How to Freeze Waffles and Pancakes - It's SO Easy!

For many years now, I've been freezing pancakes and waffles. And, really, it's one of the easiest things you can do to reduce your dependence on unhealthy, expensive, processed food! In fact, it's so easy, for years I didn't write a blog post about it; I thought: "Well, the post would be all of one sentence!" But because so many people don't know about this, I decided to write up some tips and point you toward some from scratch recipes, in addition to giving you the really easy info on how to freeze pancakes and waffles at home.

How to Freeze Pancakes and Waffles

1. First, choose a good time to make waffles and/or pancakes. I like to pick an unhurried morning, cooking up enough that I can feed my family and make tons of extra to freeze. If that doesn't work for you, just choose a time when you can whip up a big batch of pancakes or waffles. The freezing part takes no more than 5 minutes, TOPS - so you really just need time for the actual cooking.

2. Next, choose a really good recipe. You can certainly make your waffles or pancakes with a product like Bisquick, but it's cheaper, healthier - and so easy! - to make them from scratch! I also recommend you try making your pancakes and waffles with some wheat flour. Not only does this make the end product considerably healthier, with more nutrients, but it makes the pancakes and waffles much more flavorful. Plus, pancakes and waffles made with wheat flour fill tummies far more quickly!

My recipes for whole wheat pancakes and whole wheat waffles are very simple. Even my husband, who chooses white bread over wheat bread every time, prefers my wheat pancakes and waffles to those made with white flour.

3. Once you have your recipe and ingredients together, just whip up the batter and start cooking. For pancakes, it might be nice to have a large electric skillet - but if you don't, no worries. I don't have one, yet I'm able to cook up quite a lot of pancakes in a short amount of time.

As the pancakes come off the skillet (or the waffles come out of the waffle iron), set them onto a plate to cool. It's fine to stack them.

The pancakes or waffles need to completely cool, so don't be afraid to leave the kitchen at this point and do other things. It won't hurt the waffles or pancakes to sit on the counter for a while.

4. Once the pancakes or waffles are completely cool, you have a few options:

* Place one each into half pint freezer bags.

* Place many in a gallon-sized freezer bag, separated by pieces of wax paper.

* Place many in a gallon-sized freezer bag, without anything to separate them.

Honestly, after years of doing this, I do the latter: I just throw them into a freezer bag and pop them into the freezer. Occasionally, some will stick together, but it's usually easy to just pull them apart. For those that aren't as easy to separate, I stick a butter knife between them - and they pop apart right away.

That's it! I told you it was SO EASY!

To heat homemade, frozen pancakes, I suggest using a microwave. To heat waffles, I suggest sticking them in a toaster or toaster oven. There is absolutely no need to defrost the pancakes or waffles before reheating.

1 comment

  1. WE have been wheat free for a year now. In the quest to find a homemade, healthier and cheaper version for waffles I created my own recipe with oats. I got to do like you and take the time to write a post up and show how it's done. I make huge batches and freeze them. They are so good and filling. We even use them in sandwiches instead of bread. BTW, Love the post on the hash browns. I have cooked my huge super cheap potatoes that I bought at the grocery store like your post said and now my freezer is full of hash brown. :) thank you. PS I bought 20 lb of potatoes for $8.00. My husband couldn't understand why I didn't buy the hash brown already frozen in the bag. When I told him how much I paid for the raw potatoes, he understood. :) I mean seriously, what one could pay for one frozen bag of hash brown I bought 10 lb of potatoes!!!!

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