Lychee bloody eyeballs and a gloopy - and tasty! - lychee "blood" syrup take these fun Halloween pancakes recipe to a whole new level! Super tasty, too.
Lately, it’s been all about getting ready for spooky season, working on reshooting our favorite Halloween recipes, as well as developing new recipes.
We’ve been having so much fun with it, it is a wild way to spend June and July, LOL.
Anyway, we’ve been coming up with some fun Halloween breakfast ideas, and today I’m sharing my colorful Halloween pancakes.
Halloween themed pancakes come in all kinds of shapes and styles with many delicious recipes out there.
For some, their spooky breakfast may include ghost pancakes (Ghost form piped out, ghost’s eyes made from chocolate chips, naturally!), or maybe a Jack O lantern pancake with similar use of chocolate.
When it comes to others, it’s all about spiderweb pancakes, with the spider webs piped from a kitchen squeeze bottle nozzle, right into the pan.
... or maybe it’s BOTH, with a darker color pancake batter for a design outlined, filled in with a lighter color pancake batter
Maybe it’s Pumpkin Pancakes dyed with orange food coloring, or maybe we’re talking black pancakes.
Yeah... like I said, ALL kinds of shapes and styles!
MY Halloween Pancake Recipe
I wanted my spooky Halloween pancakes to be an easy breakfast idea for Halloween morning - fun pancakes, with twists on the classic components of the pancakes.
As my favorite pancake toppings tend to be fruit, going with Lychee “bloody eyeballs” was the obvious starting point.
You may remember them from such nonsense as my Bloody Eyeball Cupcakes,
Bloody Eyeball Halloween Punch, Halloween Pavlova, and my Halloween Shooters.
Yeah, I am definitely a fan of lychee eyeballs for Halloween. Tasty, easy to work with, and definitely.. Uh, eye catching.
I’m too lazy to do anything beyond a one-color batter, so I dyed these festive pancakes BRIGHT neon green, as a fun contrast to the topping.
It’s a fantastic buttermilk pancakes base, btw.
Finally, every pancake needs syrup, IMHO... and these clearly needed a “blood” drizzle.
I’m a big fan of not wasting food, so I whipped the syrup up from lychee syrup left over from making the eyeballs.
Not only is it cheap and efficient, it’s the perfect way to bring a bit more of that delicious lychee flavour to the plate, tying the whole thing together, nicely.
When it comes down to it, Halloween pancakes should look good... but they should also taste amazing. These spooky pancakes fit the bill on both counts - there’s a reason it’s our new favorite recipe for a fun breakfast on Halloween morning!
Anyway, Happy Halloween - enjoy these pancakes!
Ingredients
There are 3 main components to this recipe - the eyeballs, the sauce, and the pancakes.
The eyeballs and sauce can be made a day or so ahead if needed, just be sure to cover and chill both the lychees and sauce until ready to use.
I recommend gently heating the sauce before using, when made ahead.
Anyway, you will need:
The Bloody Eyeballs
Lychees in Syrup
Seedless strawberry jam
½ cup Fresh blueberries
You can substitute any red seedless jam - seedless raspberry jam, and red currant jam are some tasty option.
Also, if you find yourself unable to find any fresh blueberries - as we were when we made this recipe for the photo shoot - Saskatoon berries work just as well.
Thank heaven for local farmer’s markets!
The “Blood” Sauce
Granulated sugar
Corn starch
Lychee syrup
Red food colouring
As a note: If you’re avoiding corn starch, you can use ½-¾ teaspoon xanthan - it’s what I’ve been doing lately. Be sure it’s whisked into the sugar WELL, to avoid clumping.
The Buttermilk Pancakes
Here’s where the most basic of the ingredients are used. You will need:
All purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Buttermilk
Butter
Pure vanilla extract
Large egg
Lime green food colouring
* This recipe will work with milk or buttermilk. For that matter, I routinely make it with almond milk, as that's what we tend to have on hand.
If you want buttermilk pancakes and don't have buttermilk, measure 1 ½ tablespoon of lemon juice into your measuring cup, then topping up with regular milk to the 1 ¾ cup line. Let it sit for 5 minutes before using it.
* As far as the food colouring goes, I always use gel food coloring, as it gives the most intense colour.
Specifically, I recommend Americolor (what I used when I was in the USA), or ChefMaster (Which is the option more readily available here!).
* For dairy free pancakes, use your favourite milk alternative, and swap the melted butter out for vegetable oil or liquid coconut oil.
How to Make Bloody Eyeball Halloween Pancakes
The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is a pictorial walk through:
Bloody Eyeballs
Drain the lychees and reserve the liquid - you’ll need it for the sauce!
Sort through your lychees, and set aside any that are jacked up - cracked wide open, ragged, etc. You want ones that are in one piece and look good.
Next, spoon a few tablespoons of seedless red jam - I like currant, but raspberry and strawberry also work well - into a pastry bag. Snip a small amount of the end off.
Stick the tip of your pastry bag into the opening of a lychee, and pipe in a small amount of jam. Don’t fill it all the way, you need to leave a bit of room for the blueberry.
Note: For the lychees with a REALLY big cavity, I’ll usually put an extra blueberry in first, to take up some of the space. Then I’ll put the jam in.
Finally, pop a blueberry in. You want one roughly the size of the opening. Set it most of the way in, just bulging slightly outside of the opening.
Repeat with your remaining lychees. Place on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and chill until you’re ready to serve the pancakes.
Sauce
In a small pot, whisk together sugar and corn starch until well combined. Add lychee syrup, whisk until well combined and smooth.
Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once it starts to simmer, turn heat down to medium-low heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Add red food colouring, tinting to desired colour. Stir well and set aside.
Buttermilk Pancakes
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl (can be a small bowl or medium bowl), whisk together milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and egg until smooth. Add enough green dye to make it VERY vibrant, mix well to combine.
Pour wet ingredients mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients. Lightly stir, just until combined – do not over beat it!
Scoop ¼ cup of batter onto the hot griddle, gently spread batter out into a larger circle, about 4 – 4.5″ in diameter.
(If your batter seems a bit too thick to spread easily, whisk in a small amount of milk until it reaches a texture you like to work with!)
Cook pancakes until bubbles start popping through top surface. Flip, cook until done.
Divide pancakes among serving plates. Drizzle with “blood” sauce, top with several “bloody eyeball” lychees, serve immediately.
More Halloween Ideas
If you're still considering ideas for Halloween recipes and other ideas, be sure to check out my:
3D Halloween Bat Cupcakes
Bacon Wrapped Mummy Meatloaf
Black Velvet Cupcakes
Bloody Eyeball Cupcakes
Bloody Eyeball Halloween Punch
Deviled Eggs, Halloween Style!
Easy Halloween Bat Cupcakes
Elegant Halloween Charcuterie Board
Fruity Glazed Halloween Popcorn
Gluten-Free Black Velvet Cupcakes
Gluten Free Mummy Dogs
Gluten-Free Mummy Jalapeno Poppers
Halloween Pavlova
Halloween Shooters
Halloween Spider Web Cupcakes
Homemade Pastry Mummy Dogs
How to Carve a Pumpkin Like a Pro
Jalapeno Popper Mummies
Mummy Halloween Brownies
Mummy Pastries
Nightmare Before Christmas Cookies
Spider Halloween Bread Bowl
Spider Web Cookies
Share the Love!
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Festive Bloody Eyeball Halloween Pancakes Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Pastry bag
Ingredients
The Bloody Eyeballs
- 1 can Lychees Drained, syrup reserved
- Seedless strawberry jam
- ½ cup Fresh blueberries
The Sauce
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon Corn starch
- 1 cup Lychee syrup
- Red food colouring
Pancakes:
- 2 cups All purpose flour
- ¼ cup Granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 ¾ cups Buttermilk*
- ¼ cup Melted butter
- 2 teaspoons Pure vanilla extract
- 1 Large Egg
- Lime green food colouring
Instructions
Bloody Eyeballs:
- Drain the lychees and reserve the liquid - you’ll need it for the sauce!
- Sort through your lychees, and set aside any that are jacked up - cracked wide open, ragged, etc. You want ones that are in one piece and look good.
- Next, spoon a few tablespoons of seedless red jam - I like currant, but raspberry and strawberry also work well - into a pastry bag. Snip a small amount of the end off.
- Stick the tip of your pastry bag into the opening of a lychee, and pipe in a small amount of jam. Don’t fill it all the way, you need to leave a bit of room for the blueberry.
- Note: For the lychees with a REALLY big cavity, I’ll usually put an extra blueberry in first, to take up some of the space. Then I’ll put the jam in.
- Finally, pop a blueberry in. You want one roughly the size of the opening. Set it most of the way in, just bulging slightly outside of the opening
- If any excess jam seeps out, I like to sort of sweep it around the outer edge of the lychee opening. It’ll settle into the cracks and make the “eyes” look bloodshot!
- Repeat with your remaining lychees. Place on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and chill until you’re ready to serve the pancakes.
Sauce:
- In a small pot, whisk together sugar and corn starch until well combined. Add lychee syrup, whisk until well combined and smooth.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once it starts to simmer, turn heat down to medium-low and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Add red food colouring, tinting to desired colour. Stir well and set aside.
Pancakes
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and egg until smooth. Add enough green dye to make it VERY vibrant, mix well to combine.
- Pour wet ingredient mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients. Lightly stir, just until combined – do not over beat it!
- Lightly oil your griddle or frying pan, preheat over medium-low heat. Scoop ¼ cup(50 ml) amounts of batter onto the griddle.
- Gently spread batter out into a larger circle, about 4 – 4.5″ in diameter.
- Cook until bubbles start popping through top surface. Flip, cook until done.
- Repeat with remaining batter.
- Divide pancakes among serving plates. Drizzle with “blood” sauce, top with several “bloody eyeball” lychees, serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
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