These Baked Berry Pancakes Are The Easiest Baby Breakfast

And the rest of the family will love them, too!

Now that I have an 8-month-old, I’ve entered the exciting, exasperating, terrifying, but necessary phase of introducing solid foods. We’re going for a Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) approach with our daughter, which basically means we’re skipping purées and going straight to gummable finger foods, like strips of omelet, soft noodles, roasted vegetables, and the like. Our daughter really seems to be taking to it, so I’ve been looking around for quick, easy, healthy, and BLW-appropriate foods to feed her.

Enter this new breakfast lifesaver: the sheet pan pancake.

This entire recipe comes together in less than 10 minutes and cooks in 15. You can customize it in a hundred different ways, and one of the best parts — it’s freezer friendly. I can make a big batch on Monday, freeze it, then pop individual pancake strips into the microwave to get them nice and toasty for my daughter.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe I’ve been using, along with a few suggested variations!

Easy Sheet Pan Pancakes for BLW

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (Tip: Most of the single-serving cups sold in grocery stores hold exactly 1/2 a cup!)

2 eggs

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup sliced strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Butter a 9x13" pan (I use this one from PerfectSlice Bakeware, which has hashmarks around the edges and comes with a special slicer. I can line up the slicer with the marks along the edges when I cut the pancake, which makes cutting it into strips beyond easy!).
3. In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices, and salt).
4. In another bowl, whisk the milk, applesauce, eggs, oil, and vanilla until combined.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared 9x13" pan. Top with the sliced strawberries.
7. Bake for 14 minutes, until the pancake is a light golden brown.
8. Let cool for 10 minutes, then slice and serve! If using a PerfectSlice pan, I recommend cutting on every line along the long edge of the pan, then on every third line along the short edge of the pan. This will give you 1x3" pancake strips, perfect for BLW!

Note: These pancake bars freeze very well! After they’ve cooled completely, pop them in a freezer-safe bag and put them in the freezer. When ready to serve, microwave until warm.

Variations

As you can imagine, this sheet pan pancake is beyond versatile. Here are just a few variations:

• Gluten-free: Use a gluten-free flour blend.
• Nut allergy: Use any type of milk you prefer.
• Mix-ins: Try blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana, shredded apple, or pretty much any other fruit! To jazz this up for other family members, you can also add chocolate chips, shredded coconut, or chopped nuts.
• Make it fancy: Before topping with berries or another fruit, try swirling in a few dollops of jam, nut butter, cream cheese, canned pumpkin, or ricotta.
• Spices: I used cinnamon and nutmeg, but ground ginger, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, or allspice would all be delicious.

I hope you (and your family!) enjoy this recipe, and that it helps simplify your life even a little bit!

Adapted from https://babyfoode.com/blog/wholesome-blueberry-sheet-pan-pancakes/