From Scratch to Scrumptious

After years of making dry, flavorless pancakes from a mix, I set out to make pancakes that I could call the best. After a bit of experimenting, I came up with the Perfect Pancake. Fluffy and flavorful. Nice and tall.

I can’t stand a flat pancake, and you don’t have to either. The true secret to tall, fluffy pancakes is buttermilk. I fought against this fact for years. I didn’t want to buy a special ingredient for pancakes. Truth be told: it’s worth it. It’s much thicker than milk, so the batter ends up thicker. This batter practically stands up on the griddle as it cooks.

I know there are times when you want to make pancakes and you can’t run out for buttermilk. Or maybe you just went shopping and forgot it. Don’t run back out. You can swap it out for a buttermilk substitute. The pancakes won’t be *quite* as magically tall, but they will still be delicious. Since your batter won’t be as thick without buttermilk, you’ll need to reduce the amount of milk used by just a bit. This will thicken up the batter enough to almost make up for the missing secret ingredient.

Flour: All-purpose flour works perfectly here.

Sugar: Granulated sugar adds just a touch of sweetness. You don’t want a pancake that’s too sweet or they’ll start competing with the syrup.

Baking powder: This double-action levening agent creates bubbles, causing your pancake batter to rise both when mixed with liquid, and again when heated up on the griddle.

Baking soda: This levening agent DOES require an acid to start working. The pH of buttermilk sits around 4.5, making it acidic. When buttermilk comes into contact with baking soda, bubbles start forming right away.

If you stir the batter later, baking soda bubbles break down and are gone for good. The baking powder will start making more bubbles when the batter goes on the griddle so your pancakes won’t be completely flat. However, just to be on the safe side, once your batter rises up, disturb it as little as possible.

Buttermilk: My favorite pancake ingredient! Much thicker than milk, buttermilk stops the pancakes from spreading in the pan, leading to a fluffier, taller pancake.

Buttermilk substitute: If you don’t have buttermilk but need pancakes right away (I’m sure you have your reasons), you can substitute with 2 alternatives. You’ll need to use slightly less of either alternative because both of the options are thinner than buttermilk.

• “Sour milk”: This is milk with an added acid such as lemon juice or vinegar which lowers the pH of the milk to get the same chemical reaction when mixed with baking soda. The acid also thickens the milk slightly. It’s not nearly to the point of buttermilk, but it’s better than using plain milk.
• To make sour milk, put 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar in a 1 cup liquid measuring cup. Then, fill with milk up to the 1 cup line. Since this recipe uses 1 1/4 cups sour milk, you technically need 1 1/4 Tablespoons of lemon juice. That’s is 1 Tablespoon plus 3/4 teaspoon if you want to be precise. That’s too much trouble, though. Just go for a heaping Tablespoon of lemon juice and you’ll be fine.
• Whey: If you make yogurt at home, don’t waste the whey that you strain off. You can use it to substitute for the buttermilk here. The pH is about the same, and the whey is slightly thicker than milk. Decrease to 1 1/4 cups whey.

Vegetable oil: This may seem like a controversial pick. A lot of people like butter in their pancakes. In my opinion, butter pancakes seem drier. I need a nice moist pancake that doesn’t have to be soaked in syrup for me to swallow. Vegetable oil does the trick. If you really need to taste butter in your pancakes, please use it on top, not in the batter.

Vanilla: A nice touch of flavor.

Butter extract: An unusual ingredient, but I wanted to find a way to sneak extra butter flavor in my pancakes while still keeping them moist. If you don’t have butter extract and you’re not ready to buy one more ingredient, leave it out. Your pancakes will still be delicious. But if you want the full effect, give this a try! One tip about butter extract: don’t smell it! It reeks in the bottle, but trust me, it’s delicious when it’s baked in.

When making pancakes, use a wide bowl. A deep bowl makes it difficult to stir all the ingredients together. Or maybe you’re not sure that all of the flour on the bottom got mixed in, so you give it an extra stir or two. Since extra stirring causes tough pancakes, you want to do everything you can to minimize extra stirring. Go for the wide bowl.

When mixing the dry ingredients, use a whisk. This breaks up any lumps of flour that would make the final mixing more difficult.

After the batter is fully mixed, let it rest for about 5 minutes or so while you heat up the griddle. This gives the baking soda a chance to really get going and raise up the batter for a fluffier pancake.

The best pancake is cooked low and slow. A hot pan will burn the outside and leave the center raw! I learned this the hard way. When my husband and I were dating, he wanted to get me a nice present. He went to a kitchen store and told them that I could bake almost anything, but I couldn’t make pancakes. I laughed when he told me this. He wasn’t wrong! For my birthday, he got me a beautiful stove-top griddle that I still use and love.

When I cook my pancakes, I heat the stove only to medium-low and sometimes just a smidge lower. To test that the pan is fully heated, put a drop of water on the pan and watch for it to dance and evaporate. It may take a few minutes to heat the pan, but this isn’t wasted time. This is the time your batter is growing more bubbly and getting ready to become fluffy pancakes.

What’s the best way to transfer the batter into the pan? In my opinion, the easiest way is to use an ice cream scoop with a trigger release. Mine holds about 1/4 cup. If you want a bigger pancake, do 2-3 scoops, one right on top of the other.