These strawberry pancakes are made with melted strawberry ice cream right in the pancake mix! Add in some white chocolate chips and crushed up shortbread cookies for strawberry shortcake pancakes that are perfect for either breakfast or dessert!
These strawberry pancakes with ice cream were actually a happy accident. I didn’t intend to make a strawberry shortcake pancake recipe, but I had just bought a half gallon of strawberry ice cream and, after taking the first bite, I didn’t really enjoy it… or at least, I didn’t like the ice cream enough to waste my “Saturday Cheat Day” carbs on it.
But, I didn’t want to just trash the carton of ice cream either. So what did I do?
I set the ice cream out on the counter to melt and I added it to a muffin mix pancake batter in the place of milk. And the resulting pancakes? Fantastic!
Here’s how to make easy Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes with ice cream mixed right in the batter… whether you have them for dessert or Sunday brunch, they’re dang good!
Ingredients for Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes
Here’s the list of ingredients needed to make these awesome strawberry muffin mix pancakes:
- strawberry muffin mix – The kind that comes in a bag and you just add water or milk.
- Bisquick – Or substitute your favorite pancake baking mix.
- melted strawberry ice cream
- egg
- crushed up shortbread cookies
- fresh strawberries for garnish
- white chocolate chips – These are optional… The first time that we made these strawberry pancakes we didn’t include the chocolate chips… They’re delicious either way!
- milk – You may need to add a bit of milk to your pancake batter to get the right consistency. It really depends on what ice cream you use.
How to Make Strawberry Pancakes with Ice Cream
Step 1: Thaw out strawberry ice cream until it’s fully melted.
First, you need to have melted strawberry ice cream to add to your pancake batter. I just set my pint of ice cream out on the counter until it was completely melted, stirring it every now and then to help speed up the process.
This actually isn’t the first time that we’ve used ice cream as the “liquid” in a baking recipe. A while back I made an awesome banana bread with melted vanilla ice cream and it was some of the moistest and most luscious banana bread that I’ve ever tasted, which gave me the idea for this recipe.
Step 2: Make the fresh strawberry topping for your strawberry pancakes.
You can’t have strawberry shortcake without fresh strawberries, right? And these strawberry shortcake pancakes are no different!
For added flavor and a pretty topping, macerate some strawberries. Just slice fresh strawberries and add them to a bowl. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar on top of the berries and stir a bit to combine. Then just set your strawberries to the side while your pancakes cook.
The sugar helps to bring out the natural sweetness of the strawberries and it creates a nice juicy strawberry topping for your pancakes.
Step 3: Combine strawberry ice cream with other ingredients to make your pancake batter.
This strawberry pancakes recipe is very similar to our muffin mix pancake recipe that my kids love. Only instead of milk, we’re using the melted strawberry ice cream.
In a large bowl, combine the Bisquick baking mix, the full bag of strawberry muffin mix (just the dry mix), one egg, the melted strawberry ice cream, and white chocolate chips. Stir to combine. If you find that your batter is a bit too thick after mixing it, you can also add about 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup of milk to thin it out a bit. You want the consistency to be similar to a regular pancake batter, not too thick and not too thin.
The consistency of your batter before adding the milk (if needed) will really depend on the brand of ice cream that you use. Different ice cream brands have different ratios of butter fat and cream which will affect the consistency of your batter.
Once your strawberry pancake batter is the correct consistency, fold in the crushed shortbread cookies until just combined. Then your pancake batter is ready for the griddle!
Step 4: Cook the strawberry pancakes on the griddle.
The key to the perfect strawberry pancakes is making sure that your griddle isn’t too hot when you add the pancake batter. And remember, there’s a lot more sugar in the batter because we added ice cream in place of milk, so the extra sugars are more prone to burning on the griddle top.
You don’t want to preheat your griddle top for too long before adding the batter, and don’t be afraid to turn off your middle burner and keep the other burners on low to help control the temperature.
When I made these pancakes the first time during some recipe testing, I actually burned my pancakes on one side because the griddle was too hot. During the trial and error phase for these pancakes, I also sprinkled the shortbread cookies on top of the batter… It sounded good in my head, but my cookie pieces were larger and they prevented the pancake batter from actually making contact with the griddle, so I had to cook them longer which also contributed to my burnt pancakes.
But practice makes perfect… and if at first you don’t succeed, try again!
We prefer to use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop with our pancake batter no matter what type of pancakes we’re making, because the scooper makes it easy to get the batter out of the spoon and each pancake will be the same size so they’ll cook evenly.
After you put the pancakes on the griddle allow them to cook for a few minutes on the first side. They’re ready to flip when the sides start to bubble and set up.
Step 5: Serve your strawberry shortcake pancakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
When your strawberry shortcake pancakes are done, remove them from the griddle and serve warm.
Serve the pancakes with the sliced strawberries, some whipped topping, and some crumbled shortbread cookies on top. Enjoy!
And be sure to print the recipe below and add it to your list of flavorful dessert-style pancakes to make on your griddle! And check out some of our other YouTube videos for some more awesome pancake ideas:
- Cinnamon Roll Pancakes – Made with canned cinnamon rolls and pancake batter… Our kids LOVED these!
- Whiskey Cinnamon Pancakes – Whiskey, brown sugar, and cinnamon… what’s not to love?!
Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes with Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 pint strawberry ice cream melted
- 1 package strawberry muffin mix just add water or milk variety – comes in a bag
- 1 cup Bisquick baking mix
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk if needed to thin out the pancake batter
- 1/4 cup white chocolate chips optional
- 1/2 cup crushed shortbread cookies
- sliced strawberries for topping
- 1 tsp sugar to macerate strawberries
- whipped cream optional, for topping
Instructions
- Slice fresh strawberries and add to a bowl. Sprinkle sugar over strawberries and stir to combine. Set to the side.
- Combine melted ice cream, egg, Bisquick, white chocolate chips (optional), and bag of muffin mix in a large bowl and stir to combine. If batter appears to be too thick, add about 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup of milk to thin out to desired consistency.
- In a zip top bag, crush up shortbread cookies to a medium-fine consistency. You will need 1/2 cup of crushed cookies plus more for garnish.
- Add the 1/2 cup of crushed shortbread cookies to the pancake batter and fold in to combine.
- Add some butter to the heated griddle. Be sure that your griddle surface is not too hot.
- Spoon about 2 tablespoons of pancake batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Allow to cook for a few minutes on the first side. When pancakes start to set up and bubble a bit on the outsides, flip them to the second side and cook until done. (We added the pancakes to the griddle in batches of 6 at a time to make it more manageable.)
- When pancakes are done, remove from the griddle and allow to cool slightly.
- Serve your strawberry shortcake pancakes with the sliced strawberries and whipped cream on top. Finish with a sprinkling of crushed shortbread cookies.
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