You'll Flip For These Giant Pancakes

You know how the first pancake you make isn't great? Well, not with this recipe. It's a little misleading to say that, I guess, because this recipe really only makes one pancake. One perfect sheet of golden brown pancake stippled with blueberries. Fluffy, but also textured thanks to the cornmeal, it feels at once familiar but also a little different than your average flapjack.

As much as we would love to claim this recipe as our own, it's one of many brilliant sheet pan recipes from the new cookbook Hot Sheet, by Olga Massov & Sanaë Lemoine. You might recognize Massov's name from The Washington Post, where she is a food editor, while Lemoine, who writes novels as well as recipes, was a cookbook editor at Phaidon Press and Martha Stewart Books. The sheet pan, although often used, can feel less special than other kitchen equipment, but their new book explores just how versatile the humble pan is.

Massov even includes a genius tip for customizing this recipe to a large crowd's varied tastes: "I love a blueberry pancake, but you may be a chocolate chip person, or maybe you like nuts—or perhaps you’re a pancake purist and balk at the idea of anything contaminating that beautiful pancake texture. Feel free to experiment and find your favorite combination. Or, you can do like my Washington Post colleague Becky Krystal did: Make rows of preferred toppings in case you’ve got a house divided."

As someone who struggles not to make a recipe her own, I was inspired by the open-ended format. I had apples languishing the fridge, and thinly sliced them to shingle over half of the batter. The apples worked beautifully, especially showered with powdered sugar and cinnamon right out of the oven. Since I was feeding a crowd of just two, I froze squares of the pancake to defrost as needed throughout the work week as an easy breakfast. (Sans syrup, its a good on the go breakfast, too).

Whether you're entertaining or just in need of a delicious breakfast for yourself, consider this recipe. I know I'm thanking my past self for prepping a whole sheet tray worth of pancakes in advance...