Are McDonald's Hotcakes Made Fresh Every Day?

McDonald's breakfast is an institution – even those who aren't exactly morning people will happily show up early to McDonald's before their breakfast menu disappears at 11 a.m. The fast food franchise offers a variety of breakfast food items from sausage and egg McMuffins to breakfast platters featuring a stack of buttery hotcakes. This underrated breakfast item often gets overshadowed by the popular breakfast sandwiches, but die-hard fans know just how tasty these hotcakes are. In fact, McDonald's ranked first in Daily Meal's ranking of best fast food pancakes.

While they may taste warm and fluffy right out of the drive thru, they are definitely not made fresh each day. In fact, the hotcakes that McDonald's serves for breakfast arrive at locations frozen, and are reheated by employees when customers order them. Recently, a viral video exposed just how many items McDonald's simply reheats, including the fan-favorite sweet breakfast item.

In a TikTok, the creator and McDonald's employee showed a case of frozen hotcakes claiming that they simply heat them up. While the fluffy stack of hotcakes may have you believing they are made fresh to order, McDonald's isn't shy about discussing their suppliers that provide many of their pre-made foods.

@blexican_shay83

#screammovie #VozDosCriadores we hit 4.5M 😩😭. #4million #viral #thingsyoudidntknow #mcdonalds

♬ original sound – Blexican 💕✨

According to the company's website, there are many different suppliers from large corporations to family owned farms that provide various ingredients to McDonald's kitchens. McDonald's hotcakes are primarily supplied by Bama Companies located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company is known for providing the fast food chain with their signature pies, but they also prepare bakery goods like hotcakes and biscuits. The hotcakes arrive frozen and are stored until customers request an order of hotcakes.

Whether you order a big breakfast combo or a simple plate of hotcakes, they arrive with a side of butter and maple syrup. Funnily enough, the butter is "real," while the maple syrup is not. Per the product description, hotcakes are served with "a side of real butter and sweet maple flavored Hotcake syrup." If you are craving a stack of homemade pancakes with genuine maple syrup on top, McDonald's may not be the place to grab breakfast.

There are quite a few McDonald's menu items that aren't exactly fresh when you order them, including multiple types of eggs and breakfast burritos. While the round eggs that top McMuffin are cracked and prepared fresh in-house, the folded eggs and burrito eggs are pre-made and flash frozen before arriving at McDonald's locations. The corporate McDonald's website did confirm that frozen breakfast items that are premade by suppliers are later reheated in the microwave by McDonald's employees. 

While many commenters on the viral TikTok were not surprised to discover McDonald's was reheating their favorite breakfast items, a few ex-employees were surprised to see that methods had changed. One user wrote, "When I worked for many McDonald's about 25 to 30 yrs ago we cooked the folded eggs, the round eggs, burrito mix, and we had real pancake mix." There was also debate on Reddit about whether or not McDonald's ever made hotcakes from batter at each location. One self-identified former McDonald's worker remembered receiving a mixture back when they worked for the Golden Arches in 2007, while others recalled simply heating up frozen hotcakes. This variation could be chalked up to various decisions by individual franchise owners, although these days you likely won't see a McDonald's employee flipping pancakes on a grill.