IHOP's New Oreo Pancakes Are A Must-Order For This Sweet Reason

You've missed IHOP's Free Pancake Day (March 12, sorry, I'm feeling the pain, too) but the good news is, a new recipe is cooking up on the restaurant's griddle. The IHOP Oreo Oh My Goodness pancakes have the sweetest origin story, so who needs dinner food for dinner tonight, anyway?

The new addition to the breakfast chain's menu is enough to make anyone's mouth water: A stack of two buttermilk pancakes with Oreo cookie pieces inside, topped with icing, additional cookie crumbles, and whipped topping, according to the IHOP site. And maybe best of all, the site noted that a portion of every order will go to charity.

The new pancakes, which are available for a limited time, are the work of a young master breakfast chef, 6-year-old Brody Simoncini, according to food website the Daily Meal.

Brody was born with a rare defect in his abdominal wall, where many of his organs were born outside of his body, as his mom shared in a video posted to IHOP's YouTube account.

Dependent on a feeding tube for the first few years of his life, this little guy had help to be taught to eat on his own, and now, he’s healthy and can eat without a tube. Oreos were the first actual food his family fed to him when he was ready and able to eat, the Daily Meal added.

The happy ending to this story? Brody was one of three finalists chosen to compete in this year’s IHOP Kid Chef Champion competition.

All three junior chefs — Brody, Coleman Giles, 15, and Nellie Mainor, 8, had been treated at Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, the food site noted. Coleman’s Hawaiian Luau pancakes boasted such exotic tropical ingredients as banana, pineapple, and coconut, as the Daily Meal noted, while Nellie’s PaNellie Unicorn Pancakes were multi-colored with sprinkles and an ice cream cone horn, clearly channeling the current unicorn craze.

As IHOP's You Tube site detailed, Brody's win was all the more a miracle for how healthy and well he is, versus when he was a baby on a feeding tube. "It feels good to be a kid chef," Brody said with a big smile. "My Oreo pancakes are delicious."

According to the website Food Newsfeed, the competition's three finalists got to visit the IHOP Test Kitchen outside of Los Angeles, California to whip up their recipes in person and see what the experience of taking a recipe from page to plate was all about.

"The Kid Chef competition is such a special way to celebrate our long-standing partnership with IHOP and to kick off the brand’s annual Free Pancake Day campaign," John Lauck, the president and CEO of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, said, per Food Newsfeed.

"Stories like Brody’s are only possible because of the generous support CMN Hospitals receives from companies like IHOP, its franchisees, and its guests," Lauck added.

What a deliciously sweet story, with a happy ending, right? And with a dollar from the sale of each Oreo Oh My Goodness pancake stack being donated to charities including Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, this is really not something you can pass up.

Join me in throwing aside all sensible dietary restrictions to go hit up your local IHOP location, before this menu item goes away on April 14.

And please, pass the syrup.