Pancake muffins are a fun, easy way to serve pancakes on busy mornings

Pancake muffins are the petite and portable answer for breakfast on busy weekday mornings. Unlike regular pancakes, no syrup or silverware is required, so you can eat them in the car or hand them to your kids as they head out to the bus stop. These handheld treats will be the fuel that gets your family through dreary winter mornings.

Best of all, pancake muffins are customizable and forgiving. Whether you want an option that is savory or sweet or protein-forward, you can make these pancake muffins to suit your dietary needs.

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To make pancake muffins, you need flour, sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, salt, milk and vanilla. This will create the base for your muffins, but from there, you can decide what kind of pancake you want it to taste like by incorporating a few “toppings.” You can opt for berries, cooked bacon, chocolate chips or sprinkles, for example.

The full recipe for pancake muffins comes from My Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons.

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If you love the easy grab-and-go quality of muffins, you don’t have to stick with pancake flavors, of course. This delicious recipe for donut muffins gives the muffins a flavor like like cinnamon-sugar doughnut holes. Or, incorporate flavors of cinnamon and caramel in easy-to-make monkey bread muffins.

You could also make your muffins a bit healthier. Prevention’s apple oatmeal muffins are wholesome with the flavors of fall, for example. Other muffin recipes incorporate ingredients like yogurt, zucchini, sweet potato, and peanut butter to help you make sure your body is getting good things.

Muffin tins are great for making many other types of bite-sized snacks, including savory ones. Try Buffalo Mac & Cheese Muffins — with mac and cheese and hot sauce, we’ll take one of these any time of the day! Kid-friendly muffin tin recipes with savory elements include hash brown cups, barbecue biscuits, mini deep dish pizzas and tiny pot pies. Yum!