How to Make Designer Pancakes

Designer pancakes turn the most important meal of the day into a truly special event. With these techniques, you can make designer pancakes in wild, non-traditional shapes and sizes, or turn traditional round pancakes into a fun, vibrant dish. Read on to learn an innovative batter-shaping technique that will let you create any designer pancake shape that you can dream up, using nothing more elaborate than a plastic bag. Plus, get a fun idea that will give your pancake breakfast some serious character. Whether you prefer non-traditional or traditionally shaped pancakes, there's a method that will help you turn breakfast from a mere meal into a memorable, creative part of the day.

Non-Traditional Shapes
Professional Chefs Point The Way To "Griddle Drawing"

Pancake batter is usually ladled or spooned onto the grill in a circle, creating a round shape. However, with this designer pancake technique, the sky is the limit when it comes to shapes! To make designer pancakes in non-traditional shapes, take a cue from pastry chefs. When pastry chefs want to create intricate freehand designs in icing or in chocolate, they use a pastry piping bag, a soft bag which acts a kind of funnel. Chefs fill the bag on the wide end, then squeeze a steady line of material through a small hole in the tip of the bag in order to draw shapes. This creates a steady stream, similar to ink flowing through a calligraphy pen, so that artisan chefs can make edible artwork by drawing decorative shapes and designs. You can create a similar effect by using an altered plastic bag to make your designer pancakes!

Make a batch of pancake batter that's on the thick side, then spoon or pour your pancake batter into a zip-top style plastic kitchen bag. If you get some batter on the outside of the bag, wipe it down with a slightly damp sponge. Once your batter is in place, cut off the very tip of one corner of the bag so that there is a minute hole in the corner. The hole should be about three millimeters in diameter, so think small. Now, grab the bag with one or both hands, and squeeze your pancake batter out the hole and onto a heated and greased griddle in any shape you can dream up! Try starting with simple geometric shapes like rectangles and triangles, then move on to more complex pictures. This technique takes a few tries to master, so plan on getting some helpers into the kitchen to eat the "mistakes."

Traditional Shapes
Put A Smile On Your Plate With Pancake Fruit Faces

Of course, designer pancakes don't always require professional know-how! If culinary-school-techniques aren't your style, give these easy designer pancakes a shot. To turn a run of the mill stack of pancakes into a creative, memorable meal, try making fruit faces. Chop up a variety of fresh fruits, and then go to work arranging the fruit to create a face on a pancake. Think "Mr. Potato Head," but on a pancake! Pancake fruit faces can be as simple, or as complex, as your imagination lets them be. For a basic face, try eyes made out of half-grapes, and a melon-slice smile. For a more detailed look, place blueberry "pupils" in the middle of banana-round "irises," and finish the face with a mouth made out of sliced strawberries. Get the idea? Pancake fruit faces are as much fun to make as they are to eat, so try setting out a bunch of fruit and pancakes, and invite everyone in your household to make their own designer pancakes. Or, for an impressive brunch centerpiece, serve a stack of pancakes with a detailed fruit face on the top, and an arrangement of fruit around the edge of the dish.