When it comes to breakfast, everyone always has a preference, especially when it comes to deciding between pancakes and French toast.
I am definitely on team pancakes. Sorry, French toast, but pancakes have stolen my heart. The light and fluffy cakes have endless possibilities that French toast can never live up to.
Sure, you can stuff French toast with whipped cream, jelly, cream cheese and other sweet concoctions, but that's a little over the top for me. It's more of a dessert than a breakfast dish. Breakfast needs to kick-start your day, not kick you in the gut.
Pick a Size, Any Size
Whether you want millionaire pancakes or hanging-over-the-sides-of-the-plate pancakes, it's up to you...and the size of your spatula. With French toast, it's all the same size due to the constricting size of the bread. I like having the choice to make large flapjacks or tiny medallions.
Nutritious and Delicious
Pancakes can be healthy or sinful, while French toast can pretty much be sinful. Try making French toast with whole wheat bread; it's not going to work. The bread is too limp and won't hold up in a skillet after you have drenched it in eggs. If you want whole-wheat pancakes, all you have to do is substitute flour or Bisquick for whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat Bisquick. In fact, the healthy substitution creates a nuttier flavor in the pancakes. So not only can you make a healthy breakfast but a tasty one, too. Beat that, French toast.
Light and Fluffy
I absolutely love the texture of pancakes. They're thick, yet fluffy, and when paired with butter and syrup, they melt in your mouth. French toast seems too chewy. If I had to choose between a tough texture and a soft texture, I'd take the latter.
Easy as Pie
Pancakes are also more efficient to make than French toast. You can add multiple ingredients to multiple pancakes all at the same time. If you want chocolate chips, your mom wants strawberries and your dad wants blueberries, it's simple and easy. But with French toast, you have to make three different batches that take a lot more time than it takes to make pancakes. People are hungry in the morning; you don't want to keep them waiting.
Also, if you screw up the first batch of pancakes (because the first batch is never perfect), you have a whole bowl full of batter left to fix your mistake. If you mess up French toast, you have to start all over again. What a bummer and a lot of wasted bread.
Endless Possibilities
Savory. Sweet. Plain. Extravagant. It's up to you. From the flavor of the cake to the flavor of the added ingredients, your possibilities are limitless -- buttermilk, chocolate chip, banana, strawberry, blueberry, ricotta, cranberry, whole wheat, sweet potato and any vegetable you enjoy for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sure, most of these ingredients you can put with French toast, but there's something about adding bits and pieces of ingredients to the pancakes that's so much more intriguing and fun than placing them on top of French toast or between two slices of bread.
I love adding fresh bananas with chocolate chips and pecans to buttermilk pancakes while simultaneously listening to Jack Johnson's "Banana Pancakes." Banana slices make the pancakes smooth and add a natural sweetness. The melted chocolate chips make me feel warm and comforted. Add the nutty pecans, and you have the perfect combination of smooth and crunchy.
Pancakes clearly win this fight. Whether you like them oozing with chocolate chips or you love them plain, simple and fluffy, there's an option for everyone.
Readers, what's your favorite pancake?
Follow Eating Our Words on Facebook and on Twitter @EatingOurWords