Best Pancakes from Scratch: Corn and Bacon Pancakes Recipe (Plus Many Frugal and Shortcut Tips)

Corn and bacon pancakes?!? YES! They are AMAZING!

My family loves these pancakes and they are just so awesome to make and even more awesome to eat.

We actually make these for dinner as our preferred “breakfast for dinner,” but they are just a great at breakfast too!

We are going to share a few things with you on this post! First, the basic recipe for creating corn and bacon pancakes.  It’s quite simple really!

Then we are going to share a gluten-free version of this pancake, which Alex prefers over the regular version, even though he doesn’t have to eat gluten-free like a couple of us do! That’s how good they are!

But before we share these two recipes for the Corn and Bacon Pancakes, we want to direct you to some tips for better and more frugal cooking that you can easily incorporate into this recipe!

Best Bacon Cooking Tip

First, you are going to need bacon!  Each batch of pancakes requires 1/2 cup of crumbled and cooked bacon – this is about 4-6 slices, depending on the thickness of the bacon. You will be using cooked bacon in the pancake batter.  So you will want pre-cooked bacon or cook your own.

I have to be honest and say that I totally stink at cooking bacon. I have since they day we got married.  I literally tried every method that others shared with me and still could never nail it……. until one day…….

I can now make perfect bacon effortlessly! This is one of my favorite cooking tips, not because we do this often, as we don’t often have bacon, but that is why it is so important and helpful. Bacon can be expensive and so you want to nail the proper cooking the first time! Well, to find this tip, see our post here on How To Cook Perfect Bacon in George Foreman Grill.

Cooking with Corn Tips

Second, you will need corn too! One cup of kernel corn per batch in fact! Honestly, you can use kernel corn in any form: canned, frozen and even fresh from the cob.

Fresh from the cob is so good! Plus, we find that typically one cob will make two batches.  You can grab cobs of corn from your garden or locally for .25 or less – this is a lot cheaper than store-bought canned or frozen corn.

With that thrifty comparison – we wanted to show you a quick and easy way to get your corn fresh from the cob to cooked to mix in the batter in less than 5 minutes.

How to Cut Kernels from Corn on the Cob

Shuck the corn and remove as many hairs as you can. Then get a medium to large bowl and place a small bowl upside down in the bottom.

Cut the end off of the corn to make it “even.”

Set the even end of the corn on the bottom of the smaller bowl, inside the larger bowl.

The reason why is… the larger bowl with “catch” the kernels and the smaller bowl raises the corn so that you can cut all the way down without restriction.

The next trick to a “clean cut” is to use a small and sharp knife.  Paring knives are perfect. The smaller the knife, the less “flying” you will have… along with cutting down the cob slowly.

This is one cob of kernels – which is about 2 cups, perfect for two batches!

Tips on Pre-made and Homemade Pancake Mix

The third trick to prepare to make these are that you can use any pancake mix, or the full recipe I will share with you to make them from scratch. But one thing you can do is prepare a bulk batch of pancake and waffle mix to use for many recipes.

We have shared all of this frugal and helpful information here in the Homemade Pancake and Waffle Mix recipe.

Homemade Pancake and Waffle Mix Recipe HERE

In addition, we also have a Gluten-Free Flour Mix recipe that you can make.  With this flour, you can follow the same recipe as the Homemade Pancake and Waffle Mix recipe, and just replace the flour with the GF flour recipe.  That is exactly what we did to make these super tasty pancakes!

The Best Gluten-Free Flour Recipe Ever HERE 

So now that we have gotten those few tips and tricks out of the way, let’s get started with this super tasty breakfast…or dinner…. fare!

Step #1 – Prepare the Batter for the Corn and Bacon Pancakes

Either make a batch from a store-bought box or a batch from our bulk homemade pancake and waffle mix for pancakes.

If you want to make a one-time batch from scratch, here’s the recipe:

• 1.5 cups of flour (or gluten-free flour for GF pancakes)
• 1/3 cup of Dry Powered Milk
• 1.5 TBSP of Sugar
• .5 TBSP of Baking Powder
• 1 tsp of Salt
• 1 cup of Water
• 1 Egg
• 2 TBSP of oil (we like melted coconut oil)

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Then add all of the wet ingredients.

Step #2 – Add the Bacon and Corn

• 1 Cup of cooked corn kernels
• 1/2 cup or 4-6 strips of cooked and crumbled bacon

Fold the bacon and corn into the prepared batter.

We make both regular and gluten-free for each diet type! 

Close-Up of Regular  Wheat Flour Mix

Close-up of Gluten-Free Mix 

Step #3 – Prepare the pan for the pancakes!

• Turn a counter top griddle to medium heat or a stove top pan to medium heat.
• Grease it by rubbing a stick of butter on it- don’t use the whole stick, you will only use a teeny bit, but it’s just easier to run the stick across the surface to grease it!

Step #4 – Time to Cook ‘Em Up

• Then, using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop out your mix and pour onto your hot pan!  We cook gluten-free pancakes first!

Gluten-Free Pancakes Turning to Hot Cakes 🙂 

• Cook for three to four minutes on one side, until they reach the brownness and doneness that you desire.

One side of the gluten-free pancakes cooked and now time for the other side! 

• Flip them over and repeat!

We typically get about 8 nice, fluffy and thick pancakes from this gluten-free batch. They are a bit more dense and thicker than using normal wheat flour. 

So perfect, so yum! 

• Make your regular wheat-flour pancakes the same way – medium heat, grease pan with butter, use 1/4 cup of batter and cook each side for 3-4 minutes!

Now it’s time for the regulars too cook 🙂 

The regulars are done! 

• We find that the regular batter will make about 10 pancakes of the same size, but they are not quite as dense as the gluten-free.

Step #5 – Serve Them Up With Your Favorite Toppings and Enjoy!

One of our favorite toppings is the classic maple syrup! We were blessed once to receive real, homemade maple syrup from a family that made it from the trees in their yard when they stayed with us and stayed many miles from home.  We don’t have those kinds of trees here.  So since then, we have enjoyed the organic maple syrup from Tropical Traditions (the makers of coconut oil!).

The regular pancakes getting a maple bath! 

We also like a little sprinkle of powdered sugar too!

The dressed gluten-free corn and bacon pancakes! 

And the dressed regular flour corn and bacon pancakes! 

The maple, bacon and corn flavors are an amazing combination together.  It like satisfies every part of your tongue’s taste buds. 

These can serve well on their own as a pancake dinner or breakfast.  But they also are awesome with hash browns and eggs! You can also make these before hand and freeze them for 1-minute corn and bacon pancakes on those mornings where you are in a hurry!