Recipe File: Basic Pancakes

I make a great buttermilk pancake, but I don't usually keep buttermilk in stock. That means an extra trip to the store Saturday morning if I feel like making pancakes. So, this Saturday, I decided to test the The New Joy of Cooking's Basic Pancakes recipe which uses ingredients every kitchen should always have in stock.

I used (from the top, clockwise) 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1-1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted), 2 large eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.


I combined the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) into a large bowl and whisked a little.


Now, I whisked the wet ingredients (milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla) together.


I then poured the wet ingredients onto the dry and whisk, but not too long. Just enough to combine thoroughly. If there are some lumps left, it's okay. When the batter cooks it'll smooth out and you won't taste it.


Joy of Cooking now says to fold in any additions now. I added some frozen blueberries that I thawed quickly in a some warm water and drained. This is where the recipe makes a fatal mistake. More on that later.


I then quickly prepare my two burner griddle. You can use an electric griddle as well. In both cases, the surface should be smooth and non-stick.


Turning both burners on, I heated the griddle until a few drops of water tossed onto the surface ran around franticly. (If the water jumps off the griddle, then turn down the heat. If the water just sits there, increase the heat.) Now, I melted a pad of butter onto the griddle to lubricate it.


Using a paper towel, I rubbed the butter around until it evenly coated the pan and I couldn't see any butter. You don't want too much fat on the griddle or you'll be frying the pancakes.


I scooped 1/3 cups of batter onto the griddle to make a pancake. This is when I discovered that the blueberries impeded the flow of the batter. Usually, when I make my buttermilk pancakes, I pour the batter out steadily onto one spot and it forms a near perfect circle. I then sprinkle my filling on top of the batter on the griddle. Now I know why. First, the batter doesn't flow evenly and forms alien shapes on the griddle because of the blueberries. Second, the blueberries are unevenly distributed and some pancakes have some and some have a lot. Don't make this mistake - put the fillings in after the batter hits the griddle, not in the batter. You might notice in this picture there's a big lump in the batter of the second pancake. Don't worry about that, it evens out and can't be tasted. The pancake will be tough if we over mix.


I cooked the first side until bubbles covered the pancake surface and begin to pop. I then flipped the pancake over.


Once the second side has lightly browned (about half the time it took to cook the first side), I removed and served. If you need to make a lot of pancakes, you can stack them on a plate in a 200°F oven. On Good Eats, Alton Brown recommends placing paper towels between each layer of pancake, but I find that it works for me to stack without the paper towel waste. Usually, Tina and I can't eat too many pancakes at a time, but I still make a full batch.


I extra pancakes can then be frozen. A quick trip to the toaster or toaster oven will produce homemade pancakes much better than the supermarket frozen kind. This picture is of a buttermilk pancake that came out very circular because the filling was added after the batter was poured on the griddle.


The results of the tasting proved that these pancakes were quite good - on par with the buttermilk pancakes. A little fruit topping or maple syrup and they resulted in a delicious breakfast. So, I've decided to promote this recipe from a Test Recipe to one for the Recipe File.

Basic Pancakes
Batter

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour	mix	whisk briefly
3 tsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. melted, unsalted butter	whisk
1-1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract