Perfect Pancakes

There's nothing better than a stack of pancakes fresh off the griddle! These don't require much more effort than a box mix and the result is SO much tastier.

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 8 pancakes

Ingredients

1 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar optional
3 Tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg
1 ¼ cups milk

Instructions

Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Add in melted butter, egg and milk and mix just enough to combine (if you over mix the pancakes will be tough).
Cook over medium-high heat – if you have an electric griddle or skillet set it at 350° F.
Flip when the bubbles set and cook until lightly brown on the other side.

Notes

Add – ins: if you like chocolate chips or blueberries in your pancakes, add them to the individual pancakes once they’re on the griddle.

If you prefer the mile-high ridiculously fluffy pancakes that a lot of people like (but I don’t), increase the baking powder to 1 Tablespoon.

Keyword brunch, pancakes, quick breakfast

Want more breakfast? Check out Biscuits and Gravy!

Obligatory Fictional Backstory

Pancakes always remind me of the time I worked as a lumberjack in wild West Virginia back in the 70’s. And the other time that I worked as a maple syrup gatherer in wild Canada in the 80’s. And the time I worked for the famous pancake restaurant in Texas in the 90’s. And the time I ate at a famous breakfast restaurant in Alaska in the 2000’s. And the time I made this pancake recipe this morning in my house. Seriously, these are like the best pancakes ever. Just don’t forget the salt, I’ve done that a couple of times and they come out tasting just… FLAT. Flat as a pancake. Yeesh, I should NOT write when I’m tired….

Real Talk

I like a fluffy pancake but I feel like a lot of recipes just make them TOO fluffy. The recipe as written gives the perfect amount of rise, in my opinion, but if you like the mile-high type I’ve included a note on how to achieve that.

So apparently, every culture in the world has their own version of a pancake. I’ll spare you the entire article but I’ve included excerpts from Wikipedia regarding pancakes in Scotland, since my husband is of Scottish descent, and the Netherlands, since I’m a quarter Dutch.

“A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, not to be confused with oat bar flapjacks) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying with oil or butter. Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes were probably the earliest and most widespread cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies.^[1]

Scotland

Pancake and fruit crumpet

Pancakes (also called Scotch pancakes or Scottish pancakes) are more like the American type. In parts of Scotland they are also referred to as drop scones or dropped scones.^[40][41][42] They are made from flour, eggs, sugar, buttermilk or milk, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar.^[40][41][42] Smaller than American or English pancakes at about 3.5 in / 9 cm in diameter, they are made by the traditional method of dropping batter onto a griddle (a girdle in Northumberland or in Scots). They can be served with jam and cream or just with butter. In Scotland pancakes are generally served at teatime.

Netherlands

Pannenkoek with bacon and Gouda cheese

In the Netherlands, pancakes are known as pannenkoeken and are mostly eaten at lunch and dinner time. Pancake restaurants are popular with families and serve many sweet, savoury, and stuffed varieties. Pannenkoeken are slightly thicker than crêpes and usually quite large, 12 in (30 cm) or so in diameter. The batter is egg-based and fillings include such items as sliced apples, cheese, ham, bacon, and candied ginger, alone or in combination.

Stroop, a thick molasses-like sugar beet-based syrup is also popular, particularly in a classic filling of bacon and stroop. Poffertjes are another Dutch quick bread, similar to American pancakes but sweeter and much smaller. Made in a specially dimpled copper or cast iron pan, they are flipped once with a fork. Unlike Dutch pancakes, the batter for poffertjes contains baking powder and therefore they have a softer interior than pancakes.

A spekdik is a pancake like-food which is traditionally eaten in the provinces Groningen and Drenthe in the Netherlands around New Year. Unlike pancakes, a spekdik is cooked with a waffle iron. The main ingredients of a spekdik are syrup, eggs and rye-flour, and some varieties include bacon.^[45]“