Perfecting the art of making Pancakes!

Pancakes! These fluffy scrumptious delights are a perfect start to a fantastic day. A warm hug on a cold winter morning; pancakes get ready in an instant and are filling at the same time. However, the secret to a perfect pancake is in its fluffiness, its texture and the depth of flavour. If you’re looking for the secrets to make perfect fluffy pancakes, your quest ends here.

Flour

Flour is one of the key binding agents for these fluffy pancakes. Its presence is directly responsible for the final outcome of the pancakes. Less of the flour will make the pancakes flat while too much will result in a thick dough which won’t be fluffy. We need to strike the right balance of texture and flavour. Make sure you follow the quantities in your recipe to the T. Fill the measuring cup and remove the excess using the blunt side of the knife or spatula to get the quantity right. The right amount of flour will bring a perfect rise and taste delicious too.

Baking powder + Baking soda

To make the pancakes fluffier, we need a leavener. Leavener is an ingredient that helps the dough to rise. Commonly used leaveners for pancakes include baking powder and baking soda. While they both help to make the pancakes fluffy, they have completely different outcomes. Only baking soda results in a very soapy flavour, whereas only baking powder gives out a very bland outcome. The trick here is to add a little bit of both. This way you’ll not only get a good rise, but also good flavour.

Fold the batter

When mixing the wet ingredients (like buttermilk and eggs) with the dry ingredients (like flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda) make sure that you don’t over-mix the batter. Use a wooden or plastic spatula instead of a whisk and gently fold the flour along with the wet ingredients, just to mix them well. Too much mixing will result in the formation of gluten in the flour and make the pancakes flat.

Add the whites and yolks to the mixture separately

If you add eggs directly into the batter, it won’t give us the softness we desire. Mix the yolks with the butter and buttermilk batter, and add the egg-whites separately (whisked or unwhisked) while folding and mixing the whole batter to get a fluffier outcome.

Butter! Butter! Butter!

You cannot run away from butter while making pancakes. Butter will be in the wet mixture and while putting the batter on the pan. It will give it the necessary moisture, while making it tender and adding the delicious buttery flavour. You can skip on adding butter, but where’s the fun in that? Butter will make your pancakes, like everything else, better!

Toppings galore!

With pancakes you have so many options of toppings and sides to play with. You could add blueberries, chocolate chips on top while you put the batter on a pan or serve it with classic maple syrup or icing sugar on top with some Nutella to the side. You could also keep it simple without any toppings; Pancakes go along with almost anything!

Apply these wonderful tips to various pancake recipes here.