So I’ll admit that I’m a baker. Cookies. Cake. Cupcakes. Cheesecake. Muffins. Sandwich bread. Quick bread. Challah. You name it, I’ve probably made it. I’m not actually that big on eating them (although to be completely honest I can demolish an entire Angel Food cake by myself) but the making is an addictive process. I can, and will, make anything that goes into an oven.
Stoves are a different matter. My inability to cook on stoves is not exactly unknown to my friends and family. I can boil spaghetti and heat up marinara sauce from a jar; I can make macaroni and cheese from a box; I can make three minute ramen; I can make an omelette that would make you think you’d died and gone to heaven. This is the extent of my stovetop abilities. Or was, really. Now I can make pancakes too. It seemed the obvious next step. I have all the ingredients lying around from my various oven-related escapades and I can make a killer omelette. Why should I leave my conquest of breakfast foods so woefully incomplete? So I didn’t.
This recipe is a very carefully formulated amalgamation of various pancake recipes gleaned from all over the internet, measurements fiddled with and ingredients substituted over the span of several months-worth of pancake experimentation, all directed toward the all-important goal: creating a pancake that was as good or better than the pancakes of my youth. (Which were actually made from the Snoqualmie Falls pancake mix, which is still very good. But everything tastes better when you’re six, and I am no longer six.) I worked hard to make it as simple as possible to mix up as well as easy to halve if you’re not serving an army, since I often only make pancakes for two people and I’m really not interested in 40 minutes of prep for a meal that takes ten minutes to consume, which is why I will never be a professional chef.
The results of this recipe have been widely celebrated. If you don’t like it then either you are a pancake-hating monster or you did it wrong. I take zero blame for your failure.
Pancakes
2c flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
4tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
2c milk
Combine all dry ingredients. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat lightly, then put into the flour mixture. Get your whisk! Start adding milk in about 1/2c increments, combining stirring as you go, until it’s the consistency you like. (I like super thick pancake batter, so I usually use less than 1/2c.) Ladle onto a large oiled or buttered frying pan set to medium/medium-high heat — I usually make three pancakes at a time.
Some things I do that work well for me: in order to get the perfect amount of oil in the pan, somebody on the internet recommended you load up a silicone pastry brush with room-temperature butter and slather that sucker all over the preheated pan before the first batch of pancakes. That way you won’t have too much oil (this results in a pale and doughy first batch (believe me)) but you also won’t run out before you’re done making pancakes. Also bonus is that it leaves extremely mysterious patterns on the butter for the next person to find and get really worried about.
Your recipe lists 2c milk, which seems high, but in your text you mention 1/2c. So is there a typo somewhere?
I used to like thicker batter too, but have changed. When you use a thinner batter, the PC’s are less likely to be doughy, more likely to be perfectly round, and will cook more quickly. The only drawback is that they kermangle if you turn them too soon.
Yes, BUTTER in the pan, NOT oil. Butter-pan-pancakes taste so much more yummy. I like your recipe. Reese is the pancake maker around here. I shall have to pass this recipe along…
And in response to thin versus thick pancakes, if truth be told, I like both. I like a good, hearty thick pancake if it’s whole grain or has chunks of things. But there’s nothing like thin pancakes or crepes wrapped around bacons, sausages and fillings.
Arthur, there is a typo: I meant to type that I usually use about 1 1/2c, not 1/2c. The 2c milk does seem awfully high at first glance, but much less than that and you’re looking at something more akin to bread dough than pancake batter.
Oooh, that clears it up for me as well. And I concur with Charlie on the butter in the pan thing. Butter makes everything all better.
I’ve never really known how to make pancakes, despite an understanding of the basic ingredients, but I would usually just use a mix out of fear of the unknown.
Next time I’m bold enough to try, I think I’ll use the recipe, and tell you how they came out. No guarantee on the time frame though. I’d bake/cook more often if it didn’t leave a mess.
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