Essential Pancake Recipe

We love basic, no-fail recipes. Recipes you come back to again and again. Those that you know are easy to adapt or add to with ease. This recipe is just that. It’s simple and we’re willing to bet you’ve got everything you need to make them right now.

Pancake Recipe 101

 

This recipe makes light and fluffy pancakes. They’re not too sweet and are lightly scented with vanilla, making them extra delicious. See all those air pockets?

1. The Ingredients

 

For the dry, you’ll need:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Baking powder
• Salt — We like to use 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (sometimes 1 teaspoon). It balances the sugar nicely and brings out lots of flavor in the pancake.

For the wet, you’ll need:

• Milk
• Melted butter
• One egg
• Vanilla extract

2. Mix It

 

Over-mixing batter is a common pancake mistake — it makes pancakes heavy and flat. To prevent this, mix dry and wet ingredients separately at first then combine just before cooking.

Once you’re ready to cook, combine the two mixes — we use a fork. Stir until you no longer see dry clumps of flour. There can be some small lumps, though.

3. Adapt It

 

This is our essential pancake recipe. We use it often as is, but have used it as a base for other pancakes. Add what you love. Here are a few suggestions:

• Sprinkle a handful of berries, nuts or chocolate chips into the batter. (We love adding fresh blueberries for blueberry pancakes)
• Layer a few thin slices of strawberry or banana onto the wet batter once added to the skillet. Then, flip.
• Add lemon zest or spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice.
• Try replacing some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.
• Add a few spoonfulls of flax seeds, oats or reduce the sugar.

There’s lots of things you can do to make these your own. So go experiment and add what you love. Then, if you’d like, come back and share what worked for you. We’d love to read about it.

 

Prep time    10 minutes

Cook time   20 minutes

Total time    30 minutes

 

Pancakes that are light and fluffy. They’re not too sweet and are lightly scented with vanilla, making them extra delicious. These are easy to adapt — try adding a handful of berries, nuts or chocolate to the batter.

Yield: 8 pancakes

You Will Need

• 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour (we use Gold Medal all-purpose flour)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cups (295 ml) milk, whole or 2% reduced fat milk are best
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for skillet
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

 

Prepare Pancake Batter

1. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and the salt in a medium bowl.
2. Warm milk in microwave or on top of stove until lukewarm, not hot (you should be able to keep your finger submerged for 10 seconds). Whisk milk, egg, melted butter and the vanilla extract until combined. (By warming the milk slightly, the melted butter mixes into the milk instead of turning into small lumps).

Cook Pancakes

1. Heat a large skillet (or use griddle) over medium heat. The pan is ready if when you splatter a little water onto the pan surface, the water dances around the pan and eventually evaporates.
2. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, pour milk mixture into the well and use a fork to stir until you no longer see clumps of flour. It is okay if the batter has small lumps, in fact you want that – it is important not to over-mix the batter.
3. Lightly brush skillet with melted butter. Use a 1/4-cup measuring cup to spoon batter onto skillet. Gently spread the batter into a 4-inch circle.
4. When edges look dry and bubbles start to appear and pop on the top surfaces of the pancake, turn over. This takes about 2 minutes. Once flipped, cook another 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked in the middle.
5. Serve immediately with warm syrup, butter and/or berries.

Notes and Tips

We use kosher salt. If you don’t have it on hand, keep this in mind: 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt = about 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt.

SHARE

About O-ss206