Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Breakfast sandwich bread is usually substantial, like the English muffin, a bagel, or French toast, but the standard pancake delivers in both flavor and structure. It offers a tender yet flexible composition, and the added benefit of a spongy crumb. The air pockets in the framework allow the pancakes to hug the sandwich fillings without breaking. It’s like a memory foam mattress for your eggs and bacon. They deserve to be pampered too, so let’s make a breakfast sando with pancake bread.
The benefit to using pancakes instead of bagels, or store-bought English muffins is that you can control the pancakes’ flavor, texture, and height. Any pancake recipe will do, so use your favorite one, or even reheat the frozen, boxed ones. I don’t have a go-to recipe, but I like the ones that include a tablespoon of sugar because I’m a weirdo and I often eat pancakes plain. The sugar quantity isn’t high enough to make the pancake sweet, but it complements the malty flavors of the batter. In this case, having a slightly sweet pancake is a welcome contrast to the salty sandwich fillings.
I filled my breakfast sandwich with fried eggs, bacon and swiss cheese, and sealed the deal with a blanket of maple syrup. Since the sandwich is pretty straightforward, I focused more on timing. I put the bacon strips in the oven to bake while I griddled pancakes on the stove. Once the cakes were finished I placed them on a cooling rack so they didn’t get humid on the bottom, and fried the eggs in the same pan. The bacon came out of the oven at this point, and I assembled the sandwich posthaste.
My boyfriend helpfully pointed out that this is a McGriddle. However, I’ve had a McGriddle, and it was not nearly as sublime as this. McDonald’s has its place and time, but its flavor is black and white compared to this homemade pancake breakfast sandwich in technicolor. The key is to treat yourself with a good stack of quality salty, crispy bacon, and using a maple syrup that you like (whether that’s the real or fake stuff). The only regret I have is not double-side-soaking my pancakes before assembly. Don’t worry, I managed to overcome this by dipping the edges in run-off syrup. Explore different fillings for this sandwich, like sausage, tofu, chorizo, or pickles and cheese. No matter what you stack your pancakes with, make a double batch because you’ll be back for a second sandwich.
