20 Different Things to Put on Pancakes

Pancakes are one of those foods that are easy to make but hard to master. There are hundreds and hundreds of recipes, meaning there are a similar number of options for improving on them. However, if you are looking for an easier way to improve your pancakes, you should do some delicious research on your favorite things to put on pancakes.

1. Apples

Apples are one of the most popular fruits on the planet. National Geographic says they originated in the mountains of Kazakhstan. Even so, people now grow apples on every inhabited continent. As such, apples are an excellent topping for pancakes. Diced-up apples are the classic option. Alternatively, you can consider something more unusual such as apple butter, an extra-concentrated form of apple sauce.

2. Bacon

Once upon a time, fresh meat was a luxury. People had to preserve meat to keep it edible for long periods, thus resulting in hams, sausages, and the like. Nowadays, we preserve meat because of the imparted flavor more than anything else. Bacon shows this because The Spruce Eats says it is salt-cured pork made using various cuts. For example, back bacon comes from the pig’s loin. In contrast, side bacon comes from the pig’s belly. The easiest way to use bacon would be frying it and then crumbling it over the pancakes.

3. Bananas

Berries are some of the best toppings for pancakes. With that said, chances are good you didn’t think of bananas when you thought of berries even though bananas are exactly that in a botanical sense. Generally speaking, people in the United States eat bananas as desserts. Still, it is very common for people to cook using bananas, which are sometimes called plantains in that context. Once again, you can just dice up the bananas before putting the pieces on your pancakes. If you don’t like that, you have plenty of other options to choose from.

4. Caramel Sauce

Caramel comes from slowly-heated sugar. Meanwhile, caramel sauce is a mix of caramel and cream. It is quite good on its own. Better still, people can mix it with other ingredients such as vanilla and fruit purees during the production process for even more flavor.

5. Chocolate Chips

Chocolate chips have been around for about a century. A woman named Ruth Graves Wakefield invented chocolate chips along with chocolate chip cookies in 1937. Supposedly, she cut up a Nestlé chocolate bar before putting the pieces in cookies. Sometimes, people claim the invention was a happy accident because she expected the chocolate to melt during the baking process. The truth of that matter is that she knew very well what she was doing, which makes sense because she was an experienced chef running a well-known tourist lodge.

Eventually, American soldiers from Massachusetts who received these cookies in their care packages during World War Two shared them with their counterparts from the rest of the country, thus kicking off a nationwide craze. Soon enough, Wakefield gave her recipe to Nestlé in exchange for $1 plus a lifetime’s supply of chocolate. Originally, Nestlé made chocolate chips out of semi-sweet chocolate. Nowadays, you can buy everything from dark chocolate and white chocolate chips to a mix of butterscotch and chocolate chips.

6. Chocolate Syrup

You can argue that chocolate syrup is closer to the original way people consumed the stuff. After all, it is a liquid, which makes sense because the simplest form of chocolate syrup is just cocoa powder and a sweetener mixed with water. As for how that is closer to the original way people consumed the stuff, well, the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans were fond of cacao drinks. Of course, their cacao drinks were still quite different from chocolate syrup. For instance, the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans didn’t add sweeteners to their cacao drinks much. Instead, they were much likelier to use chilis and a wide range of other spices.

7. Fried Apples

Fried foods taste good. As a result, you should consider making some fried apples before putting them on your pancakes. Both apple slices and apple rings make good choices. Furthermore, you can fry the apples with either batter or a more minimalistic coating. That makes for a lot of options. If you aren’t satisfied with your results, check out other recipes to see the full range of options you have at your disposal.

8. Fried Chicken

Pancakes are filling. However, if you want something even more substantial, you can put some fried chicken on your pancakes. Of course, you should choose boneless pieces of chicken for frying. Otherwise, you might get distracted by the process of removing the bones, thus making it more of a hassle for you to enjoy pancakes with fried chicken as a single dish. As with fried apples, the sheer range of potential cooking methods and ingredients means you can always find something better suited for your palate.

9. Fried Eggs

Making fried apples and fried chicken takes a lot of time. That is particularly true if you want to put them on top of your pancakes. Fortunately, if you just want some kind of fried food on your pancakes, there is always the option of fried eggs. You should be able to make these in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, while you can make some decent fried eggs without adding much of anything, you can do a great deal to enhance their flavor with the right herbs and seasonings.

10. Ice Cream

Ice cream is a solution to many problems. For instance, the issue of what you want to put on your pancakes. Ice cream companies are producing more flavors of their products than ever before. If you want something conventional such as chocolate or vanilla, you can get that. Similarly, if you prefer something more unusual, you can find everything from curry-flavored ice cream to oyster-flavored ice cream.

11. Maple Syrup

Given the name, it makes sense that maple syrup comes from maple trees. In short, those trees store starch before the onset of winter. Then, they convert that starch into sugars, which rise through the sap. People collect that sap by tapping into the trunks of those trees. Once they have gathered enough, they can heat the sap to produce maple syrup. Please note there are different colors with different flavors. New England Today claims there is no quality difference between lighter maple syrup and darker maple syrup. Instead, people harvested the lighter maple syrup earlier in the season and the darker maple syrup later in the season. The former has a weaker flavor than the latter, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on your personal preferences in this regard.

12. Meat Patties

Speaking of which, fried chicken is far from being the only option if you are looking for something savory and substantial. Generally speaking, when people think of sandwiches, they think of filling sandwiched between two pieces of bread. However, there is no reason why that bread can’t be pancakes instead, as shown by the numerous restaurant chains that serve pancake sandwiches of one kind or another. As for the filling, meat patties offer even more opportunities for customization than fried chicken. For starters, there is the choice of meat. Beef is the most popular choice, but plenty of people like other kinds of meat for their meat patties. Furthermore, there is choosing the herbs and spices that can bring out the full potential of the chosen meat.

13. Nutella

Nutella is one of those brands that are so famous that they define the product for most consumers. It is a hazelnut spread that makes good use of cocoa. Like a lot of other options on this list, Nutella isn’t exactly good for you, but it will make your taste buds happy.

14. Nuts

If you are feeling more health-conscious, you should consider nuts. Healthline states that these are packed full of protein, fiber, and other nutrients. On top of that, nuts fit into a wide range of diets, which is convenient for people following strict dietary regimens. Please note that some foods are called nuts even though they are just nut-like rather than true nuts. For instance, peanuts are legumes, thus making them relatives of peas and legumes. Still, they taste like nuts while providing much the same nutrients as nuts, so they are effectively nuts as far as most people are concerned.

15. Peaches

Peaches are another fruit that originated in a single region before spreading far and wide. In their case, they originated in Eastern China. Subsequently, peaches spread to Iran. After which, they made their way to Europe. Indeed, peaches have the scientific name Prunus persica because of the European belief that they originated in Iran, which was called Persia until relatively recent times. Regardless, if you prefer nectarines, you can put diced-up nectarines rather than peaches on your pancakes. The two are the same species. The only difference is that nectarines are mutated peaches without the fuzz.

16. Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is a versatile spread. That means you can put it on pancakes in much the same way that you put it on bread. Once again, you have a lot of options, meaning you should shop around a bit to see what you can turn up.

17. Pears

Pears came into existence in what is now Western China. Specifically, they did so in the foothills of the Tian Shan, a mountain range that runs throughout much of Central Asia. It is interesting to note that apples also came into existence in the vicinity of Tian Shan, meaning the two fruits were once neighbors. In any case, cutting up fresh pears is the most straightforward option but not the only option. If you want something sweeter, consider getting canned pears or pear jam to satisfy that urge.

18. Salsa

Salsa is one of the more unorthodox choices on this list. Still, it works surprisingly well, particularly since salsa isn’t a single thing so much as a collection of similar things. In other words, you can expect variety from salsa, which in turn, means you can expect a better chance of finding something well-suited for your personal preferences than otherwise possible. Please note that one salsa can be very different from another. Something that makes more sense when you realize that salsa just means “sauce” in Spanish. As such, salsa roja looks very different from salsa fresca, not least because the latter is an uncooked mixture of tomatoes, onions, and other ingredients. If nothing else, salsa is a surprisingly good way to get some more vegetables into your system.

19. Sausage

Sausages were another way to preserve meat in the old days. Some underwent curing. Others underwent drying or smoking. What these meat products had in common was the general way of making them. Essentially, people would stuff a mix of meat, seasonings, and possible fillers into either animal skin or animal intestine, though synthetic fillers also see use nowadays. Afterward, they would preserve the sausage using one of several methods. Those complexities are a good thing rather than a bad thing. More ways to make sausage mean more flavors for sausage, which should be wonderful news for meat lovers.

20. Whipped Cream

U.S. Dairy points out that cream is very versatile. For those unfamiliar, cream is the fatty part of un-homogenized milk, which floats on the surface because it is lighter than the rest of the fluid. Different kinds of cream have different percentages of milkfat. In whipped cream’s case, it has a milkfat percentage of 30 to 36 percent. Of course, that isn’t the only way that it stands out from other kinds of cream. It is very fluffy, though there is more than one way for it to achieve that fluffiness. Traditionally, people had to whip it with a whisk or some other tool. In more modern times, dissolved gas is more than capable of doing that job for them.

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