Best Pan for Pancakes: Reviews & Buying Guide

Leaving that pan to soak in the sink because it has batter stuck in the grooves? Can’t flip a flapjack to save your life? Your pancake pan has seen the end of its days, and it’s time to retire it in exchange for the best pan for pancakes.

Pancakes cook fast, which is why you need a pan that can keep up with you. No more sticking, no more difficulty when it comes to flipping, and no more compromising on the end result of your food. That’s all in the past.

These are the best pan for pancakes that prevent sticking, have the surface space you need, and ensure a better end result nearly every single time.

Best Pan for Pancakes Reviews

Our Top Picks

Calphalon Signature 12” Nonstick Anodized Pancake Griddle Pan

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This is hands down the best pancake pan that we’ve used. Calphalon is known for being premium, but they really went above and beyond with this single pan. Your handle is triple-bolted onto the pan to provide far more stability during cooking, so you can move it around and get those pancakes moving without loosening the handle.

The anodized aluminum body helps conduct heat beautifully, so you get that nice even golden brown color on all of your pancakes with no problems. This pan can get pretty hot, so it’s best to start on a lower heat and let it come up to temperature before you drop batter in the pan to avoid burning.

Everything comes PFOA-free for safety, and has an anti-scratch design on the bottom to be safe on induction and electric coil stovetops. Whatever you’re cooking on, Calphalon is there to lend a helping hand.

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Gotham Pancake Bonanza Double Flip Copper Pancake Pan

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Flipping pancakes can end catastrophically (especially if breakfast isn’t the type of meal you’re best-known for). This double flip pan is designed to take the guesswork out of everything by closing like a hatch, and allowing you to flip your pancake right then and there. It makes it infinitely easier to make perfect-looking pancakes.

As the best cookware set for electric coil stoves on our list, the scratch resistant bottom can withstand a bit of tough love during cooking. The only issue here is with the hinge, which needs to be oiled regularly to stay on track and provide excellent performance.

For faster pancakes, you can heat up both sides at the same time, and after you drop that batter in, just drop the top and let it cook. Flip it halfway through to get that fantastic golden brown color. This is made of titanium and copper, which is great for conducting heat as well as providing an easy to clean surface when all is said and done.

You get a 180-day return policy on top of a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer, all for a ridiculously low cost (especially compared to other pancake pans). You’ve got nothing to lose.

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Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Anodized Crepe Pan

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Cuisinart may have just made one of the best pans period, but for the same of pancakes, it’s just a touch below the others that we’ve reviewed so far. It looks simple, but when you break down each component, it comes together nicely.

This pan is safe up to 500°F, so if you ever wanted to use this for another purpose, you could even broil food in here. It’s important to note that while this is an excellent pancake pan, it’s an excellent all-around pan for your kitchen.

Cuisinart uses a patented nonstick top to help prevent pancakes and eggs from sticking. This could become your all-in-one breakfast pan. Thanks to the double-rivet handle and its angle, you’ll have plenty of control. Even if you scrape this against an electric coil pan, the hardened anodized aluminum won’t scrape or create heat indifferences.

It’s a crepe pan, and as we all know, there are very few differences between pancakes and crepes. It’s not the best pan to make pancakes—it’s so much more than that. This is essentially your utility pan for all of breakfast. You can use the heightened edges to make a fruit sauce for your pancakes, or fry up banana slices to serve on top.

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Cainfy Nonstick Four-Slot Pancake Pan

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Mini pancakes? Yes please. Cainfy made this pan exactly for the reason of making pancakes. It’s the best pan to cook pancakes especially if you have little ones and want to make smaller portions for them.

With four deep cups specifically designed for pancakes, you just have to spray and pour. If you want to skip butter or cooking spray, the nonstick material will handle everything for you. One of the best features of this pan is the raised, highly durable handle. It rests at an angle so you can tilt back the pan and use your spatula to wedge underneath each pancake as you retrieve them.

It’s important to note that this isn’t oven safe, and that it’s not recommended to use in the dishwasher. Because of the edges inside of each pancake hole, water can build up and create rust if you aren’t careful—skip the dishwasher altogether.

You have a generous 10.5” diameter for cooking, as well as a 100% PFOA-free design to keep your food as safe as possible. There is no warranty with this pan.

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Farberware Square Nonstick Aluminum Pancake Pan

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Farberware made one of the best griddle pan for pancakes that completely negates the need for a standalone griddle. You get a generous 11” of space in this single square pan, which is completely dishwasher safe.

Raised edges along the side of each pan allow you to keep batter in without spilling off onto your burner. If you want to grill some fruits or make a sauce for your pancakes, those sides will come in handy as well.

Farberware is a good middle-of-the-road brand, although they do come with a few caveats to mention. You will eventually experience handle jiggling with this pan, and you can only use nylon utensils on it at the risk of leaving scratches. The nonstick coating is excellent, but fragile. As a result, you want to avoid putting this in the dishwasher.

Farberware does include a lifetime warranty with this pan, as well as an oven safe rating up to 350°F (just enough to let you reheat food in the oven without damaging the handle). The aluminum alloy design spreads heat out evenly for that perfect golden brown color across every single pancake, every time.

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Favia Nonstick Crepe Pan Skillet with Spreader

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Favia has this excellent pan that comes with its own bamboo wooden tool, because it’s actually designed for crepes. You have the option of grabbing the 8.5” crepe pan here, or the 11” skillet-style pan with the same conductive aluminum layer; both of which make excellent pancakes.

While this is easy to clean, the coating isn’t the most durable. You will run into problems if you use abrasive tools that aren’t wooden or nylon, so be careful with that. This is PFOA, PFOS, PFAS, and cadmium-free, and that comes with some performance trade-offs as it were.

You have a lifetime guarantee on quality, so long as you don’t push your pan past its limits. You can put this in the oven up to 250°F, and while that’s not a lot, it’s enough to keep your breakfast warm.

Usable on induction, gas, and electric stoves, Favia’s pan comes with decent utility, albeit with some restrictions. You can save money by opting for this pan over Calphalon’s at the top of the list.

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Best Pan for Pancakes Buying Guide and FAQ

What to Look for in Pancake Pans

Not sure which pancake pan to choose? Not a problem. You can prioritize what matters most to you by looking at individual features objectively.

• Consistent Heating: We want the same level of heat to spread across the entire pan. That’s how we get consistent cooking, and that delicious golden brown look to our pancakes. However, this is such a difficult concept to actually bring to fruition. Heat has its source and its contact point on the pan, and those spots are always going to run a little bit hotter. What pancake pans do is create surfaces that heat quickly with conductive metals like aluminum. Copper works as well, but aluminum is still the best conductive metal for pancake pans.

• Surface Space: More space means more pancakes, provided that the last point of consistent heating still stands. Ideally, you’ll be able to select a pan that gives you the space you need to cook. How many pancakes are you making during each batch, and how many people are you feeding? How many individual cooking batches do you want to do once the batter has been made? You have to think about all of this when you choose a surface size. Depending on the size of your family, you just might end up with more than one pan (your burner is only so big).

• Versatile Handle: We talk a lot about the different handles on these pans, and for good reason. You want to be able to have control when you’re making pancakes. Some of us will use a spatula or a wooden flipper to turn our pancakes over, but if you’re daring, you can slide your pancake in the pan and flip it through air air. Handles dictate your leverage and control over your pans, and will matter a great deal when it comes to cleaning and using these pans in the oven.

• Nonstick Design: Who wants to scrape batter out of a pan when you should be enjoying your breakfast? Nobody. There are multiple nonstick materials you can choose from, and you will find tons of brands that offer different nonstick coatings, although some do work better than others. You have porcelain, ceramic, treated steel, aluminum, and so many more options with different levels of nonstick properties. Each material has different care options as well, so be on the lookout for how to manage those.

What is the Best Pan to Make Pancakes?

Calphalon’s 12” pan simply stole the show for us. With its high sides, triple bolt-on handle, and ample space to pour out tons of pancake batter, it has everything you need in a frying pan.

Apart from those points, we understand that more people cook on electric coil stovetops nowadays, and Calphalon is designed to be scratch-resistant and prevent damage to your pans, and to your coils.

It only makes sense. They’re a little pricier than some of the other pancake pans we reviewed today, but for what you get (a lifelong pan with multiple uses), it’s worth every penny and then some.

Can You Make Pancakes in a Normal Pan?

Of course you can. Then again, you can also make cupcakes using heat-resistant flower pots, and we don’t see anyone pulling daisies out of their oven. There are tons of gadgets in your kitchen that have uses outside of their intended purpose, and plenty that have limitations.

You can use a traditional frying pan if you really wanted to and get some halfway decent pancakes, but the pans we’ve shown you today have special features that make them optimized for pancakes, crepes, eggs, and other delicate breakfast foods.

From thinner plates to better heating elements, raised edges for batter and more, these pans just offer you a little bit more than what you already have in the pantry at home. Even cooking surfaces and consistently golden brown pancakes are the main reasons you would buy a designated pancake pan.

Do These Pans Cook Pancakes Faster?

Pans specifically designed for pancakes, such as the Farberware pan we talked about earlier, are made to be thinner. This seems like a weakness at first or a lapse in production quality, but in reality it’s simply designed to get more heat through the metal as quickly as possible.

You can have the best pan for making pancakes and have it outperform a standard skillet or frying pan just because of that conductivity. Griddle pans also offer nonstick surfaces, and while that doesn’t cook pancakes faster, they sit on top of an aluminum plate, which at least helps with heat distribution. You don’t want half of your pancake to still be stark white while the rest is golden brown (looking at you, standalone griddles with no consistency).

It’s difficult to say if your pancakes will cook faster, but with a designated pancake pan, they will at least cook more thoroughly and offer more consistent results time after time.

What Oven Temperatue Do You Need for Pancakes?

If you wanted to make stuffed pancakes, extra large pancakes, or do anything apart from your traditional flapjacks, you have to use the oven. All the direct heat of a gas or electric cooktop is going to over-brown the outside of your pancake, and leave the interior runny and soggy. Nobody wants that on their plate for breakfast.

Thankfully, most of the pans on this list are oven safe. You need about 375°F to bake a pancake properly and have it come out the way you want it to. This works wonderful for apple pancakes, which are notoriously tricky to cook all the way through. Most run-of-the-mill frying pans aren’t even oven safe; plastic handles will disform, rivets will loosen, and it will seriously run its course through your frying pan.

But then, there’s pancake pans. Oven safe, designed to withstand that level of stress, and fitted to evenly allocate all that heat across your entire pancake—those are just some of the reasons that pancake pans are better than standard frying pans.

Is it Worth it to Get a Griddle Instead?

If you have the need for it, you can get a griddle instead, but there’s a big trade-off here that you have to realize. Griddles run the same cost as these pans, but those low-tier griddles have limited heating coils (you can see these on the bottom of most griddles).

However, pancake pans spread heat evenly across the entire surface, which offer a consistent golden brown crust over your entire pancakes. Griddles have hot spots and warm spots, which is why you can end up with half-done looking pancakes that are golden on one side, and sort of transition into a pale white on the other side of the pancake.

Griddles have much larger surface spaces than pancake pans do, but with inconsistent heating, you’re left pushing around half of your pancake batch while the others finish cooking, which takes up more time. Higher-end griddles can offer better heating, but at the cost difference, you’re better off with one or two pancake pans for more consistent results. Consider the time spent cooking, and if you’re willing to get a very expensive griddle to compensate for more space.

Making the Best Pancakes Requires the Best Pan!

It’s time to get excited about making breakfast again. From the perfect flip to the best griddle-style pan, there’s something for everyone on our list. Pancakes don’t have to be a mediocre breakfast anymore.

Now that you know which pans are your best bet and how to maintain them properly, there’s nothing standing in your way of making a better breakfast. Keep all of our buying points in mind before you finalize your decision.