Monday 4 February 2013

The Breakfast Series: The secret to perfect pancakes

New: The Breakfast Series: The secret to perfect pancakes 

Pancake problem 1: Your pancakes brown too fast on the outside leaving you with a mushy, battery inside.

Pancake problem 2: Your pancakes don't brown evenly, leaving you with black and brown patches.

Pancake problem 3: Your pancakes are dense, chewy, and worst of all, they're not fluffy.

Do you struggle with any of the above issues when trying to whip up a stack of pancakes? Or perhaps you’ve given up on pancakes entirely?

Well hang on, before you completely dismiss the idea of ever trying to make your pancakes again, check out these tips and I can promise you, with a little practice and the perfect recipe, you’ll end up with perfect, fluffy, moist, pancakes that have a slight golden crisp on the outside. 

Fluffy, delicious stack of Buttermilk Pancakes


Sounds fantastic, no?

Pancake solution 1: If your pancakes are cooking too fast on the outside, leaving you with a disgusting mess to bite into on the inside, turn down your stove! The heat is probably too high to start with. You want to begin with a medium-low flame to allow the pancake a chance to cook thoroughly inside and out without burning the outside.

Pancake solution 2: Are you greasing your pan? Stop! When making pancakes on a skillet or a griddle, it’s completely unnecessary to add oil. I do however highly recommend that you make them on a non-stick surface.

Pancake solution 3: Buttermilk. Either use buttermilk in your recipe, or make your own buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of vinegar per cup of milk in your recipe. Another problem could be overbeating/overmixing. Try hand mixing with a whisk. It’s a little bit more work, but then there’s less of a chance your pancakes will get overmixed. 


A fluffy, buttermilk pancake on its way to golden, crisp perfection


For Rainyday Kitchen-approved pancakes, try this great recipe for fantastic, fluffy pancakes from the Comfort of Cooking.


Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes


Makes: about 12 the size of your palm
Rating: 5/5 


Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour 
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar 
  • 1 tsp baking powder 
  • 1 tsp baking soda 
  • 1 large egg 
  • 1 1/4 cup buttermilk (about 1 1/4 cup milk +1 tbsp and a bit of vinegar/lemon juice) 
  • 1/4 cup canola oil 
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla 

Instructions 

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda, whisk together. 
  2. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix together briefly. 
  3. Gradually pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk until the ingredients are all well incorporated. It doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth, but make sure there are no visible, large lumps. 
  4. Heat up a non-stick pan to about medium heat. Flick a bit of water onto the pan to check if it’s ready. You don’t want your pancakes sitting on a cold pan, that prevents it from getting that nice, golden colour. 
  5. Once your pan is ready using a ladle or an ice cream scoop, plop on a nice, even circle of batter onto the pan. I did about 3 small ones at a time.
  6. Allow the pancakes to cook until the edges seem a bit dry and bubbles have formed all over the top of the batter. Then you know it’s ready to be flipped. The other side should take about 1/2 the time to cook, but don’t rush it because you don’t want a wet inside. 
  7. You’re looking for a nice, golden brown colour, and once you’ve achieved that, flip them out onto a rack and serve with syrup, whipped cream, or a nice fruit compote. 

Enjoy! 

Pancake beginning to bubble and dry at the edges

Note: These are great for freezing. Just pop them in the toaster to reheat and recrisp. Tastes great!

Just in case plain pancakes are a tad too boring for you, try one of these add ins to perk up your pancakes. Make sure to add these in before you ladle them onto the heated pan. If you’re doing a few different varieties, separate a few cups of batter and mix in the add ins separately.

Delicious Pancake add ins

  • Chocolate chips 
  • Toffee chips 
  • Grated bananas (bananas + chocolate chips = AWESOME) 
  • Blueberries, strawberries
  • Cinnamon 
  • Chopped up nuts 
  • Toasted coconut flakes

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