07/07/2025
Hey, here is a recipe AND a Quick Bread Tutorial for you!
We tested these Sheetpan Pancakes out on over a thousand hungry students over the course of a week of training at Sierra Sands USD in Ridgecrest, CA back in May.
The response was overwhelmingly positive! Kids really loved them!
From a cooks perspective, we loved them too!
Why? We not only love the taste and texture, but it’s easy to make.
Easy to manage in production through mixing, panning up, cutting and serving.
The other thing I love about this recipe is it gives us access to teaching the concept of quick breads. These are the skills that underpin the activity surrounding the making of quick breads. It may sound simple, but if you follow these few extra tips when making quick breads, you’re going to end up with a much better product than if you were just to dump it all together and mix it willy-nilly.
Here are a few tips and ideas to make this a win for you right out of the gate!
First, props to the chef/author of this one, Chef Petraglia! Thank you!
Next:
This is considered a Quick Bread.
Quick breads come together by scaling up the dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls, mixing each very well first before combing them.
Then, add dry to wet (or wet to dry if you prefer) and mix JUST UNTIL BARELY MIXED. This is most important.
Over mixing is the biggest potential problem when making any quick breads. The reason we mix the wet and dry very well, and separately, is because we want all the ingredients evenly distributed before combining as we want to do everything we can to avoid over mixing.
Just so you know, over-mixing quick bread batter develops the gluten and makes for a tougher chewier product instead of a tender, cakey finished product, and it also causes what is called “tunneling”. Those are vertical bubble tunnels that are caused from over mixing. you can see tunneling most dramatically when you break open a muffin that has been over mixed and you’ll see vertical tubes running up and down inside the muffin.
Once you have the BARELY MIXED TOGETHER batter, then we scale and pan it up on to prepared sheet pans.
I like to spray the pan lightly with pan spray then apply the paper. This makes it so the paper sticks to the pan and doesn’t move while I apply and spread out the batter. We also lightly sprayed the paper.
We used 9 pounds per pan, which is basically a full to the top, gallon measure, if you want to measure that way instead of using a scale.
We got three sheet pans out of a recipe.
After you have the batter onto the pans, gently spread it out. Beware that every time you touch the battery you’re mixing it more so getting it spread out quickly and efficiently is important to avoid overmixing.
It’s now ready for the oven!
If you’d like, sprinkle on some fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries or cut strawberries! Even try a little sprinkle of granola or streusel topping for exciting variations.
You can see from the pictures what they’re going to look like when they come out of the oven. Rotating will be important during cooking, for even browning. Also, you might wanna watch that top pan as it’s going to brown faster on top than the bottom one.
As far as the syrup goes, I’d highly recommend brushing on the syrup and serving it without any on the side.
First of all, this is a great way of controlling sugar and gives it an appealing glazed appearance.
And secondly, it eliminates the wasted labor of cupping, and avoids additional plastic waste from serving with pre-packed syrup.
Please consider abandoning the practice of cutting up fruit and condiments as much as humanly possible!
Cutting: the recipe suggests two, 3” inch pieces for 2 Bread/Grains, and that’s great! I really liked the way we served it as nuggets or bites cut in smaller pieces so basically we served six smaller pieces as opposed to two large pieces. Fun and easy to eat that way!
Oh, and one last thing…
Now you understand everything you need to know about making quick breads. That is pretty much any muffin, corn bread, many types or cakes. Pretty much any non-yeast fired batter baking application. By that I just mean, leavened by chemical means such as baking soda and baking powder.
Now you UNDERSTAND the METHOD for the next time you make ANY item like that, and you’ll be much more successful.
Recipes in cooking are important, but SKILLS are THE MOST IMPORTANT!Once you have the skills associated with a recipe under your belt, then the fog is lifted, things become much more clear, and you become a better cook!
I’d love to hear comments and see pictures about your use of this recipe, and let me know your questions!
Also, please remember that you ROCK and that you are doing such important work, feeding our nations children! Thank you!🙏
