Cranberry Orange Sheet Pan Pancakes

Have you tried the sheet pan pancake?  Seriously, it makes for a much more relaxing morning of prepping a family breakfast or brunch.

At first I thought, will they really taste like the real deal?  It took a few tries to get the batter consistency correct, but now I swear by them. The tops and edges get suitably crispy thanks to a hot oven, buttered sides and top for a final moment under the broiler.

Easy Like a Sunday Morning

With a few quick prep moments, a morning of making pancakes just got so much easier.  Have all the dry ingredients measured out and placed in a sealed container on the counter the evening before. Have the sheet pan(s) prepped, and the butter placed into a small sauce pan.

The morning of, just whisk up the eggs, sugar and buttermilk.  In place of buttermilk, feel free to use kefir, or even yogurt thinned out with milk till it is runny. While the oven is warming up, melt the butter and brush the prepared sheet pans on the bottom and sides.  Baking them in the oven means less time in front of the stove, and less clean up as well (if your stove top gets anything like mine!)

Method

Blend the dry and wet together till just combined, some lumps are fine.  This is because we really aren’t done blending yet.  Winter flavours of fresh or frozen cranberries, and orange zest will be folded in at the very end.  For extra oomph, a splash of orange blossom water is added to the batter as well.  Spread the batter out in the sheet pan, and plop a few more cranberries evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake till just set, golden on the outside, and fluffy on the inside.  The oven is set at 450F, which will help set and brown the batter pretty quickly, kind of like the heat from a sizzling skillet. If you have a convection oven, this is the time to use it. The circulating heat will help brown the top of the pancakes.  If not, brush the top of the pancake, and turn on the broiler for a few moments, till the top is golden brown as well. In about 12 or so minutes, you have pancakes! And no standing in front of the stove flipping pancake after pancake.

How to Slice up These Pancakes

After the sheet pan has been out of the oven for a couple of minutes, you can slice them up into squares (the most obvious and easiest method) and serve. 

But why not take out a large biscuit cutter or english muffin ring and cut out circles?  OR use any shape you feel like! This way they will look like traditional pancakes!

Or here’s a fun option: cut out lengths about 1 inch by 3 or 4 inches, and create pancake ‘soldiers’ to dip into maple syrup!

Any leftover bits can be stored in a container and sautéed the next morning in butter and served with milk for a fun bowl of pancake ‘cereal’!

Final Thoughts

For serving, feel free to add some sparkle with a dusting of icing sugar.  But a simple drizzle of maple syrup is just fine by me.  Bacon on the side is always our preference.  Here are some great bacon options: Pepper Crusted Bacon or Espresso Maple Bourbon Bacon.

For Jim and I, I use a smaller 9×13 inch baking sheet with sides.  This makes enough pancakes to feed three comfortably.  Leftovers can easily be stored in the fridge, or wrapped and frozen for quick meals later in the week. If you are a family of four or more, then use the full size baking sheet and just double the recipe.

If you are feeding a crowd, 2 regular sized 13×18 inch sheet pans with sides will feed 12 people!  Let the oven bake all those pancakes while you enjoy a coffee!

Disclaimer: I used a bar zester to shower these pancakes with extra orange zest.  For the recipe though, use a microplane to create the zest for the batter.

Happy Winter brunching!

Love Jen