Forget The Loaf Pan - Zucchini Bread Pancakes Are Better

There's nothing wrong and plenty right with a loaf of classic zucchini bread, a comforting and easy home-baking standby which comes with the rewarding knowledge that you are getting more healthful vegetables into your diet (right before you slather it with butter, of course). That said, the flipside of a classic is that it can become overly familiar, and sometimes, a twist on the formula is necessary to reacquaint yourself with its charms. That's why you should eschew the loaf pan and whip up a superior stack of zucchini bread pancakes instead.

First things first – if you are tragically unaware of zucchini bread and are mistakenly under the assumption that this green vegetable would make an unlikely foundation for a sweet treat, you'd be surprised. Zucchini bread is often boosted with sugar, maple syrup, or some other sweetener, and packed with warming vanilla and cinnamon. Because of this, segueing its base elements from loaf to pancakes isn't as radical a step as it might sound. If you are well-versed in making zucchini bread, you won't have to step far outside your comfort zone or pantry, either. Beyond the zucchini itself, recipes for both almost always share ingredients like flour, eggs, and sugar.

Zucchini pancakes have the added advantage of being extremely versatile — once you start exploring the range of recipes available, you will be struck by their sheer variety. If your tastes run more to savory than sweet, zucchini pancakes can offer a lighter alternative to potato pancakes and make a flavorful side dish to chicken or steak. Alternatively, if you're a lover of cheesy, savory crêpes, perhaps a zucchini pancake spiked with rich, nutty Gruyère cheese would appeal.

So, if you're aiming for a traditional pancake breakfast-style stack of fluffy zucchini pancakes, how should you go about it? In a recipe shared on Instagram by @pancakesmakepeoplehappy.co, zucchini pancakes begin with grating raw zucchini, wrapping the pieces in a kitchen towel, and squeezing all the excess water out of them. This is an important step, as zucchinis are a very water-dense vegetable, so failing to do so could add too much liquid to your pancake batter. 

The dry ingredients — granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, Morton's kosher salt, and cinnamon — are mixed with whole milk, vanilla extract, and melted, unsalted butter. Once combined, crack in two large eggs, add the zucchini, and fold together (you can optionally add chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter). After the batter has rested for 10 minutes, you can start making pancakes on a hot griddle in the traditional manner, flipping once the bubbles start popping.

Per @pancakesmakepeoplehappy.co, the recommended zucchini pancake topping is real maple syrup, but zucchini pancakes are likely to pair just as well as the buttermilk variety with your accompaniment of choice — be it berry compote and marscapone or chocolate drizzle and whipped cream.