The Best Fluffy Pancakes recipe you will fall in love with. Full of tips and tricks to help you make the best pancakes.
There is a syndrome that we have probably all experienced at some point or another: you mix up a batter for pancakes. It looks fine in the bowl. But when you put it on the skillet or griddle, they flatten out and you end up with a pancake that is more akin to a pancake-flavored frisbee than a fluffy stack of goodness. You can put all sorts of ingredients in your batter, but there are a few things to keep in mind when you are mixing and cooking your batter in order to ensure your pancakes don’t end up too dense. When you mix flour, liquid, eggs, and a bit of leavening, bubbles begin to form in the batter. When the batter is placed in a hot pan, these bubbles expand and if your batter is structured correctly, the bubbles will be trapped, giving you fluffy pancakes. If the structure of your batter collapses, you will end up with frisbees.
So, it is worth mastering the pancake batter in order to avoid the disappointment of tossing a flat pancake. The first thing to try if you are getting flat pancakes is to mix your batter less. Over mixing batter develops the gluten in the flour, which will make your pancakes tough and dense. Combine ingredients gently until no dry pockets remain. Don’t over mix. In fact, it is better to leave a few lumps in the batter than to over mix it. Next, you want to let the batter rest for a few minutes before you start scooping it into the pan. This will allow the flour to soak up all the liquid in the batter and it will give the leavening agent a chance to start making bubbles in your batter. This step seems like a small thing, but it can make a big difference in the final product.
Another trick is to make sure your pan isn’t too hot. If the pan is too hot, it will cause the exterior of the pancake to cook too quickly. If the exterior of the pancake cooks before the inside gets a chance to expand, you will be left with a dense pancake. When batter touches the surface, listen for a quiet sizzle rather than an aggressive hiss. You want it to sizzle, but not to violently boil or pop when the batter hits the pan. Once you have poured the batter into the pan, wait for a minute or until you see bubbles forming on the surface of the batter. Once bubbles have formed and popped, you will start to see the raw edge around the exterior of the pancake start to cook and look dry. This is a sign that it is time to flip your pancake. If you flip it too soon, you will flatten out the batter. If you don’t flip soon enough, you will burn the pancake.
Don’t add too much milk to your batter. If the first pancake doesn’t spread as quickly as you like, you may be tempted to add more milk to thin out the batter. But if you add too much milk to the batter, the structure of the batter will collapse and you will have dense frisbees. Instead of adding more milk, add just a little bit at a time and cook another test pancake.
By adding just a little bit of milk at a time and testing as you go, you can find the right consistency without over thinning the batter. Finally, a little practice can go a long way. Set aside fifteen minutes each day to mix up a small batch of batter and cook three pancakes. Each day, change one variable (such as how well you mix the batter or how hot the pan is) and see what effect it has on your pancakes. Keep a notebook handy and jot down the changes you make and the results. Within a week, you should have a good idea of what makes a pancake light and fluffy and what makes a pancake into a dense frisbee.
