Oh, how I wish my pancakes would always turn out perfectly every time! I grew up eating pancakes made from a box with 'pancake syrup' which, up until last year, I did not realize was different from maple syrup. I have very fond memories of eating these as a kid--not specific memories, just general ones that involved our very large electric griddle and the funny pages of the Sunday paper. The thing about pancakes from a box is that they turn out pretty well every time. The other thing about pancakes from a box is that they turn out pretty well every time. Isn't that kind of weird? Seriously, what is in that box?
Having been on a kick to make things from scratch more often, I thought I would tackle the Pancake. My feeling is that even if it contains so-called 'bad' ingredients like flour and sugar, it's not as bad as eating things that are packaged and over-processed. The first time I tried it, it was amazing. I am no pancake-connoisseur nor even a pancake-lover, but I thoroughly enjoyed these pancakes. This time though, only my third time ever, not so much. They started out pretty fluffy but became increasingly flat. Sigh. Nonetheless, with real maple syrup, pancakes made from scratch are a hundred times better than anything from a box or a restaurant (yes, I said it!).
I know the key is to not over mix when you combine the dry and wet ingredients together. I don't know what I was thinking but this time I used a spatula to mix. I think a whisk would have served me better.
My go-to recipe is from the Joy of Cooking, it's very easy. Mix together 1-1/2 cups of flour with 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt. In a separate bowl mix together 1-1/2 cups milk, 2 eggs and half a teaspoon of vanilla.
In the original recipe, it says to add 3 tablespoons of melted butter to the liquid, but it always solidifies again when added to the milk. So my trick is that after I combine the wet and dry ingredients, I add the melted butter.
I bought this silicone pastry brush a while ago and regretted the purchase--until now. This is a tablespoon of melted butter which I brushed on the pan between batches. Ordinarily I would have cut small pats of butter, in the end using as much as three tablespoons of butter just to grease the pan. Ew. But the silicone brush added just enough grease without going crazy. Yay for gadgets.
They started out promising.
But I clearly have some issues to work out in the pouring department.
Nonetheless, I had a nice stack of pancakes in the end. I froze the leftovers in between sheets of parchment paper so that I could pull out one at a time to reheat in the toaster oven. I kind of like them heated in the toaster because the edges get all crispy, especially where the butter has been absorbed.
My cousin makes fantastic pancakes perfectly every time. One of the tricks she uses (and to this day, I think these were the best pancakes I'd ever had) is to separate the eggs and whip the egg whites before folding into the pancake batter, resulting in a very thick, fluffy pancake.
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