 🙂
Sherry says
This is almost my recipe for Yorkshire pudding. We sometimes have it when I cook a roast beef. Next time you make a roast try them with a little butter and salt & pepper on top. They are so much better than plain buns. And I will try them for breakfast with fruit on top!
MamaToo says
This reminded me of Yorkshire pudding, too. I’m not British, but I love reading Miss Read books and decided to try some of the dishes she writes about.
Andrea, Nora would probably enjoy Toad-in-in-the-Hole. That’s baking these pancakes with a piece of link sausage in each muffin cup. It’s served with onion sauce, which she might not be crazy about. My small children loved the name and the dish.
Andrea says
I never thought to do that — but I suppose they would be good with savory dishes too! Thanks for the tip!
Jen says
I have never been a “hot breakfast” mom, but I have two hungry teenage boys who dearly love hot breakfast. So, last year, which was our oldest son’s senior year, I decided to do hot breakfast three times a week. I wanted to do something just for him that was special for his last year at home. I found out that hot breakfast is a lot easier than I thought–and my older girls are a little “”put out” that mom didn’t do the same for them! 🙂
Even though our son is off to college now, I’ve continued with hot breakfast three times a week. I will definitely be trying these puff pancakes as I especially love something I can mostly prep the night before. My boys’ favorite breakfast is cinnamon roll waffles. I just buy a can of refrigerated cinnamon rolls, flatten four of them together in the waffle iron, and it makes a sort of cinnamon roll waffle. Their second favorite is Swedish pancakes, which are basically crepes. I serve them with strawberries (in season) or homemade strawberry or peach sauce from the freezer. They are always a hit! Link below:
http://beautyandbedlam.com/swedish-pancakes-tasty-tuesday/
Andrea says
yum, thanks for the recipe! Glad you are enjoying hot breakfasts 3 times a week. Just tell your girls that the baby is always spoiled 🙂
Andrea says
I just clicked through to that recipe and realized that my mom made these ALL the time growing up. We called them “Dutch pancakes” but they were the exact same thing!
Jen T says
With two teenagers, we often have lots of extra kids here on the weekends…love the idea of a pancake bar using these!
Andrea says
oooo… how fun! I think a pancake bar would be a fabulous idea!