With this easy One-Bowl French Toast Pancakes recipe, you don’t have to choose between your favorite breakfast treats. You’ll race your breakfast companions to the maple syrup bottle, just like in Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast.
Earlier this spring, I was treated to a demonstration of boiling down maple sap into syrup, courtesy of my wonderful friend and neighbor, Howard. For a few weeks every spring, he taps his maple trees, empties the buckets of sap into pans, and patiently boils the sap down over a wood fire in the backyard, stirring and checking all day long until he can fill a few mason jars with gorgeous, smoke-tinged, dark amber syrup.
Truly nothing compares to this liquid gold from New England, and it's one of my favorite ingredients to cook with and enjoy. Author (and fellow New Englander) Josh Funk knows just how precious it is, too—in fact, he wrote an entire book about an epic battle for the last drop of maple syrup in the bottle, and it's one of my favorites.
About Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast
Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast was author and software engineer Josh Funk's debut children's book, publishing in 2015 to great acclaim. He has since written six more books in the series (with chapter books coming soon!), along with over a dozen more children's books, which together have sold more than half a million copies worldwide. He's a champion of children's literature and presents regularly in schools, libraries, and bookstores as well as at conferences and literary festivals throughout his native New England and beyond.
Illustrator Brendan Kearney really outdid himself with the Lady Pancake series, creating detailed and whimsical representations that bring your favorite foods to life. Every time I page through this book, I see something new in his drawings that gives me a genuine chuckle. And the last page with the fold-out of the whole fridge is so fun! He and Funk clearly love the world of food just as much as I do.
In the story, Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast, deep in the refrigerator among their friends, are alerted by Miss Brie that just a single drop of maple syrup remains. A panicked race between the two ensues as they scramble to get to the bottle first, making their way through an obstacle course of food and drink in the fridge along the way. The text is written in charming rhyming verse, making this food fight of a story not only delicious, but perfect for reading aloud.
Recipe Inspiration
"The last drop is mine! Lady Pancake conversed. But French Toast replied, "Not if I get there first!" Like that, he was off, and the race had begun, with Pancake behind, breaking into a run.
—Josh Funk, Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast
A jug of local maple syrup is on my breakfast table most mornings, whether drizzled over some yogurt and fruit or a steaming bowl of porridge. Anything that you can drown in a pool maple syrup sounds like a perfect way to start the day to me.
But, of course, maple syrup served over pancakes or French toast is really the pinnacle of breakfast. For this book, I knew I wanted to develop an easy recipe for one of these breakfast treats, but which to choose? The two characters are neck and neck throughout the book, and both deserve a moment in the spotlight!
And that's when I decided: I didn't have to choose at all.
What if I could bring these two friends together and make pancakes taste like French toast? After doing some research, I found that French toast pancakes are indeed a thing. Many recipes, however, have you make a batch of pancakes, then dip them in an eggy mixture and fry them like French toast.
While I'm sure that's delicious, I certainly don't have the patience for all of those steps, even on a weekend morning, and I can't imagine the six-year-olds among us having that kind of staying power, either.
Instead, I chose to create pancakes that borrow the key flavors of French toast, so if you closed your eyes at the breakfast table, you could swear you were eating a nice puffy slice. I added an extra egg to an easy pancake batter for extra fluffiness and rich eggy flavor, and bumped up the warm spices with cinnamon and nutmeg, which I always add to my French toast coating.
As an extra nod to the book, instead of sweetening the pancake batter with sugar, I swapped in maple syrup so you get maple flavor throughout, even before you add any extra syrup on top. I kept the method for mixing the batter super-simple and one-bowl to make this special breakfast easy for chefs of all ages to put together. The hardest part will be choosing your toppings (in addition to lots of extra maple syrup, of course).
Ingredients You'll Need
To make these One-Bowl French Toast Pancakes, you'll need:
- Maple Syrup: The real stuff! Look for 100% pure maple syrup, not "pancake syrup," which is made from corn syrup with caramel color and flavors added.
- Milk: Any kind will do.
- Eggs
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla extract: You could swap in an equal amount of vanilla paste instead, if you like.
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Ground cinnamon and nutmeg: They really make those French toast flavors pop!
- All-purpose flour
How To Make One-Bowl French Toast Pancakes
The full recipe with detailed timing and instructions for these pancakes is below, but here are some key moments to look out for along the way:
- Whisk the batter: Whisk together an easy batter in a large bowl. It will be thick and lumpy, and that's okay!
- Portion the pancakes: Use a ¼-cup dry measuring cup to portion out 3 pancakes at a time in a skillet.
- Flip: When they're golden on the first side, flip the pancakes over and cook on the second side.
- Keep warm and repeat: Transfer your first batch of pancakes to the oven to keep warm, then repeat portioning and cooking until all the batter is used.
Why This Recipe Is Great for Kids
I've spent years writing cookbooks and creating recipes that are safe, fun, and engaging for kids and home cooks of all ages. Here are some key features of this recipe that make it perfect for kids and families to make together at home:
- Even the youngest chefs can participate by practicing using measuring spoons and cups to measure out the ingredients and add them to the bowl.
- The one-bowl method is super simple and comes together almost as fast as using pancake mix (and tastes much more delicious!).
- Older chefs can practice using a spatula to flip their pancakes and gain confidence using the stovetop over the course of a few batches.
- Everyone can top their pancakes just how they like them at the table! In addition to lots of maple syrup (of course), I love jam, like blueberry or strawberry-rhubarb, fresh berries, and salted butter.
Let's Cook!
Gather your equipment, measure your ingredients, and get cooking with this kid-friendly recipe! If you loved making it together, please leave five stars and share your stories in the comments.
One-Bowl French Toast Pancakes
Good To Know
- This recipe keeps all of the batches of pancakes warm in the oven until you’re ready to serve them, but if you’d like to serve them as you make them instead, you can skip using the oven and transfer the pancakes to serving plates as they’re ready.
- Use 100% pure maple syrup in this recipe, not “pancake syrup,” which is made from corn syrup with caramel color and flavors added.
Equipment You'll Need
- Cooling rack
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Large bowl
- Whisk
- 12-inch nonstick skillet
- ¼-cup dry measuring cup
- Small rubber spatula or spoon
- Turner spatula
- Oven mitts
- Serving plates
Measure Your Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup maple syrup, plus more for serving
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for pan
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups (10 ounces, 283g) all-purpose flour
- Salted butter, fresh berries, and/or strawberry jam, for serving (optional)
Let's Cook!
- Set a cooling rack inside a rimmed baking sheet. Set your oven rack to the middle position and place the baking sheet on it. Heat the oven to 200°F.
- 1 cup milk, 3 large eggs, ¼ cup maple syrup, plus more for serving, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for pan, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon table salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmegIn a large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, maple syrup, oil, vanilla, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.
- 2 cups (10 ounces, 283g) all-purpose flourAdd the flour, then whisk until the ingredients are evenly mixed but the batter is still a little lumpy. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes to thicken up.
- In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat ½ teaspoon of oil over medium heat until it’s shimmering, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low. Carefully lift up the skillet, swirl the oil into an even layer, and set the skillet back down on the stovetop.
- Use a ¼-cup dry measuring cup to scoop 3 portions of batter into the skillet, scraping it out with a small rubber spatula or spoon and leaving some space between the portions. Use the spatula or spoon to spread out each portion into a circle.
- Cook the pancakes until the edges are set, bubbles pop all over the surface, and the bottoms are golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Use a turner spatula to flip each pancake. Cook until the second side of each pancake is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. (If your pancakes start to get too dark too quickly, turn the heat down to low.)
- Use oven mitts to remove the baking sheet from the oven and set it on the stovetop. Transfer the cooked pancakes to the cooling rack set in the baking sheet, then return the baking sheet to the oven to keep warm.
- Repeat steps 6 to 9 with the remaining batter, adding another ½ teaspoon oil to the pan and swirling it around in between each batch and transferring each batch of cooked pancakes to the oven to keep warm. You’ll cook 4 batches of pancakes total.
- Salted butter, fresh berries, and/or strawberry jam, for servingTurn off the stove. Use oven mitts to remove the baking sheet with the cooked pancakes from the oven and use the spatula to transfer them to serving plates. Serve with salted butter, berries, or jam, if you like, and lots of maple syrup.
Conversation Starters
While you are cooking your pancakes and when you sit down to enjoy them together, talk about what it was like to make the recipe and the themes in Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast. You can help young readers make connections to the book and share your own answers, ideas, and stories with them with the following prompts:
- Is there a food that's so delicious to you, you would race your best friend to get the last bite or drop of it? What is it, and what do you love about it?
- Do you think the food in your fridge or toys in your toy box are having adventures when we're not looking? What do you imagine they're doing?
- What is your very favorite breakfast food of all time? Is it pancakes, French toast, waffles, or something else entirely?
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