Pancakes or Waffles?

It’s Sunday morning, you wake up to a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and your stomach is rumbling. You decide on a sweet treat, something fluffy and decadent, maybe with some blueberries or whipped cream on top. The question is which breakfast staple are you going to eat to satisfy your cravings? Which item reigns supreme, pancakes, or waffles?

Pancakes and waffles are both mostly made with the same basic ingredients: eggs, flour, milk, and butter or oil. The macros for an average 3.5oz waffle is 10g of fat, 49g of carbs, and 7g of protein for a total of 310 calories. The macros for a pancake of the same size are 5g of fat, 39g of carbs, 5g of protein for a total of 225 calories. So while a basic waffle might have more protein, a pancake has better macros and has 20 percent fewer calories than a waffle. Waffles also tend to have more refined sugar in them than pancakes. Amy Goodson, who worked for the Dallas Cowboys, said that “pancakes are easier to turn healthy”. She goes on to suggest “for more fiber, use refined flour and use a quality flour source like oat, buckwheat, or chickpeas.” She also recommends “subbing in unflavored whey protein for half the flour to amp up the protein and make it a more complete meal.”

The main difference between pancakes and waffles is the cooking process. In order to make a waffle, you need to have a waffle iron. The waffle iron helps to make the cooking process easier as it requires less labor, and produces consistent results every time. For a pancake, you don’t need any special equipment you can’t find in the average home. Pancakes are more labor-intensive and leave a larger margin for error as you control the heat of the pan, the size of the pancake, and the cooking time. Although the cooking process of pancakes seems like it would be more difficult, Alexa Darragh, an employee at Nina’s Waffles & Ice Cream, claims that it is easier to make pancakes at home. This is a strong piece of evidence for the pancake side, as Darragh stated “on the weekend I could make up to 60-70 waffles.” Alexa is not the only Nina’s Waffles employee that claims it is easier to make pancakes, Chloe Maialetti also thinks pancakes are easier to make at home.

In a poll sent out to students, and teachers of Pennridge Highschool the results came back in a 50/50 split between pancakes and waffles. In order to make a final decision about which is better, pancakes or waffles, we did a price comparison between three different restaurants. At A&N Diner 3 pancakes cost $4.90, and their Belgian Waffle costs $5.75 for an $0.85 difference in favor of pancakes. At IHOP and Perkins, both chain restaurants, pancakes were $1.00 cheaper at both of these restaurants. Although Nicole Gordienko, Pennridge Journalism teacher, prefers crispy waffles over fluffy pancakes, our research shows pancakes are better than waffles. Pancakes have better macros, 20 percent fewer calories, and a more simplistic cooking method than waffles.

At the end of the day, everyone has their own reasons for choosing between pancakes over waffles. Maybe you like being able to fill each hole of a waffle with syrup, or you like being able to vary the size of your pancakes. They are both delicious breakfast treats that you can make your own. So if you’re team pancakes or team waffles, we can all agree that pancakes and waffles are better than french toast.