Creamy Cheese

Ricotta and mascarpone, both soft Italian cheeses, can elevate pancakes. They both have mild flavors that make them a perfect addition to sweet dishes.

If you can't find either of these cheeses, you can swap in cottage cheese, which has a similarly mild flavor while adding some extra nutrition and a nice fluffy texture.

Buttermilk

Buttermilk is fermented milk with a slightly acidic flavor. When used in baking, it can make the fluffiest pancakes, waffles, biscuits, and other baked goods around.

Bacon

Combine two delicious breakfast foods and make pancake batter-dipped bacon. Cook the bacon first, then layer the batter and bacon in a hot pan.

Pour a little strip of batter in, place a strip of bacon on top, and pour some more batter over it. Crumbled candied bacon can also make for a yummy salty-sweet pancake topping.

Corn

Corn is a versatile ingredient that can be incorporated into pancakes by adding cornmeal or whole corn kernels, providing extra sweetness and texture.

Add whole corn kernels into your pancake batter in the same way you might add blueberries or chocolate chips. You could also use canned corn niblets or creamed corn.

Bananas

Fluffy banana pancakes incorporate banana into the flour batter, but some recipes actually replace most of the other ingredients with straight up unadulterated banana.

Either way, it makes for a moist, flavorful and fruity pancake. Bananas also go great with other toppings like peanut butter, Nutella, or jam.