Can You Freeze Pancakes?

4 minutes

For a tasty treat, you can’t beat a good pancake! Delightful to eat whether you choose savoury or sweet toppings. You can have them for breakfast or as a comforting evening treat. But can you make them in advance and store them long-term?

How To Freeze Pancakes

Freezing pancakes is a fairly easy process but there are a few things to consider. You will want to ensure they freeze successfully and don’t get stuck together in the freezer.

Nothing is worse than a big clump of pancake you can’t use.

For best results, your best bet is to make up a big batch of the batter, and bulk-cook a few pancakes so you can freeze them all at once.

This is much quicker than preparing and cooking pancakes every single time you want one or two as a treat.

This method works for both traditional English-style pancakes, crepes or thicker Scotch pancakes. It even works if American style pancakes are your favoured treat.

Just follow these easy steps:

1. Get Prepared: Before cooking any pancakes, you must get prepared. You must cut squares of greaseproof parchment paper a little larger than you plan to cook your pancakes. You need one for each pancake you make and an extra one for the top and bottom of the stack.
2. Prepare Plate: Place a square of parchment onto a plate ready for your first pancake.
3. Cook Pancakes: Prepare your batter and cook your pancakes using your favourite recipe.
4. Layer Up: Place your first cooked pancake onto the prepared greaseproof paper. Then add another layer of parchment on top of the pancake.
5. Repeat: Add the next cooked pancake and keep layering up pancakes and greaseproof paper until all your pancakes are cooked. Don’t stack them too tall, though – you don’t want them to topple over!
6. Cool: Allow them to cool completely.
7. Label and Bag Up: Label a freezer bag with the name and date and put the pile of pancakes and greaseproof paper into the bag. Ensure you squeeze out any air, make the bag airtight, and pop it into the freezer.
8. Freeze: Make sure you lay the pancakes flat while they freeze. This will ensure you can easily grab however many pancakes you want out whenever you need them.

3 Tips for Freezing Pancakes

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing pancakes to have the best results:

Use Greaseproof Paper
You can use greaseproof paper to keep the frozen pancakes separate and to prevent them from sticking to one another. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to grab one or two at a time. 

Use Good Quality Freezer Bags
You need to keep the air out in order to prevent them from drying out. If you use cheap bags, they may slowly let air in without you knowing about it. 

Try Cooking From Frozen
You don’t need to wait for pancakes to thaw out before reheating. Instead, pop them into a hot pan and defrost and cook. 

How Long Can You Freeze Pancakes?

Pancakes don’t tend to last too long in any household – they are just too tasty! But, if you make enough to freeze then cooked and frozen pancakes will last for up to three months in the freezer.

If you have chosen to freeze batter instead of cooked and prepared pancakes then you can keep the batter in the freezer for around the same time. Up to three months should keep your batter tasting great.

How Do You Defrost Pancakes?

Defrosting pancakes is incredibly easy! You have a few options to pick from so choose whichever you prefer or have the time for.

Method 1: Simply place them into the fridge and allow the pancakes to defrost completely. Then pop them into a hot pan to reheat and crisp up.

Method 2: For method two you can just pop them into a hot pan from frozen. This should thaw out the pancakes and reheat them at the same time.

Just be careful, this method can easily go wrong and you’ll end up with burnt outsides and soggy, cold insides.

Method 3: The third method is to pop the frozen pancakes into the microwave on a defrost setting for a few seconds. This will also reheat the pancakes but can leave them a little rubbery and soggy.

To solve this you can put the defrosted pancakes under the grill for a few seconds or pop them into a hot frying pan to both heat and crisp the pancakes.

To defrost pancake batter you just need to take the batter out of the freezer and defrost it in the fridge overnight – super easy to do!

Can You Refreeze Pancakes?

It isn’t recommended to refreeze any food items once they have been thawed already and pancakes are no different.

They wouldn’t taste particularly good if you did! The freezing and thawing process changes the structure of the pancake and if you repeat the process it is likely they would end up rubbery – no one wants a pancake that could bounce!

Do Pancakes Freeze Well?

It is rare to find any food that tastes exactly the same reheated as it did fresh. Pancakes are no different and how you treat your pancakes will very much affect how good they taste.

If you aren’t careful then pancakes can easily become rubbery or soggy. You can usually fix this by crisping them up a little when you reheat them. You can do this either in a hot pan or under the grill.

As long as you follow the instructions, you shouldn’t enjoy frozen pancakes as much as you would fresh ones.

If you want to be sure that your pancakes taste as lovely as possible then the best option would be to freeze pancake batter instead. Then you can cook up fresh pancakes any time you like without the hassle of making up the batter.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing pancakes or pancakes in general, then these may help: