Whipped coffee had its 15 minutes, and now there’s a new viral food sensation to take its place. Introducing pancake cereal: equal parts ridiculous and adorable. If you didn’t infer from the name alone, it’s basically a bowl of teeny tiny pancakes, and what could be bad about that?
The trend surfaced on TikTok (where else?), and #pancakecereal has since gotten more than 194 million views on the platform. Bowls range from the classic buttermilk to chocolate chip to more elaborate versions with sprinkles, marshmallows and Oreos (of course). Aside from being cute and delicious, pancake cereal seems pretty easy to recreate at home—if not slightly tedious—especially if you already know how to make regular pancakes.
How to make pancake cereal:
Note: Our pancake batter makes six regular-size pancakes, so this will yield a lot of pancake cereal. Halve the recipe if you wish.
Step 1: Make pancake batter. The easiest route would be to use a mix (such as Bisquik). For a homemade version, you’ll need the following ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoons baking soda
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter and buttermilk. Mix to combine.
Step 2: Transfer the pancake batter to a squeeze bottle, pastry bag or Ziplock bag with a corner snipped off. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat, then spray with nonstick spray or brush with oil. Squeeze tiny pancakes into the skillet (about the size of a quarter or slightly larger), and cook until the pancakes start to bubble on the surface. Flip the pancakes (they should be golden brown underneath), and continue cooking until golden brown, another 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Step 3: Transfer the mini pancakes to a bowl, top with a pat of butter and drizzle with maple syrup or milk (or both).
To be honest, we felt like we had seen something like this before, so we did some digging. The pancake cereal is similar to Dutch mini pancakes called poffertjes, which aren’t served in a bowl but are just as cute. Only one question remains: Do you eat these with a fork or a spoon?
