Ree Drummond smiles as she stands on the set of 'Today'

Celebrity

‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Perfect Pancakes and Topping Bar Is a Breakfast Treat

Ree Drummond makes perfect foolproof pancakes and offers up a variety of toppings to take breakfast to the next level.

by Wendy Michaels

Published on July 28, 2022

2 min read

Ree Drummond perfected her recipe for pancakes

Drummond wrote about her perfect pancakes in a 2009 blog post on The Pioneer Woman website.

“Making pancakes from scratch is the only way to go,” she wrote. “But there’s only one problem: pancakes made from scratch often don’t taste as good as those made from good box mixes, let alone those in pancake houses. Pancakes at home are often either too eggy … or too chewy and tough … or just too blah.”

She added, “Lucky for you, I happen to be obsessed with pancakes and decided not to rest until I came up with the perfect pancake recipe. This one works every time, but you have to do absolutely everything I say or your life will spiral downward into a series of mishaps and lost opportunities.”

‘The Pioneer Woman’ star prepares a variety of pancake toppings

Drummond made her recipe for perfect pancakes on an episode of The Pioneer Woman. “It’s a big day of shipping cattle on the ranch and my family is going to be hungry,” she said. “So I’m going to make them a special treat for breakfast. It’s a pancake bar. Delicious pancakes at the center and lots of yummy things to put on top.”

The Food Network host started by making the sweet strawberries. She hulled strawberries and cut them in half. “They’re delicious on their own but I’m about to make them even more scrumptious,” she explained. Drummond combined the berries with sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest in a bowl.

“I love combining sugar with strawberries because the sugar just draws out all those juices and it just makes this natural syrup,” she explained. “Perfect to top pancakes with.”

Drummond made vanilla bean caramel sauce by combining brown sugar, heavy cream, butter, salt, and the caviar of a vanilla bean in a saucepan. “This is a super easy caramel sauce to make,” she said. The Pioneer Woman star allowed the sauce to bubble and thicken for five minutes.

Drummond also made whipped cream and cooked bacon and sausage patties.

Drummond said her pancake recipe ‘has never failed’ her

Drummond made the pancakes by combining the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt) in one bowl and milk, eggs, and vanilla in another bowl. She added the wet ingredients to the dry and gently stirred them together.

“I don’t want to overmix the batter so I’m just stirring gently with a spoon,” she explained. “I love this pancake batter. It has never failed me. The cake flour just gives it a really nice texture. And I can’t make pancakes without adding vanilla — so delicious.”

Drummond added a drizzle of melted butter to “give the pancakes a little bit of color, a little bit extra flavor,” then cooked them on a cast iron griddle.

In addition to the caramel sauce, whipped cream, bacon, and strawberries, Drummond offered a variety of other toppings: blueberries, bananas, blueberry yogurt, chocolate chips, and pancake syrup. She served the sausage on the side.