Fluffy Pancake Cereal (Printable version)

Adorable mini pancakes served bowl-style with syrup and milk, ideal for breakfast or brunch.

# What you need:

→ Dry Ingredients

01 - 1 cup all-purpose flour
02 - 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
03 - 1 teaspoon baking powder
04 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
05 - 1/4 teaspoon salt

→ Wet Ingredients

06 - 3/4 cup buttermilk (or whole milk with 1 teaspoon lemon juice)
07 - 1 large egg
08 - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
09 - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

→ For Cooking & Serving

10 - Butter or oil, for greasing the skillet
11 - Maple syrup, for drizzling
12 - Cold milk, for serving

# Steps to follow:

01 - In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly mixed.
02 - In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
03 - Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients and gently whisk until just combined; leave some lumps for tenderness.
04 - Transfer batter to a squeeze bottle, piping bag, or use a teaspoon to portion the batter.
05 - Warm a nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat and lightly grease with butter or oil.
06 - Squeeze or spoon small dots of batter, approximately 1/2 inch in diameter, onto the skillet, spacing them apart.
07 - Cook mini pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes until bubbles form on the surface and edges are set.
08 - Flip with a spatula and cook an additional 30 to 60 seconds until golden brown.
09 - Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and repeat with remaining batter, re-greasing skillet as necessary. Serve in bowls with maple syrup and cold milk poured over like cereal.

# Expert tips:

01 -
  • It feels playful and fun, turning a breakfast classic into something that makes people smile before they even take a bite.
  • The whole thing comes together in 30 minutes, which means you can surprise someone with homemade pancakes without spending your entire morning cooking.
  • Those little bites are perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy inside, nothing like those sad store-bought pancake cereals.
02 -
  • Buttermilk really does make a difference—the acid in it reacts with the baking soda to create lift, so don't just skip it and use regular milk without the lemon juice trick.
  • That temptation to overmix the batter? Resist it hard—lumps in pancake batter are not a mistake, they're a feature that keeps them fluffy and tender.
  • Cold milk is essential for the cereal effect; warm milk will make the pancakes soggy instead of creating that crispy-outside, tender-inside moment.
03 -
  • The squeeze bottle is genuinely life-changing for uniform pancakes, but if you don't have one, a teaspoon and your fingers work just fine—precision isn't as important as having fun with it.
  • Chilling the batter for 10 minutes before cooking actually helps it hold together better and gives you fluffier results, so if you have time, do it.
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