How To Use Cookie Cutters For The Sweetest Photo-Worthy Pancakes

To describe something as cookie-cutter may be slightly reductive, implying a lack of originality, but when you take your cookie cutter and use it in an unexpected format, the result is anything but unoriginal. Cookie cutters — tiny molds that are most commonly used to shape sugar cookies — have been around for a long time: it is believed that they first appeared in Italy as early as the 15th century, before making their way to America by way of European immigrants. 

Cookie cutters used in other atypical applications, however, are more recent — like using a cookie cutter to make pancakes. Pancakes, which are traditionally round in shape, take on a whole new life form when cooked in fun shapes like a star, snowman, or dinosaur. 

If your cookie cutters have been sitting neglected somewhere in a drawer, bust them out on a Saturday morning to make some show-stopping pancakes that'll be Instagram-able. All you need is a cookie cutter and some foil.

A little effort is all it takes to make your pancake stack a little more interesting. The next time you want to make pancakes, prepare your batter and then pull out your cookie cutters — you can use any shape and multiple molds, as long as they are made out of metal, since they'll be going on your skillet or pancake girdle.

Next, you'll need to grease your cookie cutter before transforming it into a pancake mold with a foil-based DIY hack. Take a few pieces of foil, and then fold each one into the width roughly the shape of a straw. Each long piece of foil will act as holding points to lift up the cookie-cutter-turned pancake mold.

To secure them to the mold, wrap it around several points and twist to make sure they're on tight. You'll then place the pancake mold onto the hot surface and pour the batter in. Once cooked on that side, you can tap the pancake out of the mold, and flip it to cook fully. Et voilà: you'll have photo-worthy pancakes that are anything but cookie-cutter.