Pancakes
There are many good kinds of pancakes and a plethora of miserable pretenders out there. I enjoy cooking pancakes and want to share some tips learned the hard way.
Tips
Mixes
Just-add-water mixes aren't as good as mixes that require an egg, but they're passable as long as they're thoroughly cooked and they combine good flour with buttermilk and/or buckwheat for flavor. The fresh egg strikes a balance between moisture and chewiness, and makes the recipe more forgiving.
I prefer buckwheat mixes with their heady flavor.
Making the batter
Pancake batter should be a little lumpy and thick. If it isn't lumpy, it's probably mixed too long. If it isn't thick, it won't make a cake, and it'll get burned on one side before it's cooked enough to be cake-y.
Pancakes won't rise if the batter has been beaten too long or has been left sitting for hours.
If you're having a pancake party for many people, make multiple batches. Cooked pancakes store well in a warming oven. Uncooked batter has a peak time for cooking that may only be extended to an hour or so by keeping in the refrigerator.
My general procedure for hearty pancakes:
- Stir a cup of the dry ingredients well in a large bowl.
- Break an egg into a measuring pint.
- Whisk a cup of milk with the egg for at least half a minute.
- Add up to a tablespoon of oil to the milk/egg, and whisk for a few seconds.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring gently with a fork for less than 15 seconds, leaving any lumps smaller than a raisin.
- Let sit for 5 minutes while pan warms to a high heat that makes water drops dance.
- Butter the pan.
- Drop batter into pools between the size of a silver dollar and three quarters the pan.
- Never spread or mess with the pancake during this crucial minute. If it touches another, so be it. Any disturbance, like a checking of the bottom, will ruin the contact between the cake and the pan, and will slow the cooking process, altering the texture and even the flavor.
- When you see bubbles on the top, and the edges aren't liquid, flip it.
- The first pancake is the canary in the coal mine that let's us know whether the pan is too hot or too cold. Go ahead now and make adjustments.
- Keep extras on a plate, without a lid, in a warm oven (160ºF 65ºC) for up to a few hours.
Pans
A seasoned, cast-iron pan/skillet/griddle is the way to go. Runners-up include electric, non-stick griddles for their constant, predictable temperature, and thick non-stick pans for the ease of use. But pancakes griddles should get very hot, melting the plastic spatulas one usually uses with non-stick cookware. Specifically, the part of the pan not covered by batter will get hot enough to melt any plastic, so please use wooden spatulas for non-stick surfaces.
Crepes
You can't make airy crepes by using a spreader, but at least the spreader helps you cook them evenly. If you like hearty, chewy crepes, make them in a pan and/or with a spreader.
The batter needs to be much less thick than pancake batter.
Unlike dough for rising pancakes, crepe batter should be thoroughly mixed, because there isn't enough time to cook through lumps. I use a whisk.
I prefer to use an electric crepe-maker. I simply put a pool of batter in a deep plate, invert the griddle into the batter for a second, where just the right amount batter sticks to the griddle every time, and bring it out to cook for just about 30 seconds—The thinnest and most uniform crepes I've ever seen. I think the MAXIM model I have is discontinued, but many are available on eBay.
