Anytime Pancakes Put down the box mix. You’ve got everything you need to make tall, luffy pancakes in minutes. j BY LAN LAM k
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One way to increase lift was to add more leavener. I tested increasing amounts of baking powder until I settled on 4 teaspoons— at least double the amount per cup of flour compared with other recipes—but the pancakes were still thin. Next, I thickened the batter by reducing the milk from 2 cups to 1½ cups. This improved the rise—but not enough. I couldn’t further increase the leavener without making the pancakes taste soapy, nor could I further reduce the liquid without producing dry, cottony results. But there was one more variable: the mixing method. A lumpy batter is thicker than a smooth batter since the lumps prevent water from flowing and the mixture from spreading. What if I went back and followed the usual pancake protocol and barely mixed the batter so that lots of lumps remained? I gently stirred together another batch so that there were still lumpy pockBlandcakes ets of flour. I also let the batter rest I started with an approach that was as briefly, another common step that allows simple and pantry-friendly as possible. the unmixed flour pockets to hydrate Dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking slightly. The batter now fell from my whisk powder, and salt) went in one bowl, in clumps rather than streaming down wet (eggs, milk, and vegetable oil) in in thin ribbons. And the pancakes themanother. Then I stirred together the wet Flip the pancakes when the edges are set and the surface bubbles are just selves—even when raw in the skillet—were and dry components. I didn’t bother to beginning to break. gorgeously tall (see “Leave It Lumpy—but leave lumps, as almost all pancake recipes instruct, since we found while developing a crêpe with the oil before combining them with the milk and Not for the Reason You Think”). Lesson learned: If I wanted tall, fluffy pancakes, recipe that the batter is liquid-y enough that thor- vanilla, which was less messy than whisking all the ough mixing won’t develop too much gluten and liquid ingredients together at once. These pancakes leaving lumps in the batter was key. I also realized that the amount of oil I added to tasted more complex, but there make the pancakes tough. the skillet and even the method I portioned the batter into an oiled, preheated was still room for improvement. Soda versus Powder I used to flip the pancakes skillet. When bubbles appeared on the surface of So for the next round I upped affected their appearance (see the pancakes, I flipped them and cooked them until the amount of sugar from A quick baking soda and baking powder golden brown. But they weren’t good. In fact, they 2 tablespoons to three. I also refresher: Baking powder reacts and creates “Troubleshooting Pancakes”). weren’t much better than the box-mix kind—thin, added a little baking soda, carbon dioxide both when it comes into splotchy, and, without the tang of buttermilk or sour which plays a more important contact with moisture and when it’s heated, Butter Up role in the flavor of baked making it a more reliable and forgiving leavcream, somewhat bland. The pancakes now looked and At least the flavors would be easy to fix, I thought goods than you might think: ener than baking soda, which reacts only tasted so good that folks were as I mixed up another batch with vanilla extract and a Many pancakes, biscuits, and when it comes into contact with acid. Many grabbing them off the griddle dash more salt. I also made a point of beating the eggs quick breads rely on its saline pancake recipes, including ours, call for both. and eating them plain out of tang and are noticeably flathand. But for the occasions tasting without it. A mere ½ teaspoon did the trick that they did make it to the table, I wanted to jazz Look: Lan Flips for Pancakes here; it also helped the pancakes brown more deeply them up a bit. Stirring blueberries or chocolate chips A step-by-step video is available (baking soda increases the pH of the batter, which directly into the batter didn’t work well because that at CooksIllustrated.com/jun18 speeds browning reactions) and rise higher. But they required mixing the batter more thoroughly—counwere by no means tall or fluffy. terproductive to creating a thick batter. (For tips on COOK’S
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PHOTOGRAPHY: CARL TREMBLAY
Through Thick and Thin
veryone loves sitting down to a plate of fluffy, golden, flavorful pancakes, but making them is another matter. Nobody wants to run out for buttermilk or sour cream before the first meal of the day, never mind haul out (and then clean) their stand mixer to whip egg whites. That’s where box mixes come in, but their convenience is hardly worth the results they deliver: rubbery pancakes with a Styrofoam-like flavor that no amount of butter or syrup can hide. Besides, most prefab products still require you to add milk and eggs to the dry mix, so at that point, why not throw together a batter of your own? So that’s exactly what I set out to do. I limited myself to basic ingredients—no buttermilk or sour cream—and no appliances and spent a few weeks as a short-order cook.
