Regular pancakes made with all-purpose flour (with add-ins such as chocolate chips or blueberries, drizzled with maple syrup or honey), vegan, whole-wheat, gluten-free, you name it. 

No wonder pancakes are a staple of an American breakfast. This also means we usually have leftover pancakes stashed away safely in a corner of our refrigerator. 

In this article, we’ll go into the best way to reheat leftover pancakes and how to do it so they taste just as great as when you freshly made them.

Keep reading to find out more!

What’s the Best Way to Reheat Leftover Pancakes?

The best way to reheat leftover pancakes depends on several factors, such as the type and quantity of pancakes you need to reheat. 

Do your pancakes contain fresh fruit or berries? 

Are you reheating just a few pancakes or a larger batch?

Is it important to you that the pancakes are toasty on the outside and moist inside, or is it enough that they’re simply warmed through?

Your answers to these questions will help determine the most suitable reheating method, whether it’s using a microwave, toaster, frying pan, oven, or steamer. 

For instance, using a bread toaster isn’t a safe bet for reheating blueberry pancakes, as the fruit can get stuck to the coils and cause them to smoke. In such cases, using an oven or frying pan is preferable.

Or, if you have to feed a crowd, using a frying pan or toaster wouldn’t be time-efficient. 

Below, we explore the best methods to reheat pancakes keeping all these factors in mind. 

Best Method for Single-Serve Pancakes – The Toaster

A bread toaster is perfect when you need to reheat just a few pancakes. The results are exceptional, too. 

Think crispy edges, soft and fluffy centers, and a delightful aroma — especially if you didn’t forget the vanilla in the batter! 

To reheat pancakes in a toaster, place individual pancakes straight from your fridge or freezer inside each slot and turn the toaster up to medium heat. It should take between 90 seconds to two minutes for the pancakes to heat up. 

However, we recommend reheating a single pancake first to figure out the exact time and heat level that produces the best results in your toaster. 

Keep in mind that frozen pancakes might need up to an extra minute to heat through compared to refrigerated ones.

There is a caveat though. 

If your pancakes have add-ins like chopped fruit, chocolate chips, or even a bit of syrup from the last time, skip the toaster and go for a skillet instead.

Best Method for a Crowd – The Oven 

When you’ve got a crowd to feed, your trusty oven is the go-to for reheating a big batch of pancakes all at once. 

As with the toaster, keep an eye on the oven to make sure the pancakes don’t get burnt. You don’t need to stick around the whole time, though. 

To reheat pancakes in an oven, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Place the pancakes in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving some space between the pancakes. 

Tightly cover the sheet with aluminum foil to keep the pancakes from drying out, then pop it into the oven.

It should take around four minutes for a batch to get nice and warm. 

For frozen pancakes, it might take up to ten minutes. 

INSIDER TIP: If you are working with frozen pancakes, you can skip preheating. Place the pancakes inside the oven as you normally would (single layer, wrapped with foil) and turn on the oven to 350ºF. As the oven heats up, so will your pancakes, ensuring they warm up gently and evenly—plus, you’ll save time on preheating. This should take no longer than 10 minutes.

Another advantage of using an oven: Once your pancakes are warm, you can lower the temperature to 200ºF to keep them that way till you are ready to serve.

Other Methods to Reheat Pancakes 

Let’s look at some other methods to reheat pancakes.

Using a microwave

Nothing beats the convenience of a microwave for quickly heating food to piping-hot temperatures. 

Reheating frigid pancakes to fluffy perfection? Not so much. 

A microwave heats the moisture inside food and steams it from the inside out. For pancakes, this means the inside gets hot but the outside remains cold by comparison. 

Not only that, your pancakes can end up losing too much moisture and turn chewy. 

The best way to use a microwave to your advantage is to spread out the pancakes in a single layer on a microwave-safe dish, cover the pancakes with damp paper towels, and microwave them in 15-second intervals. 

Don’t overcrowd the microwave—stick to no more than five pancakes at a time.  

You can also flip the pancakes halfway through to ensure they don’t get soggy at the bottom. 

The reheating time depends on your microwave’s wattage and whether the pancakes were refrigerated or frozen. At full power, it should take just over a minute to reheat five pancakes taken straight out of a fridge.

If you plan to reheat in a microwave, allow frozen pancakes to thaw overnight in the refrigerator for the best results. 

Using a skillet

If you do not have access to a toaster or an oven, a skillet is a great alternative. Moreover, for pancakes with add-ins, reheating in a skillet is highly recommended. 

The only downside is you need to stick around to keep the pancakes from getting burnt. 

Refrigerated pancakes can be placed directly on a hot skillet in a single layer, whereas, frozen pancakes reheat better when allowed to heat up with the skillet. Otherwise, you could end up with pancakes with cold centers (oops!).

This is also a good time to add some extra butter to get those crispy edges and prevent the pancakes from sticking to your skillet. 

Make sure to arrange your pancakes so they don’t touch each other and flip them every 10 seconds. If your skillet is already hot, it should only take a minute or two at the most to reheat pancakes. 

Using an air-fryer

An air-fryer is suitable for reheating small batches of pancakes for an oven-like finish, minus the larger preheating power consumption. 

You can only place two-three pancakes (or one giant pancake) at a time in an air-fryer to ensure they are heated uniformly. 

To reheat pancakes in an air-fryer, preheat it to 350°F. Place the pancakes inside and air-fry them for up to two minutes on each side. You could also brush the pancakes with a little butter to add flavor and a slight crunch.

What’s the Worst Way to Reheat Pancakes? 

Among all the available methods to reheat pancakes, we found the microwave the sloppiest. Don’t get us wrong, this is any day better than having to consume cold pancakes. 

That said, a microwave doesn’t yield the moist, fluffy pancake we are used to eating straight from the griddle. Moreover, pancakes heated in a microwave must be consumed immediately to prevent them from turning dry or chewy and falling apart, ideally within five minutes.  

Insider’s Insight

No matter how you like your pancakes—crispy, fluffy, or somewhere in between—there’s a reheating method that suits your needs. 

Whether you’re using a toaster, oven, skillet, or even an air-fryer, you can enjoy your leftover pancakes as if they were freshly made. Just remember: avoid the microwave for the best results!